The 39 Steps - 1935

I read the book associated with this movie a while back. The review can be seen here. 

Hannay is attending the theater when shots ring out. Everyone rushes to the exit, and he helps a woman. She asks him to take her home with him, and he agrees. When they get back to his place, she acts strangely. She won't pass in front of the windows and claims to be a spy. After a bit of convincing, he's on board. He's awakened in the middle of the night by her dying words and takes a map out her hand.

He knows he's going to be on the hook for the murder, and the murderers will be after him (why they didn't kill him when they took her out is a mystery). He decides to go to the place she's marked, but all he finds is the person she was trying to warn him of. The man is trying to steal secrets from the British military, and so he shoots Hannay.

And then we jump to the police station where Hannay is trying to explain what happened to the police. He says that he played dead and then stole the man's car, but no one believes him. He ends up making a speech (something that sort-of happens in the book), and then he's trapped with a woman for the rest of the movie. It takes her a bit to realize the trouble they're both in, but she gets there eventually. In the end, Hannay figures out that the villain is using "Mr. Memory" from the theater to get the secrets out of the country. The man is a 'wonder' and answers any bit of knowledge that's in his head. So, and I'm not kidding, Hannay shouts (while the police are trying to get him out of the theater), "What are the 39 steps?" And Mr. Memory just looks at him and says, "It's a network of spies working for..." and then he's shot. So weird.

I really enjoyed the book, so the movie puzzled me a bit. It didn't seem to make as much sense as the book, and the added "romance" seemed odd. I mean, at one point, Hannay referred to the woman's husband, but at the end, he's holding her hand. Weird. Also, the woman who "picked him up" at the theater never existed in the book, and they changed the meaning of the 39 steps. In the movie, it was a network of spies. The book is superior in this case, but that isn't the only reason I wasn't as much of a fan of this movie. Things just didn't make sense. 

I guess I'd have to say I don't feel like I necessarily wasted my time with this movie, but I doubt I would ever watch it again.