Sabotage (1936)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Sylvia Sidney, John Loder, Oskar Homolka, Joyce Barbour, Desmond Tester, Matthew Boulton, S. J. Warmington.

Story of a terrorist group planting bombs around London, with Sidney unknowingly married to a theater owner (Homolka) who’s one of them. Sidney’s understated effect, confident direction, and some stylish touches elevate Charles Bennett’s uninspired dialogue and plotting (save for one shocking—and in the minds of some critics at the time of its release, tasteless—incident aboard a bus); a couple of very suspenseful moments demonstrate Hitchcock’s ever-growing mastery over the thriller form in the days before he headed for Hollywood. Loder’s pedestrian performance as an undercover Scotland Yard detective and the underwhelming final reel keep this one from the upper echelons of the director’s oeuvre, but is still firmly recommended for the filmmaker faithful and fans of espionage suspensers. Not to be confused with Hitchcock’s Saboteur from several years later (the one with the Statue of Liberty finale) or, for that matter, Hitch’s picture from earlier that year, Secret Agent, seeing as how this movie is loosely based on Joseph Conrad’s “The Secret Agent”; also released as The Woman Alone.

70/100