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Sabotage | Year: 1937 Classification: Mystery / Suspense Directed: - Alfred Hitchcock Actors/Actresses: - Sylvia Sidney - Oskar Homolka Ancient Hitch tale of deception Sabotage was a serviceable Hitchcock tale of espionage while he was still making films in England. The flick is based around the machinations of Mr. Verloc, a foreign spy and saboteur based in London and played by the sinister bushy eyebrowed Oskar Homolka. His wife played by Sylvia Sydney, who together with Homolka run a cinema, is clueless as to his clandestine activities. The film opens with Mr. Verloc causing a widespread power outage by fouling the generators with sand A Scotland Yard detective played by John Loder is working undercover at a fruit and vegetable store next to the cinema, suspicious of Homolka and watching him. Unable to carry out his next act of terrorism due to the surveillance, Homolka commissions Sydney's young brother to unwittingly transport and deliver a package containing a bomb. Tragically, traffic delays cause the bomb to explode prematurely, killing the young boy and other passengers on the bus he was on. In very atypical fashion, Hitchcock has a totally innocent victim fall prey to violence. He, however, followed the movie morality code of the time in this case as the villian gets his just desserts. Justice is served and vengeance is meted out. A very dark movie Sabotage is a very good movie, full of suspense and black irony. This is the story of a treacherous living in London with his wife and her brother. He indulges in undesirable practices like the sabotage of a power station. Being watched by the police, he decides to leave a bomb at Piccadilly. The movie is not considered as important movie in Hitchcock filmography. Yet there is in the movie one of the strongest hitchcockian scene with a terrible death, this scene would not be possible in an American film (you will understand if you watch the movie). This death is the central point of the plot and conduce to another strong scene at dinner time. Sabotage is very dark, perhaps the most dark in the English period of Alfred Hitchcock. The central murder scene is shocking and could be compared to the shower scene of Psycho for the surprise induced by the brutal death. Sabotage is definitely a dark Hitchcock movie. Hitchcock's worst I'm a particular fan of Hitchcock, and I've seen quite a few of his movies. My favorite is "North by Northwest" -- also my favorite movie by any director, my favorite movie PERIOD. My second favorite is "Spellbound". Although I subsequently read the novel "Sabotage" is based on, Joseph Conrad's excellent "The Secret Agent", and although I subsequently watched another film adaptation of this novel, the excellent "Secret Agent" (1996) with Bob Hoskins, Patricia Arquette, and Robin Williams and a score by Philip Glass, I hadn't when I watched "Sabotage". Thus my opinion is unbiased by the novel and this other movie. "Sabotage" is clearly the worst Alfred Hitchcock picture I know. HAVING subsequently read the novel and a much better adaptation, I am now in a position to say what went wrong with "Sabotage"; I wasn't then. Essentially "Sabotage" is too squeamish. It twists itself into knots to make its heroine sympathetic. It bowdlerizes its story's political content. (I don't want to give this political content away. There are, however, crosses and double-crosses, intrigues, and timely anti-terrorist tactics reminiscent of the regime of a certain twenty-first-century un-elected American president.) Read "The Secret Agent" by Joseph Conrad. Watch "Secret Agent", its 1996 film adaptation. Buy Sabotage at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Sabotage Search with the Priority Search Engine on Sabotage This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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