Alfred Hitchcock's 'The 39 Steps' PDF

53 Pages·2010·0.96 MB·English

Educator Resources
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Welcome
Center Theatre Group is excited to have you and your students join us at Alfred
Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps.
Educator
Resources
Alfred Hitchcock’s A great play raises questions about the human condition and a great
The 39 Steps educational experience allows students an opportunity to reflect upon those
questions and begin to discover their own answers. To that end the material in
Educational Center Theatre Group’s Student Discovery Guide and Educator Resources raise
Materials Team: questions: questions about the appeal of novelist John Buchan’s The Thirty-
Nine Steps and why it has inspired countless adaptations, questions about spy
Writer
fiction and what draws us to those type of stories, questions about what makes
Megan Mathews
a hero, questions about theatre and physical transformation. Our goal is to
Associate Director provide you with a variety of entry points into Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps so
of Education that you can choose what best suits you and your students.
Debra Piver
The Educator Resources and Student Discovery Guide are companion pieces,
Teaching Artists in
designed to help you prepare your students to see the play and to follow-up
Residence
the performance with options for discussion, reflection and creativity.
Lynn Clark
Leslie Ishii
Marcos Najera We have organized the Educator Resources into the following sections:
Omar Ricks
Student Discovery Guide
Proofreader
Douglas Woods The Student Discovery Guide provides students with background
information about the play and the subject matter, as well as questions
Graphic
for individual reflection.
Designer
Irene Kaneshiro
Written to be student-driven, the Discovery Guide helps prepare your
students for the performance.
About This Play
This section includes a scene-by-scene synopsis of the play to provide you with
detailed information about the content and form of the play.
Comprehension
This section includes background information about the setting and subject
matter of the play. We have selected the information that most directly
connects to or informs what happens in the play. For Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39
Steps, this includes the time and place (Europe in 1935), the genre of spy fiction,
601 West Temple Street adaptation from book, to film to stage and the tradition of physical theatre.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Alfred Hitchcocks’s The 39 Steps 1
This section furthers and deepens the background information provided in
the Student Discovery Guide. This section can be shared before the play and/
or discussed after the performance. It can also be used to provide research
topics for your classroom.
Connection
This section provides ways to explore connections between the ideas
presented in the play, the students’ lives and the world we live in.
Structured thematically, each section contains questions and exercises
that may be used for reflection, discussion, and/or writing prompts both
before and after the performance.
Creativity
This section provides opportunities for your students to use theatre to
explore and express. Theatre activities are included that examine both specific
artistic aspects of the production, as well as delve deeper into the ideas and
questions raised by Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps. The activities and
information in this section can be used both before and after the performance.
We know the hard work and dedication that it takes to bring students to see
theatre. These materials are designed to support you in making the most
of that experience. We applaud your passion for sharing theatre with your
students and thank you for sharing your students with all of us at Center
Theatre Group. We look forward to seeing you at Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps!
CENTER ThEATRE GROuP Educator Resources 2
About
Alfred hitchcock’s
The 39 Steps
Scene by Scene Synopsis
Table of Contents
Richard hannay is bored with his life. he’s been in London for three months
WELCOME ................. 1 and can’t find anything interesting to do. Looking for a distraction and perhaps
some excitement, he heads to the West End to catch a show. There, he meets
ABOuT
a beautiful, mysterious stranger, Annabella Schmidt. In the middle of a
THE 39 STEPS ............ 3
performance by the amazing Mr. Memory, gunshots ring out and the crowd
COMPREhENSION ... 7 scatters. In the chaos Annabella convinces hannay to take her home with him.
CONNECTIONS ...... 18
In his apartment, Annabella acts very strangely – she demands he shut the
blinds, turn off the lights, and ignore the ringing telephone. The reason for
CREATIvITy .............. 24
her odd behavior: she is a spy hiding from gunmen who want her dead. She’s
SOuRCES ..................40 discovered the plot of dangerous secret agent who intends to steal valuable
military secrets, smuggle them out of the country, and hand them over to a
CREDITS .................... 41
foreign enemy. If the agent is successful, it could mean global chaos. And
Annabella is the only one who can stop him.
Annabella cryptically mentions “The 39 Steps” and warns hannay that the
super spy has the ability to disguise himself a hundred different ways. But he
has a weakness, something he can’t disguise – he is missing the top joint of
his little finger. After a good night’s rest, Annabella plans to head for her next
contact, an Englishman living in a big house called “Alt Na Shellach,” deep
in the Scottish highlands. hannay graciously gives her his bed and settles
into his armchair for the night. his rest is disrupted when Annabella staggers
into the living room with a knife in her back. She collapses in hannay’s lap
clutching a map of Scotland, and he realizes he’s got big problems: not only
will he be accused of Annabella’s murder, with her dead there is no one left to
stop the super spy and his deadly plot. hannay’s choice is clear: he must pick
up where Annabella left off, clear his name, and catch the villain before it’s
too late.
With gunmen outside his door, hannay manages to sneak away disguised as
the milkman. By the time his housekeeper discovers Annabella’s body, hannay
is already on a train headed for Edinburgh, Scotland. But he’s not out of danger.
When the train makes a stop, a fellow passenger buys a newspaper with a story
about the murder. It says that hannay’s gone missing and gives a detailed
(and extremely flattering) description of his appearance. As the train continues
north toward the Scottish highlands, police board to search for him. hannay
601 West Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Alfred Hitchcocks’s The 39 Steps 3
ducks into the car of the beautiful Pamela, and tries the meaning of the Thirty-Nine Steps and foil the
to evade the police by pretending to be her traveling plot before it’s too late. As Professor Jordan assures
companion. She won’t play along, though, and turns hannay he’s come to the right place, he holds up
him in. hannay makes a daring escape by jumping his hand – a hand missing a little finger. hannay has
from the train. The police give chase, but lose hannay walked right into the villain’s lair!
when he plunges from a bridge and disappears into
the foggy Scottish moors. With a revolver in hand, the Professor explains
hannay’s options. Because hannay knows too much,
Pretending to be an itinerant laborer, hannay seeks the Professor has no choice but to kill him; unless
refuge for the night with a farmer and his young wife, of course, hannay would consider joining him. The
Margaret. The farmer is highly suspicious of hannay, Professor sees in hannay all the qualities he’s looking
but Margaret is immediately drawn to him. While the for in co-conspirators – intelligence and ruthlessness.
farmer is out tending his cows, hannay and Margaret And the Professor senses correctly that hannay’s been
share an intimate moment talking about her dreams bored with life, that he is all alone in the world, with no
of visiting a big city, something her extremely strict one to go home to. That may have been how hannay
and religious husband disapproves of. Over dinner, felt before being pulled into this caper, but through
Margaret notices the article in the newspaper about it he’s discovered qualities in himself that he values
hannay, realizes who he is, but does not reveal his deeply: loyalty, selflessness, sacrifice, and even love.
secret to her husband. When the police show up in the With his fake English accent giving way to a German
middle of the night, she wakes hannay and sends him accent, Professor Jordan urges hannay to join the other
off into the dark moors wearing her husband’s black side. hannay plays along, biding his time and trying
Sunday coat as camouflage. to get as much information about the plot as possible.
Professor Jordan begins to explain the 39 Steps, then
All night and into the next morning, the police chase realizes what hannay is doing. Furious, he shoots
hannay through the moors. Over hills and through hannay in the chest, leaves him to die, and rejoins
valleys, they pursue him on foot and from the air Mrs. Jordan and the party.
in a single engine biplane. But hannay pushes on,
and eventually finds himself at the gate of Professor At the same time, the farmer realizes his best Sunday
Jordan’s estate, Alt Na Shellach. Relieved, he rings the coat is missing, and with it, his hymn book. he
bell and is greeted by Mrs. Jordan, the professor’s wife. becomes enraged when Margaret tells him what she
Mrs. Jordan graciously invites him to join a party – they did with it, and threatens to hit her, but she stands her
are celebrating their daughter’s birthday with a number ground and faces him proudly.
of well to-do members of the community, including
the county sheriff. When hannay meets Professor Meanwhile, hannay has made his way to the county
Jordan, he reveals everything about Annabella’s sheriff’s office, thanks to the hymn book in his chest
discovery of the evil plot and her subsequent murder, pocket which blocked the Professor’s bullet. hannay
the villainous foreign agent without a little finger, and reveals everything to the sheriff and thinks he’s finally
he tells the Professor they must act quickly to discover found an ally, only to discover the sheriff works for the
CENTER ThEATRE GROuP Educator Resources 4
Professor. In another daring escape, hannay smashes while handcuffed together, they bicker about her wet
through a window and dashes into the streets with the clothing and their sleeping arrangements. Without
police right behind him. A passing parade provides any other option, they lie down awkwardly next to each
cover as hannay slips into a local assembly hall looking other on the bed.
for help. Instead, the gathering mistakes him for the
guest speaker they’ve been waiting for. So as not to When hannay falls asleep, Pamela manages to squeeze
give himself away, hannay delivers a rousing speech out of the handcuffs. Once free, she digs in his pocket
that is well received by the crowd, despite the fact for his “gun” and discovers the pipe. Enraged, she slips
that he hasn’t any idea what their cause is. From the out the door. Once out of the room, she overhears the
podium, he notices the beautiful Pamela from the heavies in the lobby on the phone with Mrs. Jordan.
train, who is with two thugs that she thinks are police They reveal the whole plot: that the Professor has what
inspectors. hannay tries to make a break for it, but this he wanted, is warning the 39 Steps, and is picking
time he can’t get away. someone up at the London Palladium and heading out
of the country that night. Pamela then realizes hannay
As the “inspectors” drag him to their car, hannay tells has been innocent all along! After the thugs get off
Pamela about the secret plot to steal military secrets the phone, they question the innkeeper about any
and begs her to contact Scotland yard immediately. recent guests, but the innkeeper’s wife chases them
Pamela tries to ignore him, but the thugs grab her, too, off without giving hannay and Pamela away. Relieved,
telling her she needs to come with them to identify Pamela sneaks back into the room, gazes at hannay
the prisoner, and handcuffing her to hannay. As they fondly, and curls up to sleep on the floor by the bed.
drive into the night, she notices they are going the
wrong direction. As hannay tries to convince her that When they wake the next morning, Pamela explains
their captors are not actually police inspectors, the what she overheard and apologizes for not believing
car is blocked by a flock of sheep. hannay sees his him. Afraid they’ve lost valuable time, hannay is
chance and jumps out of the car, dragging Pamela furious that she didn’t wake him sooner. Whatever
along. When she refuses to move, he pretends his pipe closeness they developed is shattered when they part
is a gun and threatens to shoot her, and they run off ways screaming at each other. hannay storms out of
into the moors. With both the actual police and the the hotel room, finds a car, and races back to London,
thugs giving chase, hannay and Pamela brave every fearing he may be too late to clear his name, expose
conceivable hurdle of the Scottish countryside – cliffs, the spies, and insure the country’s safety.
valleys, bogs, waterfalls, streams, thorn bushes, and
thunderstorms. having made her way home alone, Pamela finds
a callbox and telephones her uncle Bob, the Chief
With rain pouring down, they spot an isolated hotel Commissioner of Scotland yard and tells him that
and check in, pretending to be a young couple on the Richard hannay is on his way to the London Palladium.
run. The kindly innkeeper and his wife assure them
their secret is safe and leave them alone in their room. Inside the London Palladium a crowd has gathered
As hannay and Pamela do their best to get comfortable for a show. Because the place is crawling with police,
Alfred Hitchcocks’s The 39 Steps 5
hannay tries to stay out of sight in a balcony box, Outside the Palladium, hannay is finally a free man.
but Pamela discovers him, and tells him she’s been And with Pamela’s help, he’s saved the country. The
to Scotland yard and they insist that no top secret adventure is over; hannay and Pamela reluctantly
information has been stolen from the Military Office part ways.
or anywhere else. Confused, hannay searches the
crowd and sees the Professor in another balcony box. Back in his apartment, everything is just as it was when
If nothing’s been stolen, what is the Professor leaving we began. hannay is alone, contemplating his life.
the country with? And why would he come to a show When Pamela enters carrying a bottle of champagne
instead of getting away as soon as possible? and we hear a baby in the background, it’s clear that
things are not at all as they were in the beginning.
The performance begins – it is Mr. Memory again, and Before his adventure, hannay was bored, lonely, and
his amazing ability to memorize and recite facts on dissatisfied. he longed for meaning and excitement.
any and every subject. As Mr. Memory prepares to he certainly got more than he wished for – a murder
take questions from the audience, hannay solves the rap and an international espionage caper that brought
mystery. Mr. Memory is who the professor has come him face to face with master spies and killers. In the
to take out of the country – there is nothing missing end, he cleared his name, foiled the enemy, and found
from the Military Office because Mr. Memory has true love. What could be less boring than that?
memorized it! Just then, the police discover hannay in
the audience. As they drag him out, he shouts, “What
are the 39 Steps?” Mr. Memory freezes, then, as if
in a trance, begins to answer, “The 39 Steps is an
organization of spies working for…”
Before he can answer, Professor Jordan shoots Mr.
Memory in the heart. Mr. Memory collapses and the
police rush to the Professor as he points the gun at
hannay, then at Pamela. But before he can shoot either
of them, a shot rings out from between the curtains,
killing the Professor.
Mr. Memory lies dying backstage. Before he drifts off,
hannay asks him about the secret he was taking out
of the country. Mr. Memory is relieved to get it out
of his head – it is the plans for a new engine that is
completely silent. After telling the secret, Mr. Memory
dies, and hannay realizes the full extent of the plot he
has just foiled: in the hands of an enemy military, the
plans for a silent engine would be devastating.
CENTER ThEATRE GROuP Educator Resources 6
Timeline of The Thirty-Nine Steps two Buchan novels: “The Thirty-Nine Steps” and “Mr.
Steadfast” (1)
and its Numerous Adaptations
and References 1978 “The Thirty-Nine Steps,” film adaptation
directed by Don Sharp (3)
1915 “The Thirty-Nine Steps,” novel by John Buchan
1983 “The Thirty-Nine Steps,” Chivers Audio Books,
unabridged reading by Robert Powell (14)
1935 “The 39 Steps,” film adaptation by Alfred
hitchcock
1986 “39 Steps,” punk band featured in Woody Allen’s
“hannah and her Sisters” (3)
1937 “The 39 Steps,” radio play adaptation of Alfred
hitchcock’s film produced by Lux Radio Theater
1989 “The 39 Steps,” radio adaptation by BBC 4, with
with Robert Montgomery and Ida Lupino (2)
David Rintoul (13)
1938 “The 39 Steps,” The Mercury Theater on the Air
1989 “The 39 Stairs,” Sesame Street’s Monster Piece
radio play starring Orson Wells (9)
Theater Episode #2571, Grover climes 39 steps
to see what’s at the top (5)
1947 “The 39 Steps,” radio play adaptation by
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Stage
1990 “The Thirty-Nine Steps,” audio book by BBC
Series, vol. 8, with Budd Knapp (10)
Radio Collection, with David Rintoul (7)
1948 “The 39 Steps,” radio play adaptation of Alfred
1994 “The Thirty-Nine Steps,” Orbis Publishing audio
hitchcock’s film by Studio One, with Glenn Ford
book, abridged reading by James Fox (8)
and Mercedes McCambridge (11)
1996 “The 39 Steps,” two-man stage play based on
1952 “The Thirty-Nine Steps,” CBS radio play, episode
John Buchan’s novel by Simon Corble & Nobby
#462 of the Suspense series, with herbert
Dimon of Midsommer’s Actors’ Company,
Marshall (12)
produced by North County Theater to tour
village halls and theaters in northern England
1959 “The 39 Steps,” color film remake of Alfred
and Scotland (6)
hitchcock’s film, directed by Ralph Thomas,
with Kenneth More and Tiana Elg (3)
2000 “The Thirty-Nine Steps,” Penguin Audio books
abridged reading by Jack Davenport (15)
1960 “The 39 Steps,” BBC Radio adaptation in 6
episodes, with James McKechnie, Norman
2001 “The Thirty-Nine Steps,” BBC Radio 4 Play two-
Claridge, Eric Anderson (1)
part adaptation with David Robb, Tom Baker,
William hope, and Struan Rodger, Director:
1972 “The Adventures of Richard hannay,” radio
Bruce young (1)
play adapted by Winifred Carey for the BBC from
Alfred Hitchcocks’s The 39 Steps 7
2006 “Alfred hitchcock’s The 39 Steps,” theatrical References:
adaptation of hitchcock’s film by Patrick
Barlow, directed by Maria Aitken, originally titled
1. http://web.ukonline.co.uk/suttonelms/john-buchan.
“John Buchan’s The 39 Steps” (3)
html
2. http://www.audio-classics.com/lluxradio.html,
2008 “The 39 Steps,” BBC television feature-length
http://www.otr.net/?p=luxr
adaptation of Buchan’s novel, directed by James
3. Wikipedia
hawes, with Rupert Penry-Jones (3)
4. http://wetellstories.co.uk/stories/week1/
5. http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_2571
2010 “The 21 Steps,” digital interactive fiction by
6. Simon Corble: This is the Man, The 39 Steps, http://
Charles Cumming based on Buchan’s novel
www.corble.co.uk/page_1212501185000.html
but set in current times, tells the story using
7. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thirty-nine-Steps-Starring-
place marks on Google Maps, part of Penguin’s
Rintoul-Collection/dp/0563535814
“We Tell Stories” series, wetellstories.co.uk/
8. http://www.hitchcockwiki.com/forums/viewtopic.
stories/week1/(4)
php?f=1&t=469
9. The Mercury Theatre on the Air, www.mercurytheatre.
info/
10. Scenario Productions, The 39 Steps (John
Buchan): vintage Radio Plays on CD (CBC), www.
scenarioproductions.com/cbc/STAGE_SERIES/8.htm
11. Alfred hitchcock Wiki, Radio: The 39 Steps (Studio
One, 23/March/1948), www.hotchcockwiki.com/wiki/
Radio:_The_39_Steps_(Studio_One,_23/March/1948)
12. Old Time Radio, www.old-time.com/otrlogs2/sus.
log.txt
13. Kick Ass Torrents, www.kickasstorrents.com/john-
buchan-th-39-steps-part-bbc-drama-t1118588.ktml
14. www.amazon.com/Thirty-Nine-Steps-John-Buchan/
dp/0745158129
15. www.amazon.com/Thirty-Nine-Steps-John-Buchan/
dp/014180176X
CENTER ThEATRE GROuP Educator Resources 8
Biography – Alfred hitchcock, the courage to clear his name and heroically save
the day. This would have naturally drawn him to
director of the film The 39 Steps
John Buchan’s novel “The Thirty-Nine Steps” and
the tribulations of its hero Richard hannay. While
It’s nearly impossible to imagine what modern hitchock’s 1935 adaptation makes numerous changes
cinema would be without Alfred hitchcock, whose to Buchan’s plot, the heart of the story remains the
directing career spanned nearly fifty years. his films, same: hannay did not do what the police think he did,
and their iconic scenes, are recognizable even to and in order to prove his innocence he must risk his
people who have never seen them – the screeching life to expose a ring of villainous spies.
violins as a woman is stabbed to death in the shower;
the background swirling around a man as he has a Some of hitchcock’s other masterpieces are “Strangers
paralyzing panic attack; a man in his pajamas confined on a Train,” “Dial M for Murder,” “Rear Window,”
to a wheel chair with a broken leg, using a telephoto “vertigo,” “North by Northwest,” “Psycho,” and “The
camera to spy on his neighbors; a flock of crazed birds Birds.” When he died in 1980, he had directed
attacking a woman’s head and face as she screams over seventy films and television shows,(2) earned
and runs for cover; a suited man running across the five Oscar nominations for Best Director, one for
ridge of Mount Rushmore pursued by a biplane; a Outstanding Motion Picture, and won both the Irving
woman fighting off her assassin and killing him with G. Thalberg Memorial Award for lifetime achievement
a large pair of scissors. hitchcock’s imagination in 1967 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1979.
and craftsmanship set the bar for the suspense and (1) Britain’s The Daily Telegraph noted, “hitchcock did
psychological thriller genre. more than any director to shape modern cinema, which
would be utterly different without him. his flair was for
Born in England, he began his film career in 1919 narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from
illustrating title cards for silent movies and drawing his characters and us) and engaging the emotions of
sets for Paramount’s Famous Players-Lasky Studio in the audience like no one else.”(5) Few directors, past
London. (3)(4) he worked his way up the ranks from or present, have been as prolific or are as respected.
the scripts department, through editing, art direction,
and finally became an assistant director in 1922. (3) Hitchcock Words of Wisdom
“The Pleasure Garden,” his directorial debut, was “I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the
completed in 1925 and met with great success. (3) he audience would immediately be looking for a body in
went on to make several more films in Britain, moved the coach.” (4)
to the united States in 1940(4), and officially became “To make a great film you need three things – the script,
an American citizen in 1956 but opted to also retain his the script, and the script.” (4)
British citizenship.(1) “Fear isn’t so difficult to understand. After all, weren’t
we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed
In the uS, his prolific career continued at breakneck since Little Red Riding hood faced the big bad wolf.
speed. he often explored the theme of the innocent What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of
everyman, falsely accused of a crime, who must find
Alfred Hitchcocks’s The 39 Steps 9