Saboteur is one of Hitchcock\u2019s earlier Hollywood era productions.\u00a0 It\u2019s the story of Barry Kane, played by Robert Cummings, a wartime factory worker who is mistakenly accused of being a Nazi saboteur.\u00a0 The story starts out at an airplane manufacturing plant where Barry and his friend Ken Mason are employed.\u00a0 At lunch they bump into another employee named Frank Fry who acts very suspiciously.\u00a0 Barry sees an envelope that Fry is sending to a man in another town and finds a large amount of money that Fry drops on the ground.\u00a0 When he gives the money back to Fry, he becomes very angry.\u00a0 Suddenly a large fire breaks out and Barry, Ken and Fry head toward it.\u00a0 Fry gives Ken a fire extinguisher but when Ken directs it at the fire, he becomes engulfed by the inferno and dies.<\/p>\n
During the investigation it turns out that there is no employee named Fry and Barry\u2019s story about the whole event is doubted when it turns out the extinguisher was filled with gasoline.\u00a0 He is blamed for the fire and is being hunted as a Nazi saboteur.\u00a0 He runs away and hitches a ride with a truck driver heading for the town that Fry\u2019s letter was addressed to.<\/p>\n
When he reaches the address, the man living there, Charles Tobin, denies knowing anyone named Fry but Barry accidentally finds a telegram from Fry to Tobin.\u00a0 Realizing that Tobin is one of the saboteurs and has called the police to arrest him, Barry flees but is quickly captured by the police.\u00a0 Later he escapes from them by leaping off a bridge into a river.\u00a0 Eventually he reaches the cabin of a blind man who suspects that he is a fugitive from the law because he can hear Barry\u2019s handcuffs clinking against each other.\u00a0 The blind man prefers to believe Barry is innocent and agrees to help him get out of his handcuffs.\u00a0 But the man\u2019s niece, Patricia “Pat” Martin, arrives and wants to turn him into the police because of the news reports branding him as a dangerous saboteur.<\/p>\n
Now follows a confusing and slightly ridiculous chain of events that involves circus freaks and an eventual change of heart by Pat toward Barry.\u00a0 Eventually Barry convinces part of the sabotage gang that he is working for Tobin and is driven to New York City where the next big action is planned.\u00a0 Pat is captured and also ends up in New York.\u00a0 The new target is a battleship that has been completed in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.\u00a0 The saboteurs manage to sink it and capture both Barry and Pat.\u00a0 But by a clever ruse she is able to signal the police and all the saboteurs except Fry are captured by the police.\u00a0 Fry escapes to the Statue of Liberty and there is a climactic fight on the torch of the statue where Fry falls onto the torch arm and is hanging by his fingernails.\u00a0 Barry manages to grab hold of Fry\u2019s jacket sleeve and is waiting for the police to bring a rope to allow for a rescue.\u00a0 But before they can arrive the sleeve rips free and Fry falls to his death.\u00a0 Barry kisses Pat and the movie ends.<\/p>\n
Well, you can\u2019t say Hitchcock doesn\u2019t throw everything including the kitchen sink into the plot.\u00a0 Bearded women, Siamese twins, midgets, trusting blind men, a pretty girl who models for billboards, sunken battleships, the Statue of Liberty, the Hoover Dam, leaps off bridges, Rockefeller Center, Nazi spies, shoot outs in movie theaters, you name it.\u00a0 And this movie is noticeably a Hollywood product.\u00a0 There is all of the wartime patriotism there and the tropes that the studios had built up at this point.\u00a0 The production values are high but the dialog and acting are a bit mediocre.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a pretty good effort but hardly one of Hitchcock\u2019s finest productions.\u00a0 I\u2019d called it recommended but not highly recommended.\u00a0 Let\u2019s say it is moderately entertaining but it wouldn\u2019t be something I\u2019d re-watch often.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saboteur is one of Hitchcock\u2019s earlier Hollywood era productions.\u00a0 It\u2019s the story of Barry Kane, played by Robert Cummings, a wartime factory worker who is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,238,237],"tags":[494,1238,43,191,38,1355,1283,827],"class_list":["post-13161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-classic-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-alfred-hitchcock","tag-hollywood-golden-era","tag-movie-review","tag-ocf-classic-movie-review","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-robert-cummings","tag-ww-ii"],"yoast_head":"\n