The 39 Steps

I read this book because David and I were going to see the play. The play is based on the movie, and is a humorous take. I had 7 pages left of the book when we arrive at the play. I found the play amusing. Some of the text of the book was hard to understand, because the brogue was so exaggerated. I guess it was Scottish brogue. In the play several characters were so exaggerated in their speech that certain words were completely altered. The main character was always on stage, but the multitude of other characters were played by just two actors. It was enjoyable to see them constantly changing from one character to another (including women). I also enjoyed the various references to other Hitchcock films. (these were added just for humor in the play, they were not present in the Hitchcock movie)

The movie introduces a love interest for the main character. The book actually had no female characters. The "spy"/ secret holder is male in the book, and female in the movie. Hannay (the main character) falls into both the police and the "bad guys" hands more than once in the movie, but only once in the book. He also escapes in more dramatic fashion in the book, setting the house where he is being held on fire.

The movie also introduces an act, "Mr Memory", which holds the secret, and "The 39 Steps" is a group of spies. Neither of these are in the book. "The 39 Steps" are actually steps that go down to the ocean from a beach house, and Hannay helps the authorities find this house and capture the foreign spies.