100. Sabotage (1936)

Running Time: 76 minutes
Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock
Written By: Charles Bennett, Ian Hay, Helen Simpson, E.V.H. Emmett, from the novel The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
Main Cast: Oskar Homolka, Sylvia Sidney, Desmond Tester, John Loder

THE 100TH FILM IN THE BOOK...

...But not the 100th film I've watched from the book. Due to skipping a few titles, I'm still sitting at 91 films watched. Anyway, here we are again discussing a Hitchcock film and I must say that this is his worst one from the book so far. Not that, that's really saying too much, since the other two ranged from very good to great.

The film starts out with a blackout, putting all of London in the dark. We focus in on a cinema, where the patrons are demanding their money back. The lady at the ticket booth, who we later find out is Mrs. Verloc, the wife of the cinema owner, Karl Verloc. Mr. Verloc is painted early on as a suspicious character, when we realize that he set up the blackout and then sneaks back into his flat, as if he had nothing to do with it. We're also introduced early on to a grocer's helper, Ted Spencer, who we find out quickly is an undercover detective, setting up shop as close as possible to the suspicious Mr. Verloc. Later, we see Mr. Verloc meeting with some other shady fellow and getting more directions, as to which terrorism he is going to pull off next. He is told all that the blackout did was make London laugh, and that this time, they want to yank the laughter out of the city. He's given direction to meet a man inside of a pet store and that there he'll receive a bomb that he's to deliver to the London Underground station, underneath the Piccadilly Circus, and that it's set to go off at 1:45pm on Saturday.

With the cops hot on Verloc's trail, he assigns the task to his wife's little brother, Stevie. He gives him the package and tells him to deliver it to the destination, absolutely no later than 1:30pm. It is here that "The Master of Suspense" takes full shape and Hitch delivers what he's known for and that's some classic suspense, as Stevie gets hung up along the way. Will young Stevie make it to the Piccadilly Circus before the bomb is detonated? The question is answered in the best scene of the film, that is full of the "edge of your seat" type stuff, that made Hitchcock a household name.

Despite the suspense that the above paragraph eludes to, and believe me, the scene is full of suspense, this was one of the few memorable scenes in "Sabotage" and the rest of the film was lacking somewhere in the plot development department. It seemed as if there were big chunks of film, where nothing seemed to be happening and we were just waiting for the big culmination of events to occur. The entire part, where Stevie is delivering the package and the ending of the film are classic Hitch, but the rest just falls short. That's not to say it's a bad movie, I've just seen much better Hitchcock films and this is certainly a film that could've been omitted from the "1001" book, to make room for other Hitch films, most notable being "Dial M for Murder", which is my absolute favorite piece of Hitchcock work and a film that wasn't able to make the cut in the "1001" book. Anywhoo...I rest my case. I must also point out the performances in "Sabotage", which were quite good, as Oskar Homolka plays Mr. Verloc with quite the nefarious little attitude and this is a guy who had no trouble pulling off the terrorist character. John Loder and Sylvia Sidney were quite good too and I really had no complaints as far as acting capabilities were concerned.

RATING: 5.5/10 Good movie, but I've definitely seen better things from Mr. Hitchcock and I look forward to seeing better things from him, as I continue through the book.

NEXT UP: Dodsworth...I'll be forced to skip this one, and I'll be back in just a second to explain why.

February 12, 2010 4:03pm