Sabotage [PG]

Thursday night in London, a citywide blackout occurs: the handiwork of a Mr. Verloc, a shady European agent working for an equally shady foreign power carrying out acts of sabotage. When the blackout is laughed at by London, Verloc is obliged to carry out another act of sabotage, this one involving a bomb that is set to explode at 1:45 the coming Saturday. But, with undercover detectives from Scotland Yard hot on his trail, Verloc is forced to trick his wife’s little brother into delivering the package containing the bomb… a trick that sets into a motion a chain of murder and the unravelling of the plots of sabotage. 

By no means the most suspenseful or dramatic or indeed significant of films that make up Hitchcock’s impressive repertoire, Sabotage nevertheless is not without it’s Hitchcock-esque charm. It’s a fascinating blend of dark comedy and thrilling suspense with an impishly funny little jab at the concept of art imitating life. 

Thursday night in London, a citywide blackout occurs: the handiwork of a Mr. Verloc, a shady European agent working for an equally shady foreign power carrying out acts of sabotage. When the blackout is laughed at by London, Verloc is obliged to carry out another act of sabotage, this one involving a bomb that is set to explode at 1:45 the coming Saturday. But, with undercover detectives from Scotland Yard hot on his trail, Verloc is forced to trick his wife’s little brother into delivering the package containing the bomb… a trick that sets into a motion a chain of murder and the unravelling of the plots of sabotage. 

There are three specific parts of this film that make it stand out and, I suppose, earn it its place in The Book. The first is the impishly funny little jab at the concept of art imitating life, which I mentioned before. The film is based on the book, The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad, but in a departure from the original text, Hitchcock places his villainous hero and his unsuspecting wife in the role of managing a small cinema. This change to the story allows Hitchcock to have a little bit of fiendish fun in linking the films that are on show at the cinema to the events of the outside world; the most memorable of these being the children’s feature playing at the time of the 1:45 explosion. And just a bit of trivia about that part, Walt Disney is thanked for the creation of that particular cartoon feature. 

The second thing that makes this movie special is the classic Hitchcock favoured close-ups, which provide the movie with its thrilling suspense. Two particularly poignant examples in this film are the constant close-ups of passing clocks and then the package containing the bomb, and then the close-up of Verloc’s face when he detects vengeful intentions in his wife. Both of these scenes were particularly excellent scenes that built up strong tension and suspense for me. 

The third and final stroke of brilliance in this movie is the dark comedy that comes into play right before the end credits begin to roll. At this point we and our characters are resigned to the accept the realness of what has happened and then a sudden change takes place and throws everything into disarray; it’s here on this unfinished scene that the words “the end” flash and fade, leaving us in a happy state of bewilderment. 

Starring Sylvia Sidney, Oskar Homolka, John Loder, Desmond Tester, Joyce Barbour, Matthew Boulton, S.J. Warmington, and William Dewhurst, Sabotage is a nifty little Hitchcock classic that has somehow slipped under the radar. Filled with sabotage, murder, action, suspense, romance, and revenge it’s a really cool little film that I would recommend to the diehard Hitchcock fans out there and anyone else who has a passion for classics.