Monday, January 14, 2008

What are the 39 steps?

The Velvet Blog took a field trip to Broadway this weekend to see the new play The 39 Steps, based on the film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and the novel by John Buchan. Actually, it hews closely to the plotline of the film, which plays fast and loose with the book, but turns it into an full-out comedy. What a lot of fun! The show has a limited engagement in New York. If it hits the road after that and comes to your city, go.

TVB can't treat you all to tickets, but here's a copy of the whole film from that great resource, the Internet Archive. (I haven't watched this all the way through, so I'm not sure how watchable this print is.)

3 comments:

Grammarian@mindspring.com said...

Should it be "What IS the 39 steps"?

Jim Donahue said...

It should be, given that The 39 Steps is an organization. But I'm about 90% sure that when Hannay yells out that question at Mr. Memory, he says "are."

Of course, in the book, "the 39 steps" are actually 39 steps.

(I dunno if you listened to it, God, but there's a Mercury Theater version on that MP3 disk you sent me. I'm pretty sure that follows the book.)

Esther said...

I'm so glad you liked "The 39 Steps." I saw it in Boston on its pre-Broadway tryout and I thought it was just wonderful, really funny and smart. I loved all the little ways it paid homage to other Hitchcock movies. The way the play manages to do so much with only four actors and a few props is really inspired!