I knocked off a quick video essay… well, I hesitate to call it an essay. A book report would be more like it.
Closeups of hands, mostly, from THE 39 STEPS, with some possibly familiar music. Hands are important in this film — see how many of them YOU can spot.
The point of the exercise is rhythmic rather than intellectual — about the only point made is that there are lots of shots of hands in the film — to some extent this is a result of two plot points, the handcuffs and the villain identified by his missing digit. But I think Hitch must have noticed this connection and capitalized on it, particularly with the end shot. You can treat this as a companion to my text piece in the forthcoming Criterion Blu-ray.
The 39 Steps (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
But before you buy that, donate here —
We raise enough money, we get a streaming edition of THE WHITE SHADOW, scripted by Hitch, with a new score. And I certainly want to see it.
