Sabotage

Not all of Alfred Hitchcock’s work is par excellence, and in the case of Sabotage, which pales in comparison to The 39 Steps (which he made one year earlier) this certainly is true. That is not to say it isn’t actually worth seeing!

Ostensibly, it may appear to have a little more going for it with an interesting or rather unusual cast coupling: imported diminutive American actress Sylvia Sidney, Austrian-Hungarian actor Oscar Homolka (dig those eyebrows!), and native Brit John Loder. Sabotage is very loosely based on Joseph Conrad’s novel ‘The Secret Agent’ – updated with several changes to make it more time sensitive (the film’s story is set in London of 1936).

The film begins with a blackout across London and angry punters in a Camberwell cinema demand their money back. However, cinema owner Karl Verloc (O. Homolka) seemingly sleeps through the commotion but in reality he was not even on the premise during the time of the power cut. When his someone naïve young wife (S. Sidney) discovers her husband in the bedroom, he had in fact just returned from a ‘secret meeting’. It doesn’t take us long to discover that Verloc is in the employ of a gang of foreign terrorists who plan a number of attacks across London. Verloc’s immediate superior, who runs a bird shop but is actually a bomb maker instructs him to deliver a bomb to Piccadilly tube station on a certain day at a certain time. Meanwhile, Scotland Yard Detective Sergeant Spencer (J. Loder), who is also undercover working at a greengrocer’s next to the cinema, suspects Verloc is up to no good and befriends his wife in order to get closer to the man in question. Verloc soon gets wind of this and realizing just who Spencer is, gets cold feet. Just what is he going to do about the bomb he is supposed to reluctantly deliver in the first place?

As the bomb arrives in his house, secretly planted in a birdcage, and with Spencer snooping about, Verloc has the bright idea to hand the cage to Mrs. Verloc’s young brother Stevie (Desmond Tester) which has unfortunate repercussions. Instead of delivering the parcel straight away to Piccadilly, the young lad gets side-tracked watching some military nonsense taking place in Whitehall. As a result of this, Stevie is delayed and the bomb goes off while he still sits on the double-decker bus – creating utter carnage and destruction. Although it must be pointed out that the special effects regarding the bombing of the bus leave something to be desired. Some time later when Mrs. Verloc is informed by her guilt-ridden husband that it was him who inadvertently is responsible for little Stevie’s death, she stabs him in a fit of pique and things look bleak. However, a happy ending of sorts is in the air…

The film is somewhat lacking in pace which is rather unusual for Hitch. This is made all the more obvious by the fact there is hardly any incidental music throughout. The slow pace of the film was actually Hitchcock’s intention in order to highlight the sensationalism of the young boy’s shocking and unexpected death due to an act of terrorism. In this he succeeded, causing a furore at the time!
The Verlocs seem like an unlikely couple – what they saw each other in the first place remains somewhat of an enigma. Loder’s character is of course a much more likely candidate for the love interest.

SPECIAL FEATURES of this Blu-ray release:

* Introduction by Charles Barr
* ‘On Location featurette’ introduced by Robert Powell
* Image gallery