The 39 Steps (1959 Film)

The 39 Steps (1959 Film)

The 39 Steps is a 1959 British thriller film directed by Ralph Thomas, starring Kenneth More and Taina Elg. It is a remake of the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film, based on the novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan.

In the film, diplomat Richard Hannay returns home to London, only to become inadvertently embroiled in the death of a British spy investigating the head of an organisation planning to sell the secret of a British ballistic missile. Hannay thus travels to Scotland to escape the police, and attempts to complete the spy's work.

It is the first colour version of the Buchan tale, and, unlike the mainly studio-bound original features extensive location shooting. Several large setpieces (such as Hannay's escape from the train on the Forth Rail Bridge and the music hall finale) and much of the dialogue are taken from the original film. As with the Hitchcock version, the scenario was contemporary rather than the pre-World War I setting of Buchan's original.