Sabotage (1937)

Very disappointing...

Too much of everything

Good concept, poorly executed.

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

There's no question that Alfred Hitchcock is a master film director, seeing as how a movie this old can hold up decently in 2011. However, "Sabotage" lacks one key element keeping it from really being a classic: context.For a basic plot summary, "Sabotage" sees an English theater owner (Oskar Homolka) and his wife (Sylvia Sidney) get caught up in an espionage plot with shades of terrorism.This movie is classic Hitch through and through. It has the conflicted characters, moments of high tension, and the eventual "MacGuffin" that drives the story forward. For what it does accomplish, the film is quite good. Not overwhelming in any sense, but the tension (at times) is palpable and will hook viewers into wanting to see how it all turns out.The problem, though, is that the characters and events are given absolutely no context whatsoever. This "exposition" phase of the storytelling is skipped altogether. Thus, it is difficult to be 100% engaged in the story when it begins and ends so abruptly.Overall, this is a decent Hitchcock film that is more than worth a viewing from hard-core Hitch fans. It doesn't hold a candle to his later American works, but for what it is it's entertaining.

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, at this stage just the vigorous maverick of the Gaumont-British sentry, carved a mercilessly sensational bit from Conrad's The Secret Agent into a proficient drill in suspense. Sabotage is flawed plotting, but unqualified histrionics. Edgily dismissing all but the facade of motivation, the great manipulator thrusts his lens into the nucleus of Conrad's plot and extracts a giftedly implemented splinter of a story. What makes Hitchcock Hitchcock is that his technique is its own justification.Invariably the master of his movie's fate, this sculptor of modern cinema has compacted this story to the nuts and bolts, choosing just those events which he could crook to his dramatic command. His tempo is deceivingly measured, but he lurches mercilessly to his climaxes and makes the effect intense and unexpected. The excellent Oscar Homolka, Sylvia Sidney, John Loder and that winning youngster Desmond Tester, are held tightly to the frontier of plot development and, inside the slender confines Hitchcock allows them, supply thoroughgoing characterizations.For reasons vague, minor cinema owner Verloc has been ordered to terrorize London. His gateway is to disable the city's lighting works. London receives the blackout as a gag. The foreign agent retaining him cautions that London better not chuckle next time: A time bomb, placed in a Piccadilly cloakroom, would truly try the British sense of humor.Verloc, being watched by Scotland Yard, is incapable of sending the bomb himself and picks his wife's baby brother as the innocuous courier of terror. The kid takes the paper-wrapped bomb, calculated to explode at quarter two, and commences his venture across town. Verloc has cautioned him to leave the little box no later than half one. Despite the Master of Suspense's later nitpicking of his work here, he orders the sequence mischievously. It's excruciating to have to helplessly watch the heedless youngster's easygoing movement across London, stopping at shop windows, volunteered by a sidewalk vender for a presentation, postponed by a parade, by traffic and finicky policemen.Homolka as Verloc is an ideal means for Hitchcock's calculated rhythm. Sidney as his baffled wife, mothering her young brother, John Loder as the amorous Scotland Yard sergeant, William Dewhurst as the bomb maker and of course Tester are severally solid. But this is Hitchcock's film and a worthy early one.

Joseph Conrad's novella, "The Secret Agent", served as the basis of Alfred Hitchcock's "Sabotage", during his British period. Since Mr. Hitchcock had already directed another English film, "Secret Agent", the title was changed to "Sabotage", not to be confused with "Saboteur", which the director made in America in 1942, which is not a remake. The achievement of this film is tremendous, even when the viewer knows from the start who the evil character is. Mr. Hitchcock pulled it off in surprising, and simple ways, that paid off handsomely in this thriller, that in spite of having been made more than 74 years ago, still merits a view by fans of the director. Mr. Hitchcock knew how to keep the suspense, as he proved here. The viewer is kept at the edge of his seat as one watches Stevie, the young boy going on to deliver the bomb, that unknown to him, his brother-in-law thought would surely go to its intended target. Because of the parade, and not being able to cross the street by the police barricade, he has no other way to get to Picadilly by taking the bus as time gets closer to the deadline of 1.45pm.The other fantastic sequence involves the killing of Verloc. It is done without any sound, practically, yet, the impact it creates in our minds is nothing short of shocking because, basically, Sylvia Verloc, cannot believe the monster she has married, could be the one responsible for the death of her own brother. The ironic twist at the end comes unexpectedly at the end without even a hint of what is going to happen to the Bijou when all the evil doer is trapped inside the apartment trying to retrieve the bird cages.Sylvia Sidney made a wonderful Mrs. Verloc. She is not the typical blond the director favored, but she brought a great presence to the film. Oskar Homolka underplayed his Verloc to an amazing effect. He is menacing without doing much, which goes to show what good actor he was. John Loder is seen as Ted, the undercover agent assigned to watch what was going on at the theater next door. Diamond Tester added a touch of innocence to the action; we all know he is a good kid who did not deserve his tragic end."Sabotage" is vintage Hitchcock that must be seen by serious fans.

A very interesting, transitional Hitchcock film (I haven't read Conrad's The Secret Agent). An early act of the eponymous sabotage plunges Camberwell - for this film is set on the fictional Plouthorp Road of SE5 - into darkness allowing for some unsettling silhouettes and shadow- chasing. Yet this seems to the be the extent of Hitchcock's use of the German aesthetic. Subsequently we get a not entirely polished selection of unexpected twists (Ted's real identity), suspense (the boy with the package) and latterly trademark foreground/overlaid shots. Luckily Hitchcock has employed the excellent Oskar Homolka as Karl Verloc. Rather usefully, it seems that Hitchcock is as benighted as we are when it comes to the motivation for Verloc's shady behaviour - he could be a gangster, a vengeful national or simply an anarchist. It doesn't matter, he is simply the slimy, spinless middle man set to reap what he sows. Loder (Ted) and Sylvia Sidney (Sylvia) are winsome if a little stock - Desmond Tester as Stevie is jolly good.Entertaining but patchy 5/10