THE 39 STEPS is an interesting Hitchcock film. It has almost all of the essentials...a fast moving story, suspense, intrigue etc.

I saw the remake first., which was in color but it was an extremely well made film and was possibly more faithful to the original novel.

The black and white version is also excellent and is a Hithcock classic.

The 39 Steps refer to the code name for an organization of enemy spies.

The scene which remained imprinted in my memory is the climax with
the protagonist clinging to the hands of the clock face of the BIG BEN.

"Big Ben" of course refes to the bell in the clock tower .The bell weighs 13.762 tons but is only the third heaviest, the heaviest being the Great Paul found at St Paul's Cathedral at 16 tons .

"Big Ben" was probably named after the then-famous prizefighter Benjamin Caunt, making it a natural name for the bell.

I like to watch the Big Ben from across the river Thames whenever I visit London.

You can glance at the Big Ben on this live webcam here-


http://www.earthcam.com/uk/england/london/bigben.php