The high-density drama woven into Hitchcock's British-era masterpiece spy suspense film ``The 39 Steps.''

High-density tapestry with thorough details

Hitchcock was originally a big fan of John Buchan's novels. With his diverse background as a diplomat, politician, journalist, Governor-General of Canada, and writer, it is natural to be drawn to the writing style of Buchan, but what captivated Hitchcock more than that was the uniqueness of Buchan's novels. He was said to have the typical British quality of expressing dramatic ideas in an extremely restrained and casual manner.'' (*3)

Of course, that "British quality" is carefully inherited in the movie version. In other words, it is filled with a unique charm that quietly warms the hearts of the audience on a different level from Hollywood-style "gaudity." So how did this dense story, characters, and storytelling come about?

In fact, from around this time, Hitchcock and the scriptwriters were striving to ``draw every scene with the utmost detail without cutting corners.'' First, I start writing with no dialogue, and then I incorporate plenty of setting, action, situations, and episode developments. Perhaps this is a vestige of the silent film era, but in any case, the ``content'' of this film has been enriched to such an extent that every scene can be considered a part of an omnibus film.

I see, if you look at it that way, every aspect of this work has been sharpened. On the train, the eyes of the passengers seen through the newspaper, the flow of the train windows, and even the gestures of the passing passengers are carefully crafted, and on the farm where the protagonist escapes, the characters' small actions and glances tickle the heart. A small drawing later becomes the stepping stone that saves the protagonist's life from a single bullet. In that sense, I discover a lot every time I watch it, and it is so dense that I would like to call it a movie textbook.

In other words, in his book ``The Art of Cinema'', Hitchcock also describes this film as a ``tapestry'' (*4). ``Here I used more finely colored threads to make sure there were no gaps in the fabric, and there I tried to make sure there were no irregularities in the weave...'' The filmmaking process, which pays attention to the whole and the details, is certainly a tapestry. It looks like the skill of a craftsman.

“The 39 Steps” (c)Photofest / Getty Images

However, there are times when a bold omission pops out just when you think, ``This is it!'' During the interrogation, he kicked the glass and ran outside, and when I thought he was dead, he turned out to be alive... All the descriptions that tend to be explanatory are cut out, and the question of ``what happened there?'' is left entirely to the audience's imagination. These scones! The penetrating slow and fast rhythm can also be said to be the magic of Hitchcock's production.

And the highlight is the climax. Thirty-Nine Stairs, MacGuffin (a technical term for the item the characters are chasing), and the Mr. Memory cards are all there, and you'll be waiting for a secret that will make you say "Ah!". From the beginning, this film has broken many of our stereotypes about black-and-white movies, but the finale is truly spectacular.

More than 80 years have passed since this film was released, and trends and values ​​must have changed considerably, but Hitchcock is still new and innovative. They still lead us, and the gap between them will probably never close. That's probably why people call him the ``god of movies.''

*3) Quoted from “ Movie Art ” P.81, 82

*4) Quoted from “ Movie Art ” P.85

``The 39 Steps'' is even described in detail in that masterpiece of youth novels! ?