Object of the week: Haunting photos of empty sets for Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps

Step onto the set of Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (1935) through these haunting photographs taken by photographer Wilfrid Newton. Part of an album containing more traditional publicity stills alongside set reference photographs, these images – eerily empty of actors and action – give us the chance to pause amid the hectic chase narrative of the film to appreciate the construction and details of the settings created by art director Oscar Werndorff. 

These include the train compartment aboard The Flying Scotsman, where Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) first encounters his future love interest Pamela (Madeleine Carroll), and the luxurious dining car where the fugitive disrupts afternoon tea before making a daring escape from the train.

Hitchcock famously preferred to use studio sets to real locations, and for the scenes where Hannay and Pamela go on the run across the Scottish Highlands, he made use of a number of atmospheric backdrops. These feature built elements like rock formations and low walls dressed with trees and plants (and sheep), and painted scenic backings whose rigging can be seen in these photographs. 

It’s possible that one or more of these backdrops was painted by a young Albert Whitlock who worked on a number of Hitchcock films as a scenic artist, miniature builder and signwriter early in his career, three decades before their renowned later collaboration when he created bravura matte shots for films including The Birds (1963), Marnie (1964) and Frenzy (1972).

As with many Hitchcock films, the climax of The 39 Steps takes place in a famous location. This final image shows the upper balcony of the London Palladium where we see Pamela searching for Hannay. The grand 2,286-seat theatre was recreated in the studio using a number of smaller built sets as well as the special effects Schüfftan process, which was deployed for shots showing the full auditorium (some sources say limited shooting did take place in the theatre). 

Although Hitchcock used landmark locations to add an extra level of interest and spectacle to his films, for art director Werndoff a set was only truly successful when it wasn’t really noticed. “The art director’s job is to provide [the actors] with a background – and a background it should remain at all costs”, he wrote in 1933. With these images, we can step outside of the world of the finished film to foreground and appreciate some of the craft that went into its making.

Produced with the support of the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery funding.