The 39 Steps (2008) (TV)

Director:

James Hawes

Writers:

John Buchan (novel)
Lizzie Mickery (screenplay)

Release Date:

28 December 2008 (UK)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Richard Hannay, a mining engineer on holiday from the African colonies, finds London socialite life terribly dull...

Plot Keywords:

False Identity | Beating | Fall | Number In Title

Cast

Rupert Penry-Jones	...	Richard Hannay
Lydia Leonard	...	Victoria Sinclair
David Haig	...	Sir George Sinclair
Patrick Malahide	...	Professor Fisher
Patrick Kennedy	...	Hellory Sinclair
Eddie Marsan	...	Scudder
Alex Jennings	...	Captain Kell
Steven Elder	...	Vicar / Wakeham
Werner Daehn	...	Ackerman
Peter Stark	...	Engel
Del Synnott	...	London Constable
Roger De Courcey	...	Ventriloquist
David Gallacher	...	Professor's Butler
James Bryce	...	Concierge at Club
Stewart Preston	...	Waiter at Club

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | German

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:PG | Australia:M | Netherlands:9

Filming Locations:

Argyll's Lodging, Stirling, Scotland, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Goofs:

Factual errors: When leaving London Hannay does this from a Station similar to Euston on a train made up of uniform Caledonian Railway Carriages bound for Inverness. The Loco shown is Apple Green suggesting it belonged to the North Eastern Railway. Inverness was accessible only by the Highland Railway. To get there from London Euston in the days of the story it would have been a trip via the LNWR to Carlisle which would have then been picked up by a Caledonian Railway loco to Aberdeen or Perth where a change would be required to the Highland Railway or the use of a Highland Railway Through Carriage on the train. The train would have been a hotchpotch of LNWR, CR and HR carriages.

Movie Connections:

References North by Northwest (1959)

More like 'Heartbeat'

Well, it touched the right bases and looked the part. Rupes is a traditionally handsome hero. But that's it. For all the tension generated, it might have been directed by the crowd who do Heartbeat. Perhaps they could have had jaunty 1914 hits of the day: "What a lovely bunch of cockernee jellied eels" as Hannay makes his escape from the police.

Buchan's work doesn't take kindly to softening. Much of this recalls Hitchcock's version, only stripped of atmosphere or tension or integrity. Hannay knows the gang in Scotland is a spy ring, unlike in Hitchcock's version, but still makes his way there to expose them singlehandedly and thereby save himself from the police. Yeah, right! Some very silly stuff going on, this is probably as bad as the Kenneth More film. Feminine presence obliged by an annoying suffragette who decides to tag along with Hannay for no obvious reason. Tying in the plot with the real-life assassination of Franz Ferdinand seemed somewhat in poor taste, I found. Hannay being able to decode Scudder's notebook is implausible, though in fairness I think that may have been in Buchan's novel. Lots of waffley exposition early on help sink it too.

Rupes will have done his Bond ambition no good at all with this. He seemed to lack charisma or range in this part.