Lancashire Evening Post (16/Feb/1935) - Spies

Details

• article: Spies
• newspaper: Lancashire Evening Post (16/Feb/1935)
• keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, John Buchan, Madeleine Carroll, Robert Donat, The 39 Steps (1935), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

Article

Spies

At Shepherd's Bush the film-makers are busy with Buchan's famous spy story, "The Thirty Nine Steps," and there is at least reason why it should be good.

It is under the direction of Alfred Hitchcock, who made the master-chiller "The Man Who Knew Too Much." He has earned for himself the reputation of putting realism into every reel. He saw to it this week that Madeleine Carroll endured a little suffering in the noble cause of motion-picture art.

Chained together with a pair of honest handcuffs she and Robert (Monte Cristo) Donat have been tramping through the misty glens on a Scottish moorland set snarling at each other. Donat is the supposed murderer with a price on his head; Madeleine the girl who gave him away to the custodians of the law.

Up the studio dales and down the studio dales, over the property heather and under the plastery bridges they went together as Donat tried to escape. Try wearing a handcuff on your wrist and imagine being dragged around on the end of it by an energetic gentleman such as Mr. Donat! And then there was that awful evening when they lost the key to the handcuffs and everyone on the unit was cold-bloodedly packing up and saying Good-night."

En passant. — Residents of Shepherd's Bush this week were startled to hoar raucous bellowings coming apparently from the clouds. Further inspection revealed four enormous Highland cattle, with horn spans of 4ft. 8in., which had been parked on the top of the studios. They were wanted for Highland moor settings.