The Plot and Nothing More: A Concise Reading of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps”

Hitchcock’s 1935 film, and the first true masterpiece of his career, The 39 Steps, is perhaps his purest distillation of cinematic storytelling as a wholly self-contained experience. We open on the flashing marquee of the “Music Hall.” We enter through the POV of a character. His hand is our hand as we buy our ticket; his feet are our feet as we enter the theater.

At first he is just one among many. The story has not yet chosen him as the protagonist. There are no close-ups. His questions for Mr. Memory (Wylie Watson), who is on stage displaying his prodigious talent for recalling facts, are drowned out by others in the crowd. He must ask three times before his question receives a reply. Then a fight breaks out and he is again lost in the bustle.