... an effortless balance of romance and adventure set against a picaresque landscape populated by eccentrics and social register smoothies, none of whom what they appear to be.

| Oct 5, 2023

From an absolutely dull adventure story -- The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan -- Hitchcock has drawn a good film. He has invented episodes. He has inserted wittiness and mischievousness where the original contained only heroism.

| Dec 15, 2021

[Hitchcock] tells the story clearly and convincingly and the wildly melodramatic moments are in part offset by such well observed sequences as the Scottish political meeting, the Forth Bridge episode, and the discreetly managed scene in the inn bedroom.

| Feb 4, 2021

A noteworthy example of Hitchcock's early thrillers, riddled with plotting, backstabbing, clever twists, and the big reveal of the meaning behind the title.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Aug 5, 2020

The 39 Steps transcends the time period: part Bond movie, part comedic caper, and anchored by a performance that feels Ryan Goslingian, it's a black-and-white movie that feels alive and contemporary.

| Aug 4, 2020

Made in England 1935, 'The 39 Steps' isn't the first Hitchcock film constructed around "the wrong man" conceit, but it's one where he found his touch.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 27, 2020

It's a gripping entertainment.

| Apr 14, 2020

The 39 Steps is as polite as Geneva and as wicked as a dozen G-men pictures in one.

| Oct 4, 2019

The newest Gaumont British importation, The 39 Steps, should prove pretty conclusively that Alfred Hitchcock is the finest native director in England.

| Jun 12, 2019

The 39 Steps is light, urbane, sexy as hell, and as so much of Hitchcock was so often, right about everything.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 23, 2018

The lack of chemistry between Donat and Carroll's respective characters only compounds the hands-off feel...

| Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 19, 2018

The 39 Steps is a masterclass in propulsive narrative cinema that even today's so-called blockbuster auteurs should study.

| Sep 9, 2015

The atmosphere of adventure and mystery created at once in the opening sequence in an East End music hall is excellently maintained throughout.

| Jun 2, 2015

The scene in which Mr Memory is asked at the London Palladium "What are the 39 Steps?" remains one of 20th-century cinema's most gripping moments.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 30, 2014

The Thirty-Nine Steps neatly converts its essential implausihility into an asset by stressing the difficulties which confront its hero when he tries to tell outsiders about the predicament he is in.

| Aug 5, 2014

Alfred Hitchcock brings John Buchan's novel to the screen with characteristic wit and verve.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 5, 2014

Surprisingly fast-paced for a 1935 film, full of twists and turns, and when the unlikely couple becomes handcuffed together and are forced to pretend they are married, it really kicks into high gear. Donat and Carroll have chemistry to burn.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 4, 2012

At its most breathtaking when both Hitchcock and his characters fully embrace the surreality of the story

| Original Score: 9/10 | Aug 21, 2012

Classic Hitchcock suspense, some drinking and smoking.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 20, 2012

The 39 Steps is sexy, exciting, unexpectedly moving (thanks to Peggy Ashcroft's portrayal of a lonely woman married to a brutish farmer), and wholly unpredictable, with an ending that nicely loops back to the start.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 13, 2012