hot shifts from the view from the floor to the view from the stage. In the view from the stage I liked how the crowd closest to the camera was shadowed while the men that were fighting in the distance were lighted. It gave an overlook of the whole audience, but also brought attention to the action. This spotlight effect was also used a few minutes later in the film when Annabella has pointed out the spies to Richard. He looks out the window and down on the corner of the street are two men under a sort of spotlight created by the streetlamp. Another creative use of lighting in this film is when Richard is in Scotland and he is being chased through the countryside. At one point he pauses at the top of a hill that is completely dark, but the mountain behind him is illuminated so that you can see a dark silhouette of his form. The chase seems to pause for just a moment so that the audience may take that in. The last example is in the last scene when Richard and Pamela are on stage and there is light on them while the crowd is faded out a bit. The only disadvantage to the use of lighting was there were some scenes that were so dark you could barely make out the characters that were speaking. I noticed this is in both the country scenes and the city scenes. Hitchcock also tends to use irony quite often which some viewers might not notice if not analyzing one of his films. One of the first scenes in "The 39 Steps" is Annabella asking Richard if she may go home with him because she feels that she owes him an explanation for having fired shots at the theater. He says, "Don't bother. I'm nobody". At first I thought this to be tied in with the opening of the film when the first three shots never show him above the neck and then he is assumed to be lost in the crowd. I came to realize the irony in that statement as the movie progressed, though. He comes to pose as a milkman, a motor mechanic, a marcher in a parade, and a political s...
