The 39 Steps is a 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock featuring Hannay, Pamela, Min Smith, Professor Jordan, Memory and the Sheriff among others. The film was adapted from John Buchan’s novel. The film depicts different subcultures found within Europe a few years before the Second World War. The movie released in 1935 expresses interests, concerns and shed light on the kind of social interactions. Similarly, the film reveals different forms of space cultures that represent classes of people and their values as a society.
The perceptions of the actors in the film reflect how they fit in the society. For instance, the interaction with the between Hannay and Annabella is influenced by the grandiose hall of music in London. Hannay correlates that since Annabella happened to be in the Palladium which host more respectable and middle-class citizens of London, the class of the women in the social space are disposed to be actors or choir members since the Palladium entertainers comprised of singing, dancing and acting. Ironically, Annabelle is special stereotype of a prostitute, can fire and works closely with spies. Wood points out that Annabelle could spy for “any country that pays me”(278). Illicit sex versus marriage love is portrayed in the movie in two scenes intended to discuss two dissimilar types of male-female relationship; when Hurray welcomes the suggestion for instant gratification from the generous Annabella and the marriage love between Crofter and Mrs. Crofter. One situation represents true love and another instance stereotypes illicit sex. Hannay advises Annabella to select “gentlemen” for her friends after discovering that she had shot two of her friends who wanted to murder her. The emotional tangle ends the illicit relationship. Hannay got attached to another non-committal relationship with Pamela for mutual benefit and care.
The movie does ridicule the top British society represented by the professor vis-à-vis the Canadian Hannay who looks more contented than the British. Hannay ridicules the professor’s formula of attaining powers as a form of gibberish that failed to free man from bondage. Nationality as a theme is emphasized by the identity of the spies such as Hannay who is identified as a Canadian in order to pardon his habits and values that sometimes contravene the British values. Furthermore, McDougal asserts that Hannay who is a spy is neither safer with the police nor with the Scotland Yard who continually intimidate his activities (236). Others forms of paranoia are dealt with in the film such as the fear and longing for women and sexual satisfaction that force Hannay to accept different sexual favors. Physical affection blossoms into love in the film. For instance, the handcuffs that bind Pamela and Hannay help the two overcome doubt and distrust develop the bond of love and subsequent non-committal marriage. The definition of love is thus offered as a persistent closeness between the handcuffed people. Besides, physical handcuffs emotional, structural and religious handcuffs. Barriers to warmth and affection are influenced by Calvinism religion and sexuality theories that act as dogmatic stimuli that affect the manner in which different characters live (McDougal 237). Equally, the influence of satisfied sexuality is felt like a close friendship that enable partners to work out their differences and solve external threats. Hannay and Pamela have to persistently keep away from the Scotland Yard to avoid being caught in a situation that would end up destroying the spies club.
In conclusion, I agree with Wood’s and McDougal’s perception of the cultures represented in the film 39 steps. The movie displays how different cultures interact while creating a stimuli that creates either fear or strength in every actor. Structural institutions like marriage, police, spies and entertainers are discussed at length to reveal how cultural socializing spaces encourage certain traits of knowledge, approve certain values while distrusting foreign notions. Equally, dogma is affecting the marriage and relationships between people because of how every dogmatic idea interprets life.
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