When I did so, with an eye to turning it into a film, I received a shock.

I hadn't read the book again in the meantime. Pre-Production ScreenplayĪlthough Hitchcock had fond memories of first reading the book as a teenager, he soon realised they would need to take liberties with Buchan's novel: When Balcon, who was away in America at the time, was contacted by Hitchcock, he immediately overruled Woolf. Woolf who felt the film was 'too highbrow' and tried to push Hitchcock and Bennett into developing a musical based on Floradora. Several sources claim that production was held up my C.M. Īmerican reviewers had noted that the production values of The Man Who Knew Too Much seemed inferior to Hollywood productions, so producer Michael Balcon allowed for a higher budget of between £55,000 and £60,000, compared to the £40,000 spent on the previous film. With the source material decided, the studio purchased the screen rights from Buchan for £800.

Instead, they turned their attention to Buchan's first Hannay novel, 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' published in 1915, which Hitchcock regarded as 'a smaller subject'. In October 1934, having completed The Man Who Knew Too Much, Hitchcock and writer Charles Bennett considered adapting John Buchan's ' Greenmantle' - the second Richard Hannay novel - but decided that the numerous European and Middle Eastern locales used in the book would prove too expensive to stage. and, most importantly, can he rid himself of the woman he finds himself handcuffed to? Can he prove his innocence and expose the foreign spies before it's too late? What are 'The 39 Steps'.

Heading north to Scotland, Hannay is seemingly betrayed at every opportunity. When Smith is murdered in his apartment, Hannay is forced to go on the run from both the police and the foreign spies who killed her. Canadian Richard Hanney is visiting London when he meets a mysterious spy named Annabella Smith.

Shadow of doubt 1935