On his second try with a better memory thought, Harry succeeded, and hen described how he had seen his parents"" faces talking to him.Hendrickson and other soldiers.He deliberately disobeys the orders of Colonel Stone (Sir Guy Standing) and Major Hamilton (C.Aubrey Smith), interpreting Stone""s commands as stubborn and stiff (and afterwards calling him a martinet and a "ramrod").He remembered how - as a privileged young man - he had given up college to volunteer for military service, and hat he admired other lowly and disposable "grunts" (mostly teenaged male high-school dropouts from small towns, all poor, black and Hispanic) as the "heart and soul" of he war effort, used as infantry bait:(voice-over)Of course, Mom and Dad didn""t want me o come here.Bitter or sweet, most memories become precious as the years move on.This film is a memory - and I am grateful for it.Mark HellingerDocumentary-style montages of historical events of past years (Hitler""s takeover of Eastern Europe, Mussolini""s rise o power, President Hoover and the Depression, President Calvin Coolidge""s reign, and President Wilson""s entrance into the Great War) - surveyed backwards from WWII to WWI - are accompanied by newsreel clips and by the authoritative, news-commentator voice of John Deering:[1940]Today, while the earth shakes beneath he heels of marching troops,[1938]while a great portion of the world trembles before the threats of the acquisitive, power-mad men[1935], we of America have little time to remember[1929]an astounding era in our own recent history.It then premiered on Broadway in early 2008 as a fast-paced stage production, now more accurately titled "Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps," with a cast of four performers playing almost 250 roles.