Saboteur
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Movie Reviews of Saboteur
Movie Review: Great B Hitychcock
Summary: 4 Stars
Alfred Hitchcock rarely worked with B actors and production teams. In Saboteur he did, and produced a charming film that reflected his ongoing concerns of trust and guilt/innocence. The Statue of Liberty sequence is worth the price by itself.
This film is a great companion piece to The 39 Steps and North By Northwest.
Movie Review: Decent way to spend 2 hours
Summary: 4 Stars
Just a quick comment. Why in heck would Cane grab onto Frye's sleeve when he could have grabbed his arm??????Movie Review: Not bad, but let's play make believe: James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan and Claude Raines
Summary: 3 Stars
Saboteur might be less than prime Hitchcock, but it has its moments; in fact, quite a few of them, in my opinion. Where it falls apart, however, is in an essential part of any movie...the leads, including the villain. Hitchcock usually was able to come up with interesting villains. Just think of James Mason, Robert Walker, Joseph Cotton, the never seen Rebecca, Paul Lukas, Ray Milland, Herbert Marshall or Claude Raines. In his best films, if he didn't have a charismatic villain he had such charismatic leads - Grant, Olivier, Donat, Bergman, Stewart, for example, that it didn't make much difference
With Saboteur, we have as the male lead Robert Cummings, a pleasant actor, a fine light comedian but, in drama, just earnest, bland and conscientious. His partner here is Priscilla Lane, long forgotten but reasonably popular back then. She's a nice young woman, an adequate actor and not very interesting. Neither of them has any spark of self-irony and there's not bit of measurable sexual voltage. As a villain we have the always reliable Otto Kruger, mister smoothie himself. I've always enjoyed watching Kruger. He was predictable but completely professional. Put the three of them together and we have a film where we really don't care what happens to anybody. It's the set-ups and some of the set pieces that had better hold our interest. In other words, we have Saboteur. Try to imagine an alternate universe where Saboteur, with the same script (maybe without the talky and corny bits) and same scenes, now starred James Stewart or Robert Donat, Margaret Sullavan or Madeleine Carroll (Hitchcock evidently wanted Sullavan) and Claude Raines or Godfrey Tearle. Now that might be one of Hitchcock's classics, or at least something on the charming, dangerous level as Foreign Correspondent. But back to reality.
Barry Kane (Cummings), just a guy from Glendale, California, gets involved in a horrendous fire at the aircraft factory where he works, a fire caused by a traitor and where his best friend is killed. It looks to the police that Barry is responsible. He takes off to save himself and find out what really is going on. All he has to go on is the address on a letter he saw at work when he handed it back to a man he thought was another plant worker, a man named Frank Fry (Norman Lloyd). In short order Barry is on the road to Springville, California, and the home of the rich and gracious Charles Tobin (Otto Kruger), then, after a perilous escape while wearing handcuffs, to a house in the woods. There he meets Pat Martin (Lane), who doesn't believe his story, and her blind uncle, who does. Then it's off to desolate Soda City (with Pat; she changed her mind), then to New York City and to a grand ball filled with traitors mixed in with the rich and patriotic. Finally we arrive at the high point of the movie... a tense ship launching, a shootout in a crowded movie house (with Veda Ann Borg on the screen) and a dangerous, high tension scramble up the Statue of Liberty, a tearing coat and a backward, face up, fall.
Even with the weaknesses of the leads, Hitchcock gives us some entertaining moments...a leap off a high bridge and a struggle in a river torrent, a nighttime meeting with circus folks of all shapes, sizes, weights and degrees of hairiness, the desolate ghost town that's Soda City, Alma Kruger and her white tie society ball and, of course, the Statue of Liberty. Stewart, Sullavan and Raines would have been terrific. So would be watching again The 39 Steps.
The DVD has a fine transfer.
Movie Review: charming , sinister , fun little picture makes me like Hitch even
Summary: 3 Stars
more. it's fun to spot the murals and obvious lots that serve as artificial backdrops in this very entertaining 1942 picture . oh sure , it's preposterous , but it's got a lot going for it . Mr. Kruger is deceptively silky smooth and seemingly very kind in a villianous role . likewise Priscilla Lane is many things at once making her conflicted character interesting (and quite lovely) . it's an odd little picture peopled with folks like a very talkative , almost manic , truck driver . an immposibly knowing blind gentleman , not too far removed from the one in Frankenstien over a decade earlier . all quite well acted . those are just a couple of examples of the unusual yet ordinary people you'll find in a pleasing and involving throwback to a different time . accurate and divergent synoptic reviews can be found in Leonard Maltin's yearly reference quide as well as Mick Martin and Marsha porter's DVD and VIDEO quide . very talky (in a good way) . lots of interesting and cool characters . pretty good film . smart and funny . i've seen season one of Hitchcock's television series and now own several of his films . if you're a nostalgist and/or a fan of Mr. Hitchcock , you'll be entertained . Bob Cummings is very good in the lead .Movie Review: Where is Frank Fry?
Summary: 3 Stars
It is 1942; we are in the height of war. Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) and his best buddy are putting out a mysterious fire. A stranger Frank Fry (Norman Lloyd) assists them. When it turns out to be sabotage, naturally the authorities have to accuse Barry. Barry's only chance of survival is to follow clues across the country to find Fry. On his travels he gets teemed up with Patricia Martin (Priscilla Lane) who wants to do her patriotic duty and turn Barry in to the authorities. You can not tell the good guys from the bad guys until it is too late.
Can Barry convince Pat that he is innocent?
Can they ever find Fry?
Even if they do find Fry will the authorities ever believe that Barry is innocent?
Be prepared for a lot of long winded speeches from both sides they do not add or subtract form the story.
Shadow of a Doubt