Hitchcock's Film Adaptation Of The 39 Steps

I attended a production of The 39 Steps. The two act play was an adaptive parody piece derived from the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock movie based on the John Buchan novel; originally conceptualized by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon, it was then adapted for the stage by Patrick Barlow. Additionally, it paid homage to Alfred Hitchcock, in that the play seems to include a representation of almost every famous scene from a Hitchcock film. Eric Harrell, the Producing Artistic Director, described the play during his introduction as, “Alfred Hitchcock meets a spy novel meets Carol Burnette.” After viewing the play, I would agree that that is a fairly accurate assessment of the over-all tone of the production; however, I would have substituted Monty Python

The design of the costumes and the stage was, overall, very well done. The colours of the floors, and walls, the shape of the house and the setup of all the interactions was very smooth. There was also a bit of confusion laying underneath too. The way the stairway worked was confusing, as it led to a dock, and the floor being painted with water and floating boards was also a weird nitpick, but once you saw the flow of the scenes, and what those designs meant, then everything came together neatly. The costumes tied in really well with the times. The casual wear was a lot more fancy than modern clothes, but they were still very sleek and comfortable looking. The glasses were not as thick as some modern glasses are, and the containers that hold the liquor and the other drinks look old too. The way the living room was set up also gave that 60s vibe, which is when this play took place.

Broward College, Central Campus Theater in building 6, on Sunday, the 1st of November. The play was performed by Broward College students. The type of stage was Proscenium stage with extended apron. I thought it was a little bit small, but it did not show as a problem. The pre-show was dark and a feel of suspense. I felt excited to see how everything would play out. The play takes place down south of Chicago in the 1950’s.

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure to view Livermore High School’s The 39 Steps. Though originally a novel, The 39 Steps at Livermore was displayed as a play. Directed by Ms. Carol Hovey, and starred by the high school students of Livermore High, The 39 Steps was shown during the last weekend of February and the first weekend of March. It brought in a huge audience, attracting people of all ages.

Glancy’s analysis explains that by not noticing Hitchcock’s hidden messages, it affirms the political apathy of the audience. Glancy notes that Hitchcock purposely marries Memory’s death with “dancers kick[ing] their legs in unison” in the final scene to demonstrate how simple it is to distract a viewer with entertainment (75). Glancy also discusses Hitchcock’s underlying political theories, calling Britain a “potentially unstable and volatile country” and even alludes to Hitler by giving Hannay a “Hitler-style moustache”, but these thoughtful details go unnoticed by viewers and critics (79). To the audience, it seems that the mystery of ‘The 39 Steps’ was all the film had to offer. Glancy argues that if humans were more inquisitive, critical, and fearless, there would have more attention placed on Hitchcock’s powerful, political

The 39 Steps is a 1935 thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock successfully created a mysterious and nerve stimulating atmosphere throughout the whole film, thus making this film a hit over the century. Mindy Cooper, an artist in residence at UC Davis, recreated this masterpiece but made a slightly different approach by inserting some comedic elements. On the other hand, the lighting designer Pamila Z. Gray works effectively with the rest of the creative team, and they bring out great and appealing effects for UC Davis version of The 39 Steps. Since most of the scenes take place at night time, Gray puts a lot of effort in creating the nighttime lighting.

One thing that I did not like about the visual components was the furniture and the costumes. I say this because in the playbill, the time and place is set for now in the English Countryside. I did not know this until after watching the play. Throughout the duration of the play, I was given the impression that this play took place somewhere in between the 1920s and 1950s. The plaid furniture just gave that kind of old timey feel. Also, the costumes were old fashioned as well. The mothers’ dresses especially, and also the police uniform aided in this thought.

The play began with the main character, Ana and the voice she speaks to leading the audience into excitement and imagination. As the play went on the main actors led me into meeting or seeing the rest of the actors. In the first scene, Ana meets Lulu who she adores and admires but her mother despises her instead. It was because of her troubling and bad effect she might have on her daughter. However, the two scenes portrayed some flashbacks

22 STEPS is a dramatic thriller driven by strong themes of survival and perseverance. The idea of friends coming together to save another friend is well appreciated. The goal is clear and the stakes are high.

In Rear Window, by Alfred Hitchcock, Jeff, a photographer in New York City, breaks his leg while trying to take a photo at an auto race and gets stuck in his apartment until his leg heals. To pass the time, Jeff spies on his neighbors with his photo lenses. However, while in the process of spying on his neighbors, the Thorwalds, he suspects that a gruesome murder may have taken place in the household. In Rear Window, Hitchcock creates a suspenseful tone by utilizing five cinematic terms: sound effects, zoom shot, reaction shot, symbol, and point-of-view.

The scenery revealed multiples information about the setting. The opening scene conveyed that the musical is set in the present times. The set looked very rusty and depressing implying that the setting was very poor-like, the set designer did an extraordinary job on creating the tone. In the beginning the tone was very melancholy, but as the musical proceeded it turned into a cheerful comedy. In the beginning the colors of brown and gray dominated the scenery, but the colors frequently change depending on the musical number acts and what the musical numbers wanted to accomplish. The scenery didn’t have many moving parts, but they had many pulleys that change the set. The main setting was this huge background wall that was dominated by many geometric shapes, this was mostly used when the main character reunited to hold their rehearsal for their final performance. Also, there were many lights manipulations to change the setting, the big wall was diminished by black lights and they use simple sets like urinal stall and beds to represent the club’s bathroom and the bedroom respectively. I knew that this musical was realistic because there were not any absurdities in the set. Another aspect to carefully evaluate when you go to the theater is the costumes and lighting. The costumes were very simple and not too literal, the main characters were all middle-aged men. Their wives had a much fancier

1. What details of mise-en-scene (the process of setting a stage, with regard to placement of actors, scenery, properties, etc.) seem to contribute to the overall mood or tone of this film?

The original 39 steps was an action spy novel written by John Buchan in 1915. Then Alfred Hitchcock produced a film, then the play was written and when I first saw the play it was a bit of a shock seeing as the book and film are set as thrillers and the play is very much a comedy.

I don’t know why, I felt that she was somewhat bland in a way. I enjoyed reading her but I felt that she had no real character arc. She rather stayed the same the whole book.

She always had a positive attitude and always had hope that they would make it out and be able to live a normal life again. Whenever I listened to the play I had a vizule in my head of how desperate she was and how hard she tried to have hope and freedom. We need to be more grateful today for our lives because millions of jews died in the Holocaust.