A man in London tries to help a counter-espionage agent, but when the agent is killed and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to save himself and stop a spy ring that is trying to steal top-secret information.
Richard Hannay is a Canadian visitor to London. At the end of "Mr Memory"'s show in a music hall, he meets Annabella Smith, who is running away from secret agents. He agrees to hide her in his flat, but she is murdered during the night. Fearing that he could be accused of the murder, Hannay goes on the run to break the spy ring.—Claudio Sandrini <[email protected]>
In London, the Canadian Hannay, who came from Montreal, flirts with a woman in the show of Mr. Memory, a man capable to memorize several information. When there are shots during the show, she goes with him to his apartment and tells him that her name is Annabelle Smith. Further, she says that she is a spy, and she shot in the theater to create havoc and flee from two assassins. She asks for a map from Scotland and highlights a location on the map. On the next morning, she comes to Hannay's room stabbed on the back and tells him that a man without the pinky would sell British secrets to a foreign nation, mentions the 39 steps and dies on his arms. He sees through the window that the two killers are waiting for him outside the building, but Hannay lures them and travels by train to Scotland. Meanwhile, the janitor finds Miss Smith's body in the apartment and the police declare Hannay wanted for murder. Chased by the police, Hannay finally reaches the location indicated by Annabelle and meets Professor Jordan. He discloses the events to Jordan and only after he notes that he is the man without the pinky. He flees hunted down by the police and the spies. When he meets the young Pamela, he asks her to call the authorities and tell them what he has just told her, but she does not believe him. But now she is involved, and the ring of spies want her too.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Richard Hannay is a Canadian visitor to 1930s London. After a disturbance at a music hall, he meets Annabella Smith, who is on the run from foreign agents. He takes her back to his apartment, but they are followed and later that night Annabella is murdered. Hannay goes on the run to break the spy ring and prove his innocence.—Col Needham <[email protected]>
Richard Hannay is on the run from the police, who suspect him of murdering the woman found stabbed to death in his London flat. This story and his photograph are in many of the newspapers throughout Great Britain. In reality, the woman picked Hannay up at the Mr. Memory show, telling him that two men were trying to kill her in an effort to obtain information which would breach national security. Hannay is not only on the run from police but is also trying to find out the nature of the potential national security breach to clear his name. All he knows from the dead woman is that it has something to do with a man in a small town in Scotland, another man who's missing part of his pinky finger, and "The 39 Steps." On this perilous journey of discovery he's forced to take along a feisty young woman named Pamela who is endlessly belligerent towards him despite her precarious situation.—Huggo
Canadian Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) is at a London music hall. While watching a demonstration of the fabulous powers of recall of "Mr. Memory" (Wylie Watson) gun shots are fired. In the ensuing panic, a frightened Annabella Smith (Lucie Mannheim) holds on to Hannay and talks him into taking her back to his flat. After the bus ride there, she admits that she is a counterspy, and that she fired the shots to cause confusion because she is being chased by assassins, who are standing outside on the street. She claims to know of a plot to steal vital British military secrets, masterminded by a man with the top joint missing from his little finger. To stop the plot, she needs to go to Scotland to a large house in a small village. She mentions "thirty-nine steps", but does not explain their meaning.
That night, Annabella is stabbed in the back but manages to warn him to flee before dying. She is clutching in her hand a map of Scotland with a tiny village circled. To sneak out of the watched flat he borrows the uniform of a milkman and soon boards the Flying Scotsman train to Scotland. He learns from a fellow passenger's newspaper that he is the target of a nationwide manhunt as a murder suspect of Annabella Smith. To throw police searching the train off his track, he enters a compartment and engages in an extended kiss with the only occupant, Pamela (Madeleine Carroll), and the searchers see them and bypass the compartment. She however frees herself from his unwanted embrace and alerts the policemen when they come back. The train Is stopped on the Forth rail bridge after having the emergency brake triggered by the police when Hannay jumps onto the bridge and escapes.
The fugitive stays the night with a poor crofter (farmer) (John Laurie) and his young wife (Peggy Ashcroft), who realizes from a newspaper article that Hannay is on the run, but keeps quiet. The next morning, the husband is about to turn him in to a search party but he runs, aided the wife, wearing the farmer's dark Sunday coat. He arrives on foot at his target village and calls at a large estate occupied by recent arrivals in the area. A large party is going on, he gives the name Annabella Smith to the maid, and the master of the house and the maid lie to the police about seeing a stranger. When Hanay tells his story to the seemingly respectable Professor Jordan (Godfrey Tearle), Jordan reveals that he is missing the top joint of his baby finger. Jordan shoots Hannay, but luckily, the bullet is stopped by the farmer's hymnbook that was left in a coat pocket.
Hannay drives to the local sheriff after stealing the professor's car, but the sheriff and police refuse to believe his story about Jordan who has befriended them. Hannay is arrested for the London murder. Hannay breaks through a glass window and mingles as a member of a passing parade. He escapes into a door in an alley and finds himself at a political meeting, and is mistaken for the introductory speaker arriving a bit late. Without knowing a thing about the candidate he is introducing he improvises a rousing speech when he sees Pamela enter the hall. Hannay talks about a world in which no one is unjustly accused, no one is hunted and no nation plots against nation.
He is recognized by Pamela, who alerts two men she believes are police. Hannay is handcuffed and both he and Pamela taken away to the police station in a car. Pamela notices they pass the police station and the captors say they are going to another police station in another town. When Pamela notices they have missed the turn to the town, Hannay realizes they are not the police. He proves his theory by looking for a reaction from his captors when he mentions their boss has a missing joint from his finger. When a flock of sheep blocks the narrow road, one of the henchmen handcuffs Hannay to Pamela and the captors exit the car and attempt to move the sheep. Hannay escapes, dragging the unwilling woman along. Hannay and the attached Pamela evade the spies by hiding under a bridge covered with sheep at one point and behind a waterfall at another.
They walk across the countryside and stay the night at an inn, Pamela still doesn't believe Hannay's story even though he tries his best to convince her. The couple hide their handcuffs by pretending to be a lovers unable to keep their hands off each other. The innkeeper's wife believes they are a runaway couple in love, and lies to protect them when the fake police show up and make inquiries as to who is staying at the inn. There are awkward comedic moments when Pamela takes off her wet stockings and they lie on the bed handcuffed. While he sleeps, she manages to slip out of her handcuff. On her escape, she overhears one of the fake policemen speaking on the telephone downstairs and the conversation confirms Hannay's story. She returns to the room and sleeps on a sofa.
The next morning, Pamela tells Hannay what she overheard including the fact that the spy's are heading to London. Pamela calls Scotland Yard before leaving Scotland and then visits them when she gets to London. Scotland Yard has investigated the tale of the spy plot. No secret documents have been reported missing however, so she is not believed. Instead, they let her leave and follow her to find Hannay.
Pamela goes to meet Hannay at Mr. Memory's show at the London Palladium, finds him, and sits next to him. Hannay observes Professor Jordan in a box. As the performer is introduced, Hannay recognizes his theme music - it's an annoyingly catchy tune he hasn't been able to forget for days. Hannay puts two and two together and realizes that the spies are using Mr. Memory as the means to smuggle the secrets out: he has them memorized so there are no paper documents. As the police take Hannay into custody, he shouts out a question: "What are the 39 Steps?" Mr. Memory compulsively begins to answer, "The Thirty-Nine Steps is an organization of spies, collecting information on behalf of the foreign office of...." Suddenly, Jordan shoots him and tries to flee, but he is quickly apprehended. The dying Mr. Memory recites the information stored in his brain, formulas for the design of a silent aircraft engine. The final shot shows Hannay, with his handcuff still on, holding hands with Pamela.
