Sabotage (1936)

Alfred Hitchcock started his career in his native Britain with silent movies and rapidly found his niche in the mystery and thriller genres. He made quite a number of films in these early years and some like The 39 Steps and Secret Agent are considered classics and well worth seeking out. These early films have recently been released on good quality DVD so there is no reason we can't enjoy them today, also.

Hitchcock, of course, later moved to America and became one of Hollywood's most dependable directors bringing thrills and horror to millions with his Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho and other works. But here is another one of his early English forays into the mystery genre that I found quite compelling. It seems to hold up quite a bit better than a lot of his early stuff. The screenplay is adapted from Joseph Conrad's novel "The Secret Agent."

Sylvia Sydney is the focal point as Mrs Verloc. Her husband, played by Oscar Homolka is a wild eyed foreign-looking guy with an accent. Mrs Verloc's little brother lives with them. Together they run the Bijou Theater in London.

The movie starts out with a view of a dictionary and the definition of sabotage. It then shifts to a view of incandescent light bulbs and electric meters and an electrical blackout. The music rises to a grim crescendo and into the camera looks the grim visage of Oscar Homolka. From this point we know who the saboteur is, we don't know why, but he sneaks back home and goes upstairs and pretends to be sleeping. Meanwhile his wife (Silvia Sidney) is downstairs at the theater dealing with a crowd that wants their money back. The greengrocer from next door (John Loder) is trying to help her disperse the crowd and she is annoyed at his attentions. Loder is really an undercover police officer trying to catch Homolka.

Sabotage is really a great film about the paranoia the British must have felt as they saw the Germans arming in the years before WWII erupted. Homolka plays more of an old fashioned bomb throwing anarchist than a Nazi agent but tremendous tension is generated by Hitchcock's masterful direction and especially good use of music cues.

Homolka is receiving orders from some higher authority and these remain in the shadow as does his origins. Once the orders are given, however, it is up to Homolka to carry them out and this he does even to the extent of using his young brother-in-law (Desmond Tester) to unknowingly carry a time bomb to Piccadilly Circus when he is too closely observed to do it himself. This has tragic consequences in one of the most heartrending sequences Hitchcock ever filmed.

Sylvia Sidney is very effective as the wife who at first only suspects and later knows the monster that her husband is. Her expressive facial features are a textbook example of great acting without having to say a word. Desmond Tester is great also as the kid brother who carries the fatal package to Piccadilly Circus, thus generating nail biting tension for the audience. It is one of Hitchcock's most effective scenes of all his films.

The music arranger, who is uncredited, foreshadows the great work that would be done by Bernard Herrmann in future Hitchcock works like Psycho.

The DVD is now available from many public domain sources. Most of the prints are pretty good. Mine is from Mill Creek Entertainment and it is excellent, especially since the price is around $5 in the bargain bins.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening