"Cinema: Alfred Hitchcock" (HD, 40:14) is the first of two Hitchcock interview features, this one featuring unedited footage from a Granada television interview session with the director. Also included is an audio excerpt from the interview session Hitchcock engaged in with French director Francois Truffaut (22:15) primarily focused on The 39 Steps. In addition, a "Lux Radio Theater Presents The 39 Steps" (59:52) radio performance is included, featuring Robert Montgomery and Ida Lupino in the lead roles. Finally, some production designs are included, as well as an illustrated booklet in the packaging featuring an essay by film critic David Cairns.
Conclusion
I keep coming back to the word "balanced" when thinking of The 39 Steps. There are other movies from this period in Hitchcock's career that offer more suspense (The Man Who Knew Too Much, Sabotage), and even more comedy (The Lady Vanishes), but none of his other British-period films quite capture the deft balance of all the elements that would define Hitchcock's later work quite as effectively as this one. The acting is natural and nuanced, the machine-gun delivery of dialogue that was the style in the 1930s is largely reigned in, and even the resolution of the mystery at the end wraps up more elegantly and in keeping with the rest of the film. The 39 Steps is both an accomplished early work and an important precursor to Hitchcock's later successes.
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