The Thirty-Nine Steps (1978) / The Lady Vanishes (1979) – Imprint Collection

The Thirty-Nine Steps: 4/5 Stars
Director Don Sharp’s take on The Thirty-Nine Steps more faithfully adapts John Buchan’s novel of the same name. It begins in 1914, on the cusp of the Great War, and British politicians and intelligence officers are being assassinated. Colonel Scudder (John Mills) believes that his life is in danger because of what he knows about a plan to murder the Greek prime minister while on a visit to the U.K. Scudder barges into a neighbor’s apartment, a South African named Richard Hannay (Robert Powell), and explains his situation. Hannay, naturally, takes the man about as seriously as everyone else that he’s been ranting to, but allows him to spend the night. The next morning, when Scudder is murdered and his death is pinned on Hannay, he begins to believe that the man was onto something. When double agents swoop in, capture him, and demand to know the whereabouts, he knows he’s been swept up in something big.

The Thirty-Nine Steps is a classic tale of a reluctant participant who gets caught up in a web of intrigue—an average joe whose normal life is upended as they suddenly has to adapt to a James Bond-esque lifestyle. Hannay takes to it pretty naturally. The double agents, working for the German government disguised as British intelligence officers, are looking for the Colonel’s notebook. Hannay has an idea of where it is, finds it, and when the men tailing him begin closing in, he steals a vicar’s clerical clothing and train ticket (sorry, buddy) and heads off.

Slowly, Hannay starts getting involved in the real meat and potatoes of the mystery and becomes an active participant in stopping the assassination, for all the political fallout it would entail, and numerous lives lost in military retaliation. The Thirty-Nine Steps is a fun reworking of Hitchcock’s film, although it does have a visual homage to North by Northwest with a dive-bombing plane; its visual homages don’t stop at Hitchcock. The film’s climax pays tribute to silent film legend Harold Lloyd as Hannay dangles from the arms of Big Ben to stop a bomb rigged to the clock’s mechanics. The film is a bit slow to start, but once it gets going, it doesn’t let up until the end.

The Lady Vanishes: 3.5/5 Stars
Like The Thirty-Nine Steps, The Lady Vanishes is on the cusp of war. This time, WWII, set in Germany in August 1939, one month away from the invasion of Poland, which marked the beginning of the war. And like The Thirty-Nine Steps, it’s not an all-out tale of unrelenting suspense; it has fun with its story, but The Lady Vanishes is much more clearly a comedy than its counterpart, replete with some slapstick setpieces.

American heiress and oft-married Amanda (Cybill Shepherd) gets drunk one evening in Germany and mocks the Führer. Some true-believer type Nazis see her silly mustache and goosestepping and rock the table she’s standing on, where she goes kaboom and ka-bonks her head. The next morning, she sets about continuing her trend of drunkenness and drinks throughout the day.

Aboard a train, she meets a cute fellow American, Robert Condon (Elliott Gould), a photographer for Life Magazine. In typical rom-com fashion, they hate each other but have a fiery onscreen chemistry together. In her train car, she also meets and befriends a kindly British woman by the name of Miss Foy (Angela Lansbury). When Miss Foy goes missing, and no one seems to remember who she is, it’s easy to explain away that Amanda’s concussion, compounded by liquor consumption, has something to do with it. But something sinister is in the works, and the Nazis have something to do with it, Amanda is sure; she just needs to convince Robert to help her.

The Lady Vanishes is not nearly as bad as its reputation would suggest (it was the last production by Hammer Films for decades), although it’s nowhere near as good as Hitchcock’s original classic. It’s merely a fine vehicle with some decent chemistry between Shepherd and Gould, with an outstanding performance from Lansbury, who runs away with the picture. The screenplay, by George Axelrod (Breakfast at Tiffany’s and another Lansbury picture, The Manchurian Candidate), has some nice, rapid-fire screwball comedy dialogue between leads.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray Box Set
The Thirty-Nine Steps and The Lady Vanishes are both single-disc releases, housed in standard cases featuring classic artwork from the films’ original releases. Inside the cases, screenshots from the films span the interior. Both film cases are contained in a rigid hard case, combining artwork from the two, opening from a removable top cover.

The Thirty-Nine Steps: 4/5 Stars
The Thirty-Nine Steps is presented in 1080p high definition from a 2K scan and restoration performed in 2024. The opening scenes, choked in a moody fog, are gritty and grainy, and almost give the film a horror movie vibe, like a Jack the Ripper tale, with British officers being slain under the cloak of mist. After that opening sequence, the rest of the film looks nice and sharp, with a softer color palette and a nice layer of organic film grain throughout. The Thirty-Nine Steps is a very beautiful picture, loaded with numerous scenic shots, including a terrifically filmed scene of suspense with our hero dodging sniper fire through the Scottish moors.

The Lady Vanishes: 4.5/5 Stars
Like The Thirty-Nine Steps, The Lady Vanishes, too, is presented in 1080p high-definition, sourced from a 2K scan; however, this scan is specifically sourced from the film’s original 35mm negative by Imprint Films. The Lady Vanishes looks great, with richly detailed colors in the costuming and sets. Douglas Slocombe, legendary cinematographer behind the Indiana Jones films, gives the film a sleek, modern look that’s relatively grain-free, save for a few wide, establishing shots of the countryside. Funnily enough, Slocombe, along with two members of the cast (Wolf Kahler and William Hootkins) would all be involved in Raiders of the Lost Ark just two years later.

The Thirty-Nine Steps: 4/5 Stars
The sole audio option is a lossless LPCM 2.0 mono mix that does the job and then some. Although not a particularly busy mix in terms of ambient effects, there are more boisterous effects throughout the action-packed film like gunfire and explosions, which pack a punch without ever being too loud. As a classic espionage tale, it’s a talky picture, with dialogue quality leveled above all else and crystal clear.

The Lady Vanishes: 4.5/5 Stars
The Lady Vanishes features a much more complex sound design than The Thirty-Nine Steps, although it’s also presented in the same lossless LPCM 2.0 mono format. The bulk of the film takes place aboard a moving train, and the ambient effects are at a nearly constant level as the locomotive chug-a-lugs along. There are a few action sequences, too, and gunfire is sharp and loud, without overpowering the grand, sweeping score or the dialogue that propels the story.

Both films, The Thirty-Nine Steps and The Lady Vanishes come equipped with both new and old features, including interviews with the cast and crew. While neither disc includes an audio commentary track, there are enough supplements to give the viewer an understanding of each film’s production history.

The Thirty-Nine Steps

• Remaking a Classic (HD 15:21) - Interview with executive producer James Kenelm Clarke
• Hannay Hanging On (HD 13:19) - Interview with stunt coordinator Colin Skeaping
• Every Second Counts (HD 19:24) - Interview with film historian Sergio Angelini
• On Location with Robert Powell (SD 13:37) - Archival featurette
• Theatrical Trailer

The Lady Vanishes

• Disappearing Act (HD 24:04) - Interview with actor Elliott Gould
• The Last Hammer (HD 26:51) - Interviews with the production crew
• The End of the Line (HD 21:57) - Featurette
• Archival Interview (SD 28:34) - Actress Angela Lansbury
• Trailers

The Thirty-Nine Steps and The Lady Vanishes are both fun, updated takes, some forty years later, from stories told by Alfred Hitchcock early in his career. The Thirty-Nine Steps more faithfully adapts the novel from which the original film was sourced, and The Lady Vanishes quickens the pace and leans into romantic comedy tropes. While they don’t reinvent the wheel, they’re both charming outings, and this set from Via Vision and Imprint Films sees some great A/V stats through new restorations. The Thirty-Nine Steps and The Lady Vanishes are Recommended.

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