Over the last several months, I have watch maybe 5 movies total. I had a backlog of PC games to play and I built a new PC awhile back for a reason.
But let's get back to it.
The 39 Steps (1935)
Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock
Written By: Charles Bennett
Starring: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll
Length: 86 min.
Genre: Spy / Adventure
Based On: The 1915 Novel "The Thirty-Nine Steps" written by John Buchan
1936 NY Film Critics Award Nominee: Best Director
So I hated this movie, unlike everyone else it seems.
First, the good. It does a great job of tying the beginning of the story to the end. And there was a nice twist in the middle of the story that changed the goals of the main character. Nicely done there.
My problem with the story otherwise, and why I hated it so much, is that every character is so
insanely stupid. The cops go from being the greatest detectives by tracking down our hero across the entire country of England in a very short period of time only to turn into bumbling fools at the moment of capture so that our hero can get away.
The main villain at one point shoots our hero, and yet doesn't check to see if he's dead. You would think the total lack of blood from the person you just shot from near point blank range would maybe make you think to check?
This wasn't a case of "well if every one did the right thing there'd be no story". No, no one did a single thing that was remotely intelligent at all. Keystone cops, keystone villains, keystone hero and keystone dame. Just everyone was far beyond the level of stupid that I could put up with in a movie that I could not stop hate-laughing at it, until I has just hating it.
A shame. Everything else about the movie was fine. Acting was good, directing, sound, everything technical was good. The middle had that nice twist and reveal...and then the movie totally ruined it by having a villain ten times dumber than the most incompetent Bond villain.
My Rating: 4 / 10
IMDB Rating: 7.6 (51k votes)
Rotten Tomatoes: 96% Critics (49-2), 86% of Audience (23k votes)