Less Need For More

Alfred Hitchcock sure was no fluke. His 1935 version of The 39 Steps really is a great film. I note this with utter, unabashed confidence after watching the film’s 1959 remake, which is so bad, I wish it could have been funny. It’s like watching someone fall down all those 39 steps, hitting each one on the most sensitive anatomical spots before reaching bottom. You might think it’d be comical to watch but wait till you actually watch it. The thing is, the remake is consciously trying to be funny (right to its sprightly opening music), beginning with the casting of Kenneth More in the Richard Hannay role. More was a major British star in the 1950s, a charming actor with an affable, homely face (sort of like a cheerful potato) and a blithe, breezy manner that seemed meant to reassure audiences that all that hullabaloo onscreen will come out ok. Although he did act in heavyweight drama (such as a heroic officer on a sinking Titanic in 1958’s A Night to Remember), More was frequently cast…