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2009 | 2004 | 1997

5 articles from 2009

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Free Flick of the Day: 'The 39 Steps'

17 December 2009 2:45 PM, PST | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »

If you have 82 minutes of spare time right now, I can see no reason why you should not spend it watching Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, streaming for free at SlashControl. It's from 1935, and while the Master of Suspense had made more than a dozen films before it (including several during the silent era), this is the oldest one that's still seen and discussed with any regularity. With good reason, too: It's 74 years old, yet it still comes across as clever, witty, and suspenseful. How many 74-year-olds can say that?

It's one of Hitchcock's earliest uses of what would become a major theme for him, that of the innocent man pursued for a crime he didn't commit. In this case, it's a Canadian fellow named Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) who, while visiting London, meets a beautiful spy who is then murdered in his apartment, leaving police to assume he's the culprit. »

- Eric D. Snider

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Philip French's screen legends

6 December 2009 4:20 PM, PST | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

No 76: Errol Flynn 1909-1959

Flynn was born in Tasmania, the son of an eminent marine biologist, and early on developed a passion for the sea and a reputation as a rebel. Spotted by a Warner Brothers talent scout while a young, very minor actor in England, he became an overnight Hollywood star in 1935 as a last-minute replacement for Robert Donat as the swashbuckling hero of Captain Blood. By 1936 he was the leading contender to play Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind.

Flynn was tall, slim, graceful, debonair with a neatly trimmed moustache, a winning smile, a hearty, self-mocking laugh. Everything he did, both on screen and off, contributed to his legendary status: the colonial background (he claimed to be a descendant of Fletcher Christian); the celebrated characters he played (General Custer, Robin Hood); his sexual conquests; his prodigious phallic dimensions (according to Truman Capote in Music for Chameleons, »

- Philip French

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Alfred Hitchcock’s British Thrillers at Lacma

26 November 2009 11:32 PM, PST | Alt Film Guide | See recent Alt Film Guide news »

Dame May Whitty, Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave in The Lady Vanishes (top); Robert Donat in The 39 Steps (bottom) On Nov. 27-28, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will present the last four films in its "Hitchcock: The British Thrillers" series. They are: The 39 Steps (1935), starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll; Number 17 (1932), featuring the now-forgotten John Stuart and Anne Grey; The Lady Vanishes (1938), starring Michael Redgrave, Margaret Lockwood, Dame May Whitty, and a cast of first-rate supporting players, including future Oscar winner Paul Lukas; Young and Innocent (1937), with Nova Pilbeam and Derrick De Marney. The 39 Steps is the film that turned Alfred Hitchcock into an internationally acclaimed filmmaker. The film goes from one situation [...] »

- Andre Soares

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Next!

15 November 2009 8:30 AM, PST | FilmExperience | See recent FilmExperience news »

Emil Jannings, Warner Baxter, George Arliss and Lionel Barrymore. Wallace Beery and Fredric March simultaneously. Charles Laughton, Clark Gable and Victor McLaglen. Paul Muni and Spencer Tracy². Robert Donat, Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper and James Cagney. Paul Lukas, Bing Crosby, Ray Milland and Fredric March, who was worth returning to. Ronald Colman, Laurence Olivier, Broderick Crawford, José Ferrer and Bogie. 'Coop' again. William Holden and Marlon Brando a few years late. Ernest Borgnine, Yul Brynner and Alec Guiness. David Niven, Charlton Heston and Burt Lancaster. Maximillian Schell, Gregory Peck and Sidney Poitier who made history. Rex Harrison, Lee Marvin, Paul Scofield, Rod Steiger, Cliff Robertson and 'The Duke'. George C Scott though he refused. Gene Hackman. Marlon Brando by way of Sacheen Littlefeather. Jack Lemmon, Art Carney, Jack Nicholson and (posthumously) Peter Finch. Richard Dreyfuss, Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro and Henry Fonda. Ben Kingsley, Robert Duvall, F Murray Abraham, »

- NATHANIEL R

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Free Lecture, Screening to Highlight Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, 12/6

9 November 2009 1:43 PM, PST | BroadwayWorld.com | See recent BroadwayWorld.com news »

The Maltz Jupiter Theatre invites you to look, listen and learn during an evening devoted to the great film director Alfred Hitchcock.

On Dec. 6, the theatre will host a free lecture by film expert Martin Leichter, "Hitchcock: The Mayhem Behind His Movies," about the director's 18th film, The 39 Steps. Leichter will serve as a tour guide to the film, illuminating key points, and telling the audience what to watch for in the 1935 thriller, which will be screened immediately following the lecture.

Nearly 30 years after his death, Hitchcock's name remains synonymous with great film. The silver screen would be decidedly less glittering without such masterpieces as Rebecca, Vertigo, The Birds, Psycho, Rear Window, North by Northwest and The 39 Steps. And who can forget his countless cameos on the big screen, and his droll introductions to his Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series?

In The 39 Steps, Robert Donat plays an innocent man framed »

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2009 | 2004 | 1997

5 articles from 2009

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