Masterpiece's The 39 Steps

Sunday night, Masterpiece Classic aired "The 39 Steps," a remake of the Hitchcock classic that purports to be more faithful to the source material. Simply put, this was a disappointment.

"The 39 Steps" was about a man who has to run away from German spy hunters who want a code book he has. Along the way, he gets caught up with a suffragette. There's a "shocking" twist ending involving her coming back to life. The acting was solid, and the filming and music (while not groundbreaking) was competent.

What made the movie less than perfect was the myriad of historical inaccuracies. I'm not being nit picky by saying this either. The movie was set before WWI, but the clothing, cars, planes, etc were from all over the historical record: be it the 1900s, the 1910s, the roaring twenties or the miserable thirties. Hitchcock transported the story to before WWII, with Nazi spy hunters instead of Imperial ones, and I think that would have still been effective in the remake. There wasn't much chemistry between the main characters, which made the romance unbelievable. The story was so fast paced that I was left confused during the entire thing. It was like the audience never had a chance to catch up with every plot twist, in a very plot twist heavy story.

The casting seemed a little off. It wasn't a major problem of the piece whatsoever. However, Rupert Penry Jones (who played Wentworth in Persuasion) is more of a pretty boy than a rough-and-tumble spy. It would've been like casting Madonna as a garbage man, there's just something off about it. I also lament that David Haig, who is a stage actor of the highest calibre, had a bit part in this. Did he need the paycheck?

Masterpiece has had its share of hits and misses, but this was like any other TV movie, cheap and poorly produced. Next week's selection is an installment in the Sharpe series. With Padma Lakshmi of Top Chef starring in it, I am apprehensive about its quality but we shall see.