Well last night I went to see Paul Merton introduce the original and best The 39 Steps on the big screen at the Barbican. Glorious and an original print from the National Film Archive. I remembered it being funny and a bit saucy! so with a bit of audience participation – a little too much from the grey army trio in front of me – it made for an even more entertaining experience. Some fascinating insights into the film from ‘our Paul’ afterwards such as how the ***spoiler alert*** final scene in the Palladium when Robert Donat shouts out to the Memory Man ‘what are the 39 steps?!’ was done: apparently RD was appearing through a hole cut out of a large sheet of glass onto which a photograph of the Palladium crowd from the stage is projected, because they didn’t have the money to do it. Which is why it looks so weird. Love it!
Anyway a brief Q&A after with some frantic arm-waving from me before the end of the session, as I was in the back row and Mr M couldn’t see me, allowed me to get a question in about H’s storyboards, so after that I was like an excited child for the rest of the evening!
Off to the studio….