JOHN BUCHAN’S

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13284, 16 June 1936, Page 5

JOHN BUCHAN’S

great mystery thriller. One cf the greatest spy mystery stories ever WMtteil was John Buchan s ' Ti e Tiiii ty-niiie Steps. ’ and the author paid graceful tributes to the adapters and producers cl a real masterpiece of mystery in the picture which is so aptly acted by Robert Donat md Madeleine Carroll in tlie principal part ~ The story opens m a music hall where the announcer is faced by an excited audience, which becomes so unruly that a free fight culminates in the sound of revolver shots. This is a signal for an unceremonious rush for the doors, a Canadian visitor rescues r. girl from being crushed and pilots her out in safety. At her request he takes her to liis fiat and lea;us that she is a spy on the track or a certain Prole-sor with a missing finger-joint, who plans to divulge vital secrets or Britain s Air Defences, and. as she is later found stabbed to death, he is impelled to take up her work. Learning that the base of tin professor’s opera tit.*n s iv isi Scotland, he loss no time in following up the information imparted by the girl, hut as soon as he arrives at Waver ley Station, lie finds himself deeply involved not only in tin* great spy mystery, but also in the responsibility for t!u* gill's death. He finds it necessary to make love to a strange girl in the train, in order to evade capture, ainl the trail is so hot that he is forced to leave tin* train as it stands on the Forth Bridge. Wandering over the Highland moors, he is traced to a crofter’s. cottage and eventually comes lace to face with the Professor, wlic shoots him and loaves him for dead. But ho is not badly wounded. and after thrilling escapes both from the Professor and tin* police, Inis denounced at a political meeting at which he is mistaken for a supporter of the candidate, by the girl lu* iia.<l kissed in the train, who believes him to be the murderer. Together with the girl, Pamela, lie is taken over desolate' moors, and when a flock of sheep hold up the car his captors handcuff him to the girl. In spite of this he drags her with him and contrives to outwit liis pursuers and secure refuge at an inn. where they are* accepted as a honeymoon couple. During the night Pamela succeeds in releasing liersolt and tries to escape, but on the stairs sin* hears the voices of the Professor s men and learns that Hannay’s story was true, and that certain further events would happen at the London Palladium. Although they part. Haiinay and Pamela visit the Palladium on the night the great secret is to Ik* revealed, and the Professor is seen in one of the boxes making certain signs to the “turn" on the stage. Ilannay immediately secs through the plot- and tin* seqm-I provides the most extraordinary dramatic seem* it is possible to conceive. “The 39 Steps” L screening at the King's Theatre to-night and to-mor-row night at 7.15 p.m.