I really enjoyed this adaptation of The 39 Steps. I thought the cast was good, the costumes were good and the settings were brilliant. All in all a good and entertaining show. And I liked it even though I really like the Hitchcock version!
Just attempted to watch the repeat this evening, Switched off after 30 minutes {which was, on reflection, about 90 minutes too much}. Cr*p. Nothing else to be said.
Afraid this version left me cold.It seemed a rather cheap remake actually. I enjoyed both the More and Powell versions more than the original Donat flick.I to.am a Buchan devotee.Greenmantle would test the dream factory boys! Can't say I agree at all with the implication of,"more"BBC rubbish-I love most of their stuff!
I seem to remember that one being done quite wellon TV in serial form some some years ago. And Powell did do Hanney again on TV some years after his version of `The thirty nine Steps``.
"Any plan that involves losing your hat is a BAD plan.""
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Oh, dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. More complete and utter rubbish from a BBC full of total losers. This is not the 39 Steps. It's a cross between Heartbeat and Carry On up the Grouse Moors. It has no mystery, it has no suspense, it has no menace. The pace is leisurely, the threats wafer-thin, the villains about as convincing as a cardboard cutout of a pantomime dame. Malahide is a good actor, but here is completely out of his comfort zone as a German spy, especially the one described by Buchan. And as for Hannay ... Hannay was a tough customer, not a matinee idol who looks like a cheap version of Sterling Hayden. As for the script - WHY WHY WHY does the BBC think that a fifth-rate scribbler can improve on the Master? WHY WHY WHY can they not stick to a superbly crafted storyline? For example: instead of the wonderful story of Hannay pretenting to be a stone-mason, we get a cheap pastiche of North by North West, with Hannay running away from a plane coming in low to strafe him. Cheaply and unconvincingly done. Oh, dear. Utterly pathetic. Hitchcock's version: there are few bigger fans of Hitch than me, but I never liked his 39 Steps all that much. But even though he departed from the original story, he injected brooding menace into every scene. Even though I don't expect today's shoddy and ridiculous BBC to emulate his genius, there are some BASIC things that can be done with camera angles, lighting and shot construction, things that a first-year film student knows about. Here, everything has the same bland lighting, every shot is from a similar angle and distance (mostly too far away, which means the viewer does not get pulled into the action), every shot is of the same boring average length. Truly and utterly pathetic.
Go to Amazon and buy the Hitchcock version - it's well worth the price.
The number of viewers during the Christmas/New Year season is not an indicator of quality. There is so much rubbish being shown - a few days ago I had the misfortune to watch a complete travesty of the Hound of the Baskervilles, plus they keep showing repeats of programmes that should have been left on the cutting-room floor in their entirety the first time, plus all the useless compilations of 'The Best of the Decade' (which doesn't even end for another year ...) and 'The Worst of the Decade' and so on - that people are forced to watch anything that comes along.
At least there's the cricket. The first Test against SA at Centurion was gripping, and the current second Test may end up just as nail-biting at the finish.
And there is always work, which I must now get back to!
* Spoilers...* watched it on Masterpiece Theater..
it started ok - the twists & turns with the girl were 'hokey' after awhile.. she turns out to be a British spy but then too many things don't fit.. then, there's a romantic sparkle with the Hannay lead character, which was interesting considering the 1914 setting.. I thought the restraint was suitable..
then, after the bad guys are captured, she gets shot & falls into a loch and disappears.. I hate it when that happens.. but wait...............! then, she shows up at the Train Station in secret to see him off to WWI just getting underway in France.. ! she was just faking her death.. I wonder why? all the German spies were shot dead or locked up, so who was going to tell the 'bad guys' she was supposed to be dead? ..boy, did this script get muddled in the last 10 minutes..
how good were her chances of surviving a pistol shot from close range and a swim after in a cold Scottish lake? about as good as Hannay's chances of surviving WWI for 4 years, since about 1 million young British men died from poison gas, or artillery or machine-gun fire.. "She'll see you after the War" Hannay is told.. yup - in a wooden box.
I love happy endings..
-oh, I forgot to mention - earlier on, after escaping from a police-chase on a train, Hannay is pursued by a vintage WWI plane, who spray machinegun fire on him from point-blank range.. bullets all around his feet... but they miss! (They shoulda just thrown rocks at him..) ..
~~~~~Hannay's chances of surviving WWI for 4 years~~~~~
About a 1 in 8 chance of dying.
I liked the strip-tease they did at the hotel but that scene needed no dialogue. The rest was a crude role-reversal rather than a credible couple, most disappointing.
Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.
Just watched the DVD of this (in the US) and agree with you, Mark from Nottingham. Of course, Hitchcock it isn't, but the cast energetically connects the dots left unconnected by the director and it moves along without wasting any time. I like Penry-Jones a lot and would enjoy seeing him do more like this.
Am terrifically fond of BBC shows. Even silly stuff has the kind of classy shine you get with wonderful actors and an astoundingly gifted crew.
"This was certainly better and more enjoyable than any of the rubbish made for television here in USA."
Some of those HBO original films are quite good. Some of the cable nets turn out some very good series programming. As for the ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX movies and series go, yes, they're all crap. All the Big Four do well is sports programming, and that's it.
However, this 39 Steps adaptation, good as it looked, was horribly adapted and ineptly directed.
It's amazing that "the lead actress" could stand up straight with that huge nose and all the irritating screeching she had to do. A ludicrous part for a ludicrous-looking actress. Once again the BBC proves its hatred for women.
Snobbery is a form of romanticism, the chastity of the perfectionist
"And surely they can understand there are no Hitchcocks in today's Beeb. "
And the Hitchcock version was complete and utter rubbish. It was one of the biggest bastardizations of a novel, I have ever, ever seen. Infact, it should not be classed as an adaptation of Buchan's work and thus that cuts down the amount of people who have made films of it. The 1950s film was a remake of Hitchcock's nonsense and thus cannot be counted either. The only adaptation of the story made before this one was the 1970s version which starred Robert Powell and led to the TV series 'Hannay', which was very good too.
when the wounded german spy shots victoria at that point I said to myself what the hell? I don't even mention victoris falls into water and somehow appears again at the train station.until that point movie is at least watchable.