Suspense of the finest order is your destination with Hitchcock's "The 39 Steps" as Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll attempt to survive this fantastic mystery thriller. Now rapidly approaching its 70th year, this classic is spruced up for a lovely new DVD release.

The eerie fog-bound Scottish locations do allow for some grain to creep into some of the darker scenes, but the picture quality is still undeniably good. Particularly impressive is the state of the print, which is often near to being blemish free.

Sound is obviously in mono and is a little tinny, but it thankfully seems to have lost the warbly quality it had on previous VHS releases. Again, with a film of this age it's not miracles you look for but just that care has been taken and it's in evidence for this transfer.

Extra features are led by a superb new documentary on the early years of Hitchcock's career. It includes extracts from his British output with Gainsborough as well as interviews with the few people still alive who worked with him back then. Among them are such people as the wonderful Roy Ward Baker, who delights with amusing anecdotes.

Two stills galleries offer behind-the-scenes shots of the production, while biographies on the director and stars remind you of the talent involved in bringing this film to life. After the years of increasingly shabby outings on tape and TV, it's wonderful to get a DVD release of this quality for this important thriller.

Chapters: 15
Region: 2
Ratio: 1.33:1 (fullscreen)
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (mono)
Extra Features: Scene selection, 'Hitchcock: The Early Years' documentary, two animated stills galleries with music, cast and crew biographies, animated menus, English subtitles for the hearing impaired.