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Mixing Genres and Political Turmoil in The 39 Steps

&NewLine;<p>Though Hollywood has dominated the global film industry since the 1910’s&comma; many influential directors and films have surfaced outside of the United States&period; In the mid-1930’s&comma; a studio system very similar to Hollywood &lpar;albeit smaller&rpar; formed in Great Britain&period; During this period of increased production and organization within the industry&comma; Alfred Hitchcock emerged as one of the most popular and influential directors&period; Hitchcock established himself as a prominent director of silent films in the 1920’s&comma; but he truly found his niche with the onset of the sound era&period; In terms of genre&comma; Hitchcock became best known for directing thrillers&period; In a New York Times film review of <em>The 39 Steps<&sol;em>&comma; columnist Andre Sennwald describes Hitchcock as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;a master of shock and suspense&comma; of cold horror and incongruous wit” &lpar;Sennwald&rpar;&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>However&comma; these same films often had moments of lighter tone&comma; typically seen through romance and comedy&period; <em>The 39 Steps<&sol;em> is a perfect example of Hitchcock’s ability to mix genres&period; The story begins as a spy thriller&comma; and though this plot continues throughout the film&comma; it also evolves into a screwball comedy&period; The blending of these two genres has obvious entertainment value&comma; but it also serves as a reflection of the political and social tension of Great Britain in the 1930’s&period; With the rise to power of the Nazi party in 1933&comma; fears of political turmoil and war swept across Europe&period; In Britain&comma; there was an increased &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;fear of traitors and spies &lbrack;that&rsqb; gained expression in drama&comma; film and comics &lpar;Miller 317&rpar;&period; This paranoia and social unrest was popularized in film&comma; particularly in Hitchcock’s thrillers&period; <em>The Man Who Knew Too Much<&sol;em> &lpar;1934&rpar;&comma; <em>The 39 Steps<&sol;em> &lpar;1935&rpar;&comma; and <em>The Lady Vanishes<&sol;em> &lpar;1938&rpar; all played on the concept of foreign spies involved in international conspiracies&period; Hitchcock meshes the thriller and screwball comedy genres in <em>The 39 Steps<&sol;em> to feed into the paranoia about political turmoil in Europe&comma; while also appealing to the desire for light&comma; escapist entertainment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>The 39 Steps<&sol;em> is a perfect example of a Hitchcock thriller&period; The thriller genre&comma; at its most basic form&comma; is stylistically characterized by the precise withholding and revealing of information to the audience&comma; which creates a sense of tension and mystery&period; Toby Miller describes the thriller as a story of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;accidental discovery” in which &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;mystery lands in the lap of a bright young man who proceeds to solve it and save his country from a conspiracy” &lpar;Miller 323&rpar;&period; Miller also argues that as the thriller genre developed&comma; it began to focus on &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the identification and defeat of wrongdoers through participation and exploration&comma; a practical reasoning that ultimately explained irregular&comma; undesirable events” &lpar;Miller 321&rpar;&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>The 39 Steps<&sol;em> exemplifies this definition&period; In the film&comma; Richard Hannay stumbles backwards into an international conspiracy that he must unravel to save himself&comma; Great Britain&comma; and possibly the world&period; The film begins at a rambunctious music hall in London&comma; where a sudden gunshot causes a panic&comma; forcing Hannay into the arms of a strange woman&period; He soon discovers that she is a spy and is responsible for the shooting&period; She tells Hannay that there are two spies trying to kill her&comma; and that she must intercept a piece of information that is vital to British national security before it leaves the country&period; Hannay is skeptical&comma; but when he discovers that the mysterious woman has been stabbed in the back&comma; he sets off on a journey to retrieve the top-secret information and clear his name in the process&period; This type of thriller&comma; in which a man is falsely accused of a crime and must prove his innocence&comma; became a staple of Alfred Hitchcock’s film career&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;01&sol;the-39-steps-1200-1200-675-675-crop-000000-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The 39 Steps Hitchcock" class&equals;"wp-image-1905"&sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-element-caption"><em>The 39 Steps<&sol;em> &lpar;1935&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In contrast to the thriller genre&comma; the screwball comedy is traditionally defined as a love story between a man and a woman&comma; with comedic situations that arise from this love&comma; and a happy resolution&period; For Britain in the 1930’s&comma; much of the appeal of this genre could be attributed to its escapist undertones&period; In most screwball comedies&comma; realism is essentially absent&comma; while comedy and romantic love are at the forefront of the plot&period; Though the formula for screwball comedies may seem realistic on the surface because it focuses on people in real-life situations&comma; the scenarios for these films usually do not represent reality&period; This connection between apparent &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;reality” and fiction allows audiences to escape reality without necessarily being conscious of the film’s absurdly fictional premise&period; <em>The 39 Steps<&sol;em> presents itself as a screwball comedy in several ways&comma; although most of the characteristics of the genre are non-existent until about halfway through the film&period; For example&comma; Hannay and Pamela get handcuffed together and are forced to escape the assassins as a team&period; While this situation is theoretically possible&comma; it is a rather absurd scenario&comma; and yet it is vital for the comedic and romantic elements of the plot&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Later&comma; after escaping from the handcuffs&comma; Pamela attempts to sneak away while Hannay sleeps&period; As she sneaks out of the bedroom&comma; she overhears the assassins talking and discovers that Hannay is innocent of the murder and has been telling the truth the whole time&period; Soft&comma; romantic music begins to play as she returns to their room and her expression and body language make it clear that she is now attracted to Hannay&period; This sudden change is very unrealistic considering her previous dislike for Hannay&comma; but this change allows the tension and comedy to shift to romance&comma; fulfilling the essential elements of a screwball comedy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In this genre&comma; the plot often revolves around a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;battle of the sexes” set within the world of the upper class&period; Hannay seems to be a well-off&comma; educated man with the financial means to travel&comma; and Pamela serves as his counterpart in this &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;battle” between men and women&period; Pamela is introduced as a seemingly random passenger on the train that Hannay is taking to Scotland&period; Hannay bursts into her compartment to avoid the police and passionately kisses her so the investigators will pass him by&period; Though this is technically the beginning of their comical love affair&comma; Pamela chooses to blow his cover and&comma; for the moment&comma; the plot continues without her&period; Their story really begins during his empowering speech at a political rally&comma; where Pamela recognizes him as the criminal from the train&period; After his speech&comma; the two spies capture Hannay as he pleads for Pamela to believe his story&period; Realizing that she knows too much&comma; the spies bring her along under the pretense of being a witness against Hannay&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>At this point&comma; Hannay and Pamela are forced to fight with one another because they are handcuffed together and have two very different outlooks on the situation&period; Hannay wants to clear his name and escape the assassins&comma; while Pamela shows disinterest in Hannay’s fate and mostly just wants to be left alone&period; Though this is a comical &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;battle” between the two&comma; there is also a literal and figurative connection between them&period; Miller states that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the focus on male-female relations happens again when Hannay and Pamela are handcuffed together…this unwelcome bracketing becomes a sign of their transformation into a couple&comma; the &OpenCurlyQuote;concrete object’ of the cuffs expressing a &OpenCurlyQuote;concrete relation’” &lpar;Miller 326&rpar;&period; Their close proximity forces Hannay and Pamela to have comical fights&comma; despite their budding romance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>The 39 Steps<&sol;em> uses these two genres&comma; the thriller and the screwball comedy&comma; to reflect two opposing approaches to the social and political turmoil in Europe&period; Even at the time of its release&comma; critics note that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Hitchcock describes the remarkable chain of events in Hannay’s flight across England and Scotland with a blend of unexpected comedy and breathless terror that is strikingly effective” &lpar;Sennwald&rpar;&period; The spy thriller aspect of the film brings the reality of European politics directly to the audience&comma; albeit in a subtle&comma; entertaining fashion&comma; while the screwball comedy aspects of the film allow the audience to escape from the same negative sociopolitical atmosphere that is indirectly addressed in the plot of the film&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;01&sol;image-1024x613&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The 39 Steps" class&equals;"wp-image-1906"&sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-element-caption"><em>The 39 Steps<&sol;em> &lpar;1935&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This may seem counterintuitive&comma; but Hitchcock seamlessly transitions between the two genres and makes both aspects of the film entertaining&period; Hannay himself helps represent the meshing of both genres in several ways&period; Miller describes Hannay as a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;depthless character typical of spy-genre protagonists”&comma; which is emphasized when Hannay himself declares that he is &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;’nobody’” &lpar;Miller 326&rpar;&period; Miller also identifies the appearance of both genres by identifying Hannay’s ability to blend in when he &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;proceeds to be a milkman&comma; a mechanic&comma; a parade marcher&comma; a politician and a criminal&comma; the perfectly depthless figure who can be anyone…yet at the same time&comma; this sets up the conditions of possibility for comedy&comma; as a series of misunderstandings produce chaos&comma; then a happy resolution” &lpar;Miller 327&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While the film does allude to the political tension in Europe&comma; Hitchcock is careful not to be too specific with certain elements of the plot&period; If actual political parties or movements had been mentioned specifically &lpar;i&period;e&period; The Nazi Party&comma; fascism&comma; etc&period;&rpar;&comma; the film would have created a much more realistic tone and might have hit a little too close to home with British audiences&period; However&comma; by only referring to international conspiracies and spy stories&comma; Hitchcock references real-life politics without directly mentioning the turmoil in Europe&period; Miller states that <em>The 39 Steps<&sol;em> &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;embodied prevailing issues of its day to do with class race&comma; gender and national security&period; It made especially powerful arguments for the value of the Dominions to Britain in a hostile world…it pointed to the danger of mass frenzy” &lpar;Miller 319&rpar;&period; Hitchcock also comments on this concept of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;mass frenzy” and distrust of the public through staging and location&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Whenever a scene in the film is set within a controlled public area&comma; it quickly devolves into chaos and violence&period; In the beginning scene at the music hall&comma; a brawl begins for no apparent reason&comma; followed by a gunshot and further panic&period; Later in the film&comma; Hannay’s rousing speech at the political rally causes a great surge of people onto the stage&period; At the end of the film&comma; Mr&period; Memory is shot during his performance&comma; causing people to rush from the theater in a panic&period; Miller states that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the crowd was a figure of great anxiety in early twentieth-century public policy…for behind every public tumult of mass energy lies one more group of agitators ready to displace existing rulers with their own power-mongering” &lpar;Miller 324&rpar;&period; The paranoia concerning international conspiracies led to a general distrust of the public and Hitchcock emphasizes this distrust with specific staging and location&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>The 39 Steps<&sol;em> is a very entertaining film&comma; and it works very effectively as a thriller and a screwball comedy&period; Hitchcock plays on the fears of the British public with a story about international conspiracies&comma; but also allows audiences to escape from reality with comedy and romance&period; The looming shadow of Nazi Germany created paranoia concerning the safety of British citizens&comma; and this paranoia led to a distrust of the public&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Regarding this paranoia&comma; Miller quotes novelist Wesley K&period; Wark in stating that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the enemy could be the Jew&comma; the foreigner&comma; the not-quite gentleman&comma; the corrupted&comma; the bomb-throwers&comma; the women&period; Why the day needed to be saved was very much a product of national insecurities” &lpar;Miller 320&rpar;&period; In the film&comma; the assassins serve as the enemy that causes these insecurities&comma; while Hannay serves as the falsely accused&period; The love story&comma; while not a necessary catalyst for the conspiracy plot&comma; diverts attention away from the gravity of world politics&period; Hitchcock used a spy story and a comical love affair to seamlessly blend the thriller and screwball comedy genres in <em>The 39 Steps<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Miller&comma; Toby&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;39 Steps to the &OpenCurlyQuote;Borders of the Possible’&colon; Alfred Hitchcock&comma; &nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;Amateur&nbsp&semi;Observer and the New Cultural History&period;” <u>Alfred Hitchcock&colon; Centenary Essays<&sol;u>&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>Editor&colon; Richard Allen&period; London&colon; British Film Institute&comma; 1999&period; 318-328&period;&nbsp&semi;Sennwald&comma; Andre&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The 39 Steps&period;” <u>The New York Times Review<&sol;u>&period; 1935&period; The New York&nbsp&semi;Times&period; April 23&comma; 2011&period; &lt&semi;<a aria-label&equals;"undefined &lpar;opens in a new tab&rpar;" href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;movies&period;nytimes&period;com&sol;movie&sol;review" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener">http&colon;&sol;&sol;movies&period;nytimes&period;com&sol;movie&sol;review<&sol;a>&gt&semi;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>For more film essays&comma; consult the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film Homepage<&sol;a>&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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