Review of 39 Steps, The (Criterion)

Introduction

This is a classic Hitchcock movie. Robert Donat plays Richard Hannay, accused of the murder of a woman in his West End flat. He becomes involved in a conspiracy where he tries to clear his name and solve the mystery of The 39 Steps. Along the way he becomes attached to Madeleine Carroll who doesn`t believe him as he struggles to evade capture. It`s Hitchcock`s classic "wrong man" thriller which for me is one of his best.

Video

The 39 Steps DVD is presented in the original 1.33:1 aspect and from what I can see, the film looks good. There`s minor frame jumping but I think this adds character to an old movie. Apparently, over 21,000 instances of dirt and scratches have been removed from the video transfer resulting in this fine looking image. I`m quite pleased with the overall transfer, it`s good.

Audio

The film was made with a mono soundtrack and the best you can hope for on this disc is good clear sound. It`s in Dolby Digital mono so the sound comes from the centre speaker and this is fine for this movie. Thank heavens that no one tried to remix the sound into 5.1.

Features

The static menus are nicely designed with a film clip playing in the background while you make a selection. There are quite a few features on the Criterion disc, one of them being the full length radio play. I really like this since I can turn all the lights out and switch the television off when it`s time to use some imagination, I never fail to get caught up in it!

There`s a commentary track here too from Hitchcock scholar, Marian Keane. I have to admit that I found listening to her commentary a little hard going, I fell asleep twice. It`s not the usual kind of commentary that I`m used to hearing; it`s very analytical. She talks a lot about the symbolism of certain camera angles on certain characters and I find that I can`t take everything in just one sitting. I`m sure there are those out there that will find it much more fascinating than I did.

English subtitles only and on the whole these are well done, with one or two dodgy transcripts (Scots accents can be hard for Americans to decipher at the best of times I guess). There`s also the Janus Film documentary on Hitchcock which is quite interesting. It deals with his British period and lasts for about half an hour. The Original Press Book is basically the original press kit from the day. Criterion have tried to show as much as possible here and it makes for interesting browsing. As much of the 19 pages available are on show here.

Production Designs features the artwork of designer Oskar Werndorff and unfortunately there aren`t a lot of stills here, it would be nice to see more of Werndorff`s work. Lastly there`s the production notes in the sleeve and this is well written, rounding off a well produced disc.

Conclusion

This is one of my all time favourite movies and Criterion have done a good job on this DVD. Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll are ideally suited and play off each other really well. The opening titles with music remind me how eery I find this film and even today after all these years the concept of the wrong man remains intriguing and frightening in equal measure. The crackly sound takes me back to the era and Hitchcock`s use of camera lends a real sense of mystery to the story as it unfolds. The quality of this disc can`t really be faulted, as old as the film is, it looks and sounds good. If you`re a Hitchcock fan, you may already have this classic in your collection, if not, try getting hold of this Criterion version since it has yet to be bettered.