The 39 Steps

Title: The 39 Steps

Author: John Buchan

Richard Hannay is bored and disgusted with the city life in London. Initially, it had been a sort of Arabian-Nights-come-true to live in the Old Country. But the pleasures of London had worn off well before a single month. As if in answer to his growing boredom, one day, he finds a man named Scudder in his house, who seeks refuge from dangerous enemies in Hannay’s place.

Scudder tells Hannay an elaborate tale of how he was being followed and why his followers want to kill him. Hannay, happy that something exciting was happening to him, agrees to shelter Scudder till he was safe to leave. While coming back home from outside, a few days after, he finds Scudder murdered brutally in his house. When everybody assumes that he is the murderer, Hannay sets off on a escape-adventure posing as many different people and exploring the mountains and moors of Scottish terrain and fleeing from two different sets of pursuers- one, the London Police for whom he is a murderer on the run, and two, the Black Stone(the murderers of Scudder) for whom he is a man who knows the deadly secret that Scudder knew. Along the way, he unravels Scudder’s real mission with the help of Scudder’s black notebook full of coded clues. With the timely aid of many innocents such as a milkman, a literary innkeeper, a radical candidate and a spectacled roadman, he continues with his mission to accomplish Scudder’s job.

I loved the part where he first meets the bald archaeologist and realizes that he is the dangerous man that Scudder narrated in his story. Hannay's shock at the realization and the desperate attempt to conceal his shock is most entertaining.

The 39 steps is a fast-paced book and is unputdownable. It is packed with action, adventure and thrill. The roller-coaster ride from Hannay’s monotonous life to one packed with suspense and mystery, is an amazing read!

Hugo

Movie: Hugo

Genre: Adventure, Mystery

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Produced by: Graham King, Tim Headington, Martin Scorsese and Johnny Depp

Story by: Brian Selznick

Music by: Howard Shore

The story is set in Paris. Hugo, a young boy, lives with his father alone. His father is one of the best clock-makers. One day, Hugo’s father dies in a fire accident. Hugo has nothing left except that of a broken automaton which his father had brought from a museum. After the death of his father, he is taken off by his uncle who mends clocks in the railway station. He learns the art from his uncle. One day, the uncle goes missing. Hugo starts living in the clock-tower of the railway station, turning the clocks to keep time. He also sets about working on repairing the automaton which he believes would take him to a new “home”. To meet his needs, like food and also missing parts that need to be fit to correct the automaton, he starts stealing from the shops in the station. He steals regularly from Papa Georges' to correct the automaton. But, once, while trying to steal a toy mouse, Papa Georges catches him red-handed, and confiscates everything in his pockets. This costs Hugo his treasured notebook which has details of the automaton.

Papa Georges sees the drawings of the automaton in the book, gets shocked, and tells the boy that he is going to burn the book back home. Anxious that such a thing might happen, Hugo follows the man all the way home. He becomes the friend of a girl named Isabelle who lives with Papa Georges, and begs her to ensure that the notebook is safe.  Later, he finds out that Papa Georges is the Godfather of Isabelle. With her help, they make sure that the notebook isn't burnt. To their surprise, they find that Papa Georges has no such intention as burning it.

While roaming about, Hugo notices Isabelle wearing a chain with a heart-shaped key, which is the missing part that activates the automaton. He immediately takes her to his room in the clock-tower, shows her the broken automaton, and gets the key from her to activate it. To their absolute astonishment, it works! The automaton starts working, and draws the picture of the movie Hugo’s dad first ever saw, and also signs beneath it- Georges Méliès, who is none other than Papa Georges! Hugo believes that this drawing is a message that will take him “home”.

They immediately take it to Mama Jeanne, who asks the boy to go away. Hugo and Isabelle find out from the library of Monsieur Labisse that the film was taken by Papa Georges! They meet the author of the book, a young man named Tabard, who had written so highly about Georges Méliès, but had written that Georges had died in the war. Isabelle fights with him saying that Papa Georges was very much alive, and her guardian!

Tabard visits the house of the Méliès and replays the only film that was available out of the 500 films of Papa Georges. The children are delighted to see Mama Jeanne acting in the film. They do all these without the knowledge of Papa Georges who becomes depressed every time the past is rekindled. But, while they watch, Papa Georges sees them, and decides to go back into the past and relive it. And as he does so, he confesses about his creation of an automaton, and how he had given it to a museum. He even states that he had loved it so much, but would never see it again.

At this point, Hugo excuses himself and runs to the clock-tower room of his, to fetch the automaton that he had repaired, which he realized was created by Papa Georges.

Finally how the automaton leads Hugo Cabret to the family of Méliès, his new “home”, makes the climax of the movie.

The story wasn't fast-paced except for the climax. But, it is still a very good movie.

Especially the policeman, Monsieur Gustave, and even Isabelle, were very lively and funny characters! I liked them very much.

It is a very nice film, overall.