SYNOPSIS

Barry Kane, an average Joe plant worker, suddenly finds himself running from the law when he is accused of sabotaging the airplane factory where he works and causing his best friend's death. Barry is fairly certain of the real culprit, a mysterious figure named Frye, and pursues him across the country, both to clear his own name and to stop a network of fascist sympathizers from carrying out even more destructive deeds. Along the way he hooks up with a feisty model who at first believes him to be the villain but eventually trusts him. They fall in love, but time is running out, and they must join forces to stop the saboteur from striking again.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Producer: Frank Lloyd
Screenplay: Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison, Dorothy Parker
Cinematography: Joseph Valentine
Editing: Otto Ludwig
Art Direction: Jack Otterson
Original Music: Frank Skinner
Cast: Priscilla Lane (Patricia Martin), Robert Cummings (Barry Kane), Otto Kruger (Charles Tobin), Alan Baxter (Mr. Freeman), Clem Bevans (Neilson), Norman Lloyd (Frank Frye).
BW-109m. Closed Captioning.

Why SABOTEUR is Essential

After nearly two decades directing pictures in his native England, Alfred Hitchcock came to the U.S. at the end of the 1930s to try his luck in Hollywood, but his first movies here still reflected the strong cultural influence of his home turf. His two biggest early successes, Rebecca (1940) and Suspicion (1941), were set in England and used primarily British casts. Foreign Correspondent (1940) had an American journalist hero but was set in London and the Netherlands. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) had Hollywood stars and was set in New York, or rather a very studio version of the city. As a screwball comedy, it was hardly characteristic of the master of suspense, and its witty tale of marital foibles could have taken place just about anywhere. With Saboteur, Hitchcock finally made a fully American film, one that took its lead characters on a coast-to-coast trek, ending up at one of the most American sites of all, the Statue of Liberty.

While traveling from Southern California to the remote desert to the streets and docks of New York, Hitchcock's beleaguered hero also encountered a number of distinct and quirky American types along the way: factory workers, truck drivers, cowboys, circus sideshow performers, cab drivers, billboard models, society matrons, "jitterbugs," and more. Intended as both a satire of his newly adopted land and a valentine to it, the movie became something more in its journey to the screen. The script, started before the U.S. entered World War II, was quickly adjusted as production began shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It then became Hitchcock's war propaganda effort, full of statements about loyalty to country and cautions about homegrown fascists in our midst who could appear to be ordinary and respectable people but with secret subversive intent. Foreign Correspondent had similar themes, but produced and released more than a year earlier, it was more of a drumbeat for American involvement in the European conflict. It also put Hitchcock under the scrutiny of authorities on the lookout for films that tried to undermine our supposed neutrality.

While effectively signaling the director's transition from his native country to the one where he would have his longest career and greatest successes, B>Saboteur also represented a stylistic link between the old and new, incorporating and extending the picaresque structure of The 39 Steps (1935) that would come to its finest fruition in Hollywood in North by Northwest (1959). Here, too, are a number of elements that would be refined and repeated in future films: the "wrong man" theme; the innocent hero in pursuit of the real villain with the law closely on his tail; the cultured, attractive villain whose outward respectability masks evil; the reluctant or hostile blonde heroine who finally capitulates to the hero's quest; the mystery story as journey toward self-discovery and romantic/sexual fulfillment; the use of important monuments and sites for spectacular set pieces; and, of course, the sardonic humor. With a plot so full of holes you could drive a train through it, B>Saboteur is also a perfect illustration of Hitchcock's notion that if you keep things moving fast enough and give audiences something more interesting to follow than just the basic mystery (aka the Macguffin), you can get them to go with you anywhere...and enjoy the ride.

by Rob Nixon