Blog Directory CineVerse: The wrong man in the hands of the right director

The wrong man in the hands of the right director

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Long before he moved to the States and wowed Americans with one masterwork after another, Alfred Hitchcock was demonstrating his cinematic genius in his native England with memorable and innovative thrillers like "The Lodger," "Blackmail," and the original "The Man Who Knew Too Much." But arguably his finest hour on his side of the Atlantic was behind the camera on "The 39 Steps," an evergreen entertainment that set the template for so many chase movies and spy thrillers to come. In our dissection of this 1935 gem, our CineVerse group came to these observations:

WHAT THEMES ARE EXPLORED BY HITCHCOCK IN “THE 39 STEPS”?

The wrong man: an innocent protagonist accused of a crime he didn’t commit and on the run.
The frightening reality and vulnerability of being human and living in a chaotic, unpredictable world. Hitch’s film universe pushes harsh consequences of random chance and accidents upon innocent bystanders who are thrust into dark, dangerous settings and circumstances.
Theatricality and the fine line between illusion and reality. Consider how “The 39 Steps,” like other Hitchcock movies, features an actual theater and stage upon which characters play literal and figurative roles; in fact, this film begins and concludes with scenes that take place in theaters. Marian Keane wrote in her Criterion Collection essay on this picture: “The stage, and the events that take place on it, become part of the reality of the film…theater is exposed in The 39 Steps as vulnerable to the medium of film, penetrable by reality itself.”
The surrogate director—a character/figure in a Hitchcock film who subtly represents Alfred the director himself in the way that character manipulates and observes others. In this film, the surrogate director figure is Professor Jordan; in other Hitchcock films, it’s Vandamm in North by Northwest, Prescott in Notorious, and Gavin Elster in Vertigo. Ironically, the manipulated characters, including the wrong men, in these films, need the help of Hitchcock the director to escape the fates bearing down on them from the surrogate director—as these helpless heroes wield no authority or power in their worlds.

WHAT OTHER HITCHCOCK PICTURES AND NON-HITCHCOCK MOVIES DOES “THE 39 STEPS” RESEMBLE IN THEME, CHARACTERS AND SITUATIONS?
Several of Hitch’s “innocent man wrongly accused and on the run” movies, including North by Northwest, Saboteur, The Wrong Man, Young and Innocent, Foreign Correspondent, To Catch a Thief, and Frenzy.
Hitch’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (both versions), which feature a gripping theater scene where a murder is attempted by a mystery man in the balcony with a gun. 
Psycho: Think of the way that Hannay is shot in the chest by a gun relatively early in the film, followed by an extended fade out that insinuates he’s dead; similarly, Marion Crane is killed off within the first half of Psycho.
Multiple movies featuring Hitchcock’s classic icy blonde who sports a cool exterior of suave chic and control but hints at an unbridled sexual wildness beneath; think of Tippi Hedren in Marnie and The Birds; Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest; Kim Novak in Vertigo; Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief; etc.
On-the-run imitators like Charade, The Parallax View, Silver Streak, and Foul Play

THE 39 STEPS HAS BEEN CALLED HITCHCOCK’S FIRST TRUE MASTERPIECE AND THE CROWN JEWEL OF HIS BRITISH FILMMAKING PERIOD PRIOR TO COMING TO AMERICA IN 1940. WHAT ELEMENTS ARE AT WORK THAT MAKE THIS FILM SO EXCEPTIONAL?
This movie created the formula for virtually all spy thriller films, chase movies, and lovers-on-the-run pictures that followed by combining several key ingredients: an innocent or outnumbered hero/heroes being pursued, often by both good and evil forces; a man and a woman bound together—figuratively and sometimes literally—which leads to sexual tension and romance; daring escapes, close calls, and action set pieces that often occur at or near famous places/landmarks; and twists and unexpected turns of fate that tighten the knot for our hero(es). 
Screenwriter Robert Towne remarked: “It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that all contemporary escapist entertainment begins with The 39 Steps. most ‘pure’ movie thrillers, especially when you think of Hitchcock, are either fantasies fulfilled or anxieties purged. ‘The 39 Steps’ is one of the few, if not the only one, that does both at the same time. He puts you into this paranoid fantasy of being accused of murder and being shackled to a beautiful girl—of escaping from all kinds of harm, and at the same time trying to save your country, really. A Hitchcock film like ‘Psycho’ is strictly an anxiety purge. ‘The 39 Steps’ gives you that and the fantasy fulfilled.”

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