Sabotage (film)

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Sabotage
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Produced by Michael Balcon
Written by Joseph Conrad (novel The Secret Agent)
Charles Bennett (screenplay)
Starring Sylvia Sidney
Oskar Homolka
John Loder
Cinematography Bernard Knowles
Distributed by General Film Distributors (GFD) Ltd.
Release date(s) December, 1936 UK release
Running time 76 min.
Language English
IMDb profile

Sabotage, also released as A Woman Alone, is a 1936 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It was based on Joseph Conrad's novel The Secret Agent.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Karl Verloc (Oscar Homolka), the owner of a cinema, is part of a gang of saboteurs from an unnamed European country who conduct a series of attacks in London. The gang's motives are unclear. His wife (Sylvia Sidney) gradually realizes that he may be behind the attacks that are terrorizing the city. When her younger brother, Stevie (Desmond Tester) is killed, unknowingly carrying a bomb for Verloc to the London Underground, Mrs Verloc joins forces with Sergeant Ted Spencer (John Loder, who replaced Robert Donat, who was too ill from asthma to play the part) from Scotland Yard to stop her husband and end the bombing spree.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Analysis

The film was produced in the years immediately preceding World War II, and the unnamed hostile power behind the bombings is assumed to be Nazi Germany. At the time of its release, Europe was already preparing for war, and espionage was rampant between the European powers. The film can therefore be interpreted as a warning to civilians to be aware of foreigners, who threatened the safety of the country. (On a side note, Sabotage would have been called Secret Agent except Hitchcock had recently made another film with that title.)

Hitchcock took considerable liberties with the novel, transforming the highly political anarchists and socialists into foreign agents without any obvious political leanings. Verloc's shop is transformed into a movie theater (with the films being shown echoing the story), and the policeman investigating the case is cast as an undercover officer posing as a greengrocer. Verloc's first name has also been changed, presumably as Adolf had too many connotations by the time the film was made. To critics, however, the most troubling change was in the character of Stevie, Mrs Verloc's young brother, who is portrayed as a simpleton, with few of the visionary attributes of his literary counterpart. Stevie's death is a climactic moment in the plot, providing insight into Hitchcock's views about how the innocent suffer through random acts of violence. When a critic condemned Stevie's death as brutal and unnecessary, however, Hitchcock refused to defend his position and said that he regretted including it in the film—although with this he remained faithful to the novel.

The fact that the film was set in a movie theater allowed Hitchcock to reference the plot with contemporary films and storylines. Perhaps the most famous of these is the final film sequence, an animated short produced by Walt Disney.

Despite being regarded by many as her best performance, this was Sylvia Sidney’s only role for Hitchcock. They did not warm to each other and she refused to work for him again.

[edit] Copyright status

Like other Hitchcock works made for British International Pictures, the copyright status of this film is unclear at present, meaning that it is widely accepted as being in the public domain. This status means that it is widely available in both the VHS and DVD format at very modest prices but that the quality of most available copies tends to be quite poor, as there is little profit motive for any would-be restorer of the work.

[edit] Cast

[edit] External links


Alfred Hitchcock's films
1920s: The Pleasure Garden • The Mountain Eagle • The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog • Downhill • Easy Virtue • The Ring • The Farmer's Wife • Champagne • The Manxman • Blackmail • 1930s: Juno and the Paycock • Murder! • Elstree Calling • The Skin Game • Mary • Number Seventeen • Rich and Strange • Waltzes from Vienna • The Man Who Knew Too Much • The 39 Steps • Secret Agent • Sabotage • Young and Innocent • The Lady Vanishes • Jamaica Inn • 1940s: Rebecca • Foreign Correspondent • Mr. & Mrs. Smith • Suspicion • Saboteur • Shadow of a Doubt • Lifeboat • Aventure Malgache • Bon Voyage • Spellbound • Notorious • The Paradine Case • Rope • Under Capricorn • 1950s: Stage Fright • Strangers on a Train • I Confess • Dial M for Murder • Rear Window • To Catch a Thief • The Trouble with Harry • The Man Who Knew Too Much • The Wrong Man • Vertigo • North by Northwest • 1960s: Psycho • The Birds • Marnie • Torn Curtain • Topaz • 1970s: Frenzy • Family Plot
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