The 39 Steps (1935)

Which film directed by Alfred Hitchcock has a plot having an innocent man accused of murder? One might as well ask in what Hitchcock film does he make a cameo appearance!

Before 1935, Hitchcock had already made three 'wrong man' films: The Mountain Eagle (1926), now lost; The Lodger (1926), his first 'classic' film; and Murder! (1930), in which for once it is a woman who is falsely accused. The 39 Steps was another entry in the series, which would finally end decades later with the gruesome Frenzy (1972).

The 39 Steps begins with Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) as a tourist from Canada, visiting England. He attends a performance by 'Mr. Memory' (Wylie Watson), a pleasant know-it-all who always finishes his answer by saying, "Am I right, sir?" A shot rings out, and the crowd flees in panic.

Richard meets Annabella (Lucie Mannheim) at the theater. She is a beautiful woman with a European accent. She asks Richard to take her to his flat, where she tells a wild tale of being chased by murderous foreign agents, including a sinister man missing a forefinger.

Perhaps he doesn't believe her, until she staggers dying into his room. Now Richard is on the run, both from the spies and the police, who naturally suspect him in her murder. Richard is nearly caught on several occasions, thanks to another beautiful woman, Pamela (Madeleine Carroll) who thinks he's a murderer. Richard has better luck with an attractive preacher's wife (Peggy Ashcroft), whose jealous husband (John Laurie) is both suspicious and abusive. Richard also encounters the mysterious man missing part of his finger (Godfrey Tearle).

Filled with action, beautiful women, and racy (for the time) dialogue between Donat and Carroll, The 39 Steps was the first Hitchcock film to get attention from American audiences. The film's commercial and critical success was very strong, leading to remakes in 1959 and 1978 (by different directors). Hitchcock himself would eventually visit the film's story again, as his North by Northwest (1959) is very similar.

A recurrent theme in Hitchcock films is the suffering of the female protagonists. While Carroll doesn't have it as bad as Janet Leigh in Psycho (1960), she is bullied throughout by Donat. Although he has the excuse of trying to save both self and state, he acts like a cad on many occasions. For example, he shows no remorse about the spot he has placed Ashcroft in, having taken the preacher's Sunday coat.

The plot does require some suspension of disbelief. For example, Annabella has been stabbed in the back, but dies in Richard's flat. Did she leave and get stabbed, stumbling back in? Or the did the agents break in to stab her? In either case, why didn't they take care of Richard at the same time, instead of stalking his apartment waiting for him to leave?

Richard is saved from a bullet by the preacher's bible, a book which he ought to have shed while needing to elude pursuers. He escapes from a police station by jumping out a window, with a Salvation Army parade and a large political meeting just happening to occur nearby at the same time.

Richard manages to escape pursuers and obtain a hotel room while handcuffed to Pamela, who believes him to be an unstable killer. And of course, Richard and Pamela develop a romance, as Hitchcock's 'wrong man' is as usual rewarded for his troubles by meeting the love of his life at the same time.

But these formulaic elements must have seemed fresher in 1935, before they had been repeated in Saboteur (1942), Foreign Correspondent (1940), North by Northwest, etc. The clever dialogue between Donat and Carroll has even been credited as an inspiration for the 'Thin Man' series, but in fact William Powell and Myrna Loy had already been teamed up on several occasions by then, including The Thin Man (1934).

The best of the Hitchcock 'wrong man accused' films is Strangers on a Train (1951). (76/100)