The 39 Steps

The 39 Steps is a 1959 British thriller film directed by Ralph Thomas, starring Kenneth More and Taina Elg. It is a remake of the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film, loosely based on the novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan.

Diplomat Richard Hannay returns home to London, only to become inadvertently embroiled in the death of a British spy investigating the head of an organisation planning to sell the secret of a British ballistic missile. Hannay flees to Scotland to escape the police and tries to complete the spy's mission.

This is the first colour version of the Buchan tale, and features extensive location shooting. Several large set pieces including Hannay's escape from the train on the Forth Bridge are taken from the original film. As with the Hitchcock version, the scenario was contemporary rather than the pre-Great War setting of Buchan's original.