Watching Alfred Hitchcock's early British films is a treat for this viewer, particularly in seeing the director's experimentation with themes that will become better known in his more famous American movies. "Sabotage" becomes an intriguing psychological drama even after the early revelation of the parts his key characters play in the story.
Particularly vile is Karl Anton Verloc (Oscar Homolka), a terrorist conspiring to plant bombs in association with an underground cadre. He uses a London cinema house as a front for his activities, while his antagonist, a Scotland Yard detective named Spencer (John Loder) attempts to get enough evidence to expose him. Verloc is married to an American woman (Sylvia Sidney) who is unaware of his activities.
With tense precision, Hitchcock visually reinforces the timing of Verloc's next bombing, even though the actual target is never mentioned by name. To carry out his mission, he enlists the services of his wife's young brother Stevie. As Stevie gets sidetracked by the distractions that would affect any teenager, he becomes the victim of Verloc's plot when the bomb detonates, destroying a London bus.
Mrs. Verloc's consolation comes in the form of revenge. The moment of retribution takes form almost immediately after she catches herself laughing at scenes of a Disney cartoon playing in the cinema - "Who killed Cock Robin?" indeed. In classic Hitchcock style, the director makes use of quick cuts to the saboteur, the wife serving dinner, plates of food, and of course, a knife. Needless to say, the knife finds it's mark, and with it, a cold satisfaction for the audience.
As in Hitchcock's first talking film, 1929's "Blackmail", the director uses deft sleight of hand to shift blame for Verloc's death to a surrogate. In the earlier film, a case could be made that the female killer was acting in self defense. Here, the event was achieved with spontaneous calculation. In both movies, the female lead was just on the edge of making a confession when abrupt dismissal by the authorities led them to a different conclusion about the murders.
The film left me curious about a couple of things, the main one being how audiences of the time reacted to the death of an innocent teenager. It seems to me that this would have been a particularly controversial subject for the time. On a very different note, I was left wondering whether the appearance of a rather large billboard directly behind the bombed bus was intentional or not; it was an ad for Coca Cola.
Though it's been stated otherwise by other reviewers on this site, the movie does have it's light moment even if only one, the Disney sequence notwithstanding. In an early scene at the pet shop, an old biddy tries to return a canary that doesn't sing. The shop owner has no trouble getting the bird to warble, implying that maybe it's the lady's fault. Strange though, that the shop would also have chickens and a rooster!
Particularly vile is Karl Anton Verloc (Oscar Homolka), a terrorist conspiring to plant bombs in association with an underground cadre. He uses a London cinema house as a front for his activities, while his antagonist, a Scotland Yard detective named Spencer (John Loder) attempts to get enough evidence to expose him. Verloc is married to an American woman (Sylvia Sidney) who is unaware of his activities.
With tense precision, Hitchcock visually reinforces the timing of Verloc's next bombing, even though the actual target is never mentioned by name. To carry out his mission, he enlists the services of his wife's young brother Stevie. As Stevie gets sidetracked by the distractions that would affect any teenager, he becomes the victim of Verloc's plot when the bomb detonates, destroying a London bus.
Mrs. Verloc's consolation comes in the form of revenge. The moment of retribution takes form almost immediately after she catches herself laughing at scenes of a Disney cartoon playing in the cinema - "Who killed Cock Robin?" indeed. In classic Hitchcock style, the director makes use of quick cuts to the saboteur, the wife serving dinner, plates of food, and of course, a knife. Needless to say, the knife finds it's mark, and with it, a cold satisfaction for the audience.
As in Hitchcock's first talking film, 1929's "Blackmail", the director uses deft sleight of hand to shift blame for Verloc's death to a surrogate. In the earlier film, a case could be made that the female killer was acting in self defense. Here, the event was achieved with spontaneous calculation. In both movies, the female lead was just on the edge of making a confession when abrupt dismissal by the authorities led them to a different conclusion about the murders.
The film left me curious about a couple of things, the main one being how audiences of the time reacted to the death of an innocent teenager. It seems to me that this would have been a particularly controversial subject for the time. On a very different note, I was left wondering whether the appearance of a rather large billboard directly behind the bombed bus was intentional or not; it was an ad for Coca Cola.
Though it's been stated otherwise by other reviewers on this site, the movie does have it's light moment even if only one, the Disney sequence notwithstanding. In an early scene at the pet shop, an old biddy tries to return a canary that doesn't sing. The shop owner has no trouble getting the bird to warble, implying that maybe it's the lady's fault. Strange though, that the shop would also have chickens and a rooster!