The 39 Steps

“This is a Hitchcock movie. Before he went to Hollywood, I believe. He did a lot of films in England. This one’s called The 39 Steps. It’s like some of his later ones, like North by Northwest and some of The Others, where an ordinary person suddenly falls down a rabbit hole and they’re wrapped up in this kind of conspiracy, and they don’t know why, but they know they have to– they have this thing that they have to do, which leads him on a kind of chase throughout Britain.”

“The 39 Steps. Yeah, I love this. I love all versions of this story but I particularly like this one with Robert Donat. Amazing. It's just because I love Scotland as well and it's shot in Scotland and the story is so exciting. It's completely brilliant and it's a bit cheeky as well. It's typically Alfred Hitchcock trying to get his camera up as many women's skirts as he can do.”

“The 39 Steps I saw recently. Black-and-white, you know, British, more British-y Alfred Hitchcock and, like all his movies, there is something absolutely special and magnificent about it. It’s just a great plot that just… Surprises keep coming to poor Robert Donat. There’s a helicopter in it, and one of the worst special effects I’ve ever seen is the helicopter flying overhead. And that’s another Hitchcock trademark, in my opinion, is to have some very fake-looking shot somewhere.”