The Thirty Nine Steps

“Hannay” (Robert Powell) might have wished he hadn’t answered his front door when he encounters the fleeing “Scudder” (Sir John Mills) who seeks shelter in his flat. Quickly, he has regaled his host with tales of international espionage, murder and duplicity and before he knows it, “Hannay” is on a train heading for the highlands with the police and some murderous spies in hot pursuit. Luckily, he is quite a quick-witted sort of a gent, and so when he stumbles upon a grouse shoot at a grand country estate, he manages to befriend “Alex” (Karen Dotrice) and “David” (Miles Anderson) and with a bout of divertion at the local Liberal election hustings finds he must race back to London to alert “Insp. Lomas” (Eric Porter) to the dangers of the “39 Steps”, “Ariadne’s Thread” and a threat to plunge the Balkans into all out war. Though I still think Robert Donat’s was the best "Hannay” (1935), I think Powell holds this together quite well as he races up and down the country trying to stay alive and get to the bottom of things. Porter and David Warner also contribute quite effectively as this iteration of John Buchan’s story builds to quite a conclusion dangling from the arms of Big Ben. It does have more of a made for television look to it, and that does compromise some of the sense of menace as we proceed, but it’s a strong story well presented, and I enjoyed it.