In Alfred Hitchcock’s brilliant spy thriller, Richard Hannay has a knack for ending up with beautiful women. At first he can’t believe his luck when the first one asks him if she can come up to his apartment. It turns out she is a British secret agent being hunted by international agents working for a villanous man described only as having the end of his pinky finger missing. The agents are under orders to stop her from delivering a secret code to an agent in Scotland. As Hannay awakens in the morning, she staggers into his room with a knife stuck in her back and a map of Scotland clutched in her hand. Her dying words are “the 39 steps.” Realizing he now possesses the fateful code, he boards a train to Scotland to continue the mission, and is pursued by the police for murder. Hannay is shot after mistakenly contacting Professor Jordan – the man with the missing pinky. Miraculously, the bullet lodges in a bible that is in the inside pocket of a coat given to him by the second attractive woman he met (Peggy Ashcroft). He meets the third beautiful woman, Pamela (Madeleine Carroll) trying to escape from a sheriff, who has handcuffed them together so he won’t escape. In a predicament he obviously likes, he has a difficult time dragging her over the moors to prevent her from turning him in for the murder. When Pamela overhears two agents at the desk of the hotel discuss getting Hannay and mentioning “the 39 steps” she realizes Hannay is not a murderer and is telling the truth. In the classic music hall scene, Hannay asks Mr. Memory the fateful question, “What is the 39 steps?” As Mr. Memory starts to answer and reveal all the secret documents he has memorized, Professor Jordan shoots him. (1935)