hwg1957-102-265704 Review of The Thirty Nine Steps

The Thirty Nine Steps (1978)

"By the way, what do you know of The Thirty Nine Steps?"

[6/10 · 23 April 2020]

A Southern African mining engineer Richard Hannay when in London gets involved in a plot to assassinate the Greek prime minister. He gets blamed for a murder and has to go on the run to Scotland. This has a lot of good British actors and the London and Scottish locations are photographed prettily but I didn't find it that gripping until the climax at Big Ben. It follows the original John Buchan novel now and then but isn't a faithful rendition which is a pity. The Hitchcock version wasn't that faithful either but it was more fun.

Robert Powell was OK as Hannay but his hair style seemed very 1970's. (all those curls!) which was a needless distraction.