Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #84220 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-03-06
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 108 minutes

Amazon.com
Robert Cummings stars as Barry Kane, a patriotic munitions worker who is falsely accused of sabotage, in this wartime thriller from Alfred Hitchcock. Plastered across the front page of every newspaper and hated by the nation, Kane's only hope of clearing his name is to find the real villain. If this sounds a bit like Hitchcock's later North by Northwest, it is. There are interesting echoes throughout, including a heart-stopping sequence on top of a national monument. But the most interesting thing about Saboteur is the frequency with which characters demonstrate their willingness to obstruct the police, going on nothing more than the fact that Kane seems like a stand-up guy. They do, again and again, apparently just because good people can spot other good people. Saboteur was made during the thick of World War II, so there are a few passages of heavy-handed jingoism to get through but they're relatively painless. The script as a whole is a clever one--Algonquin wit Dorothy Parker shares a screenwriting credit, and her trademark zingers make for a terrific mix of humor and suspense. Saboteur is a pleasure whether you're a die-hard Hitchcock fan or just someone who likes a good nail-biter. --Ali Davis

Customer Reviews

Entertaining WWII Thriller
This is a fun to watch wartime thriller from Hitchcock of an aircraft munitions worker forced to take it on the lam and find a Nazi saboteur named Fry when he is wrongly accused of the act of sabotage which killed his best friend. Hitchcock's films often get compared unfairly to each other, but taken on its own terms, this is a wonderfully entertaining suspense film with some genuinely memorable moments.

Robert Cummings is excellent as munitions worker Barry Kane, in constant danger both from the police and the bad guys, as he traces a network of saboteurs to a man named Tobin (Otto Kruger) at "Deep Springs Ranch." Tobin knows who Fry is but also knows no one will believe Kane. But as Kane narrowly escapes the police and the Nazi sympathizers he is aided by some along the way who can see he is a stand-up guy, wrongly accused.

One of those people is the blind father of Pat (Priscilla Lane), a billboard model who doesn't share her father's faith in Kane. She starts out doing everthing she can to turn him over to the police but ends up falling in love instead, and in just as much danger as he is. There is a particularly tense scene at a huge party as Kane confronts the cool and slimy Tobin but can't expose the house full of secret agents because Pat has been captured and will be killed if he does.

This film has some great moments of suspense. One such moment, is a plea for help written in lipstick from a trapped Pat, floating down a skyscraper in New York, waiting to be found. The troop of a circus sideshow play a part in the couple's plight also, as his quest to clear himself takes him from Boulder Dam to Rockefeller Center to the Statue of Liberty.

There is a tight and witty script from Dorothy Parker, among others, and Hitchcock's famous little touches keep this one interesting. Robert Cummings, who had proved himself in comedy the previous year in "It Started With Eve" with Deanna Durbin, showed his versatility in this film. Priscilla Lane, pretty and likable, gives another nice performance here.

Taken on its own merits, this is a really good film, a great popcorn movie for a rainy night or a lazy weekend. There's nothing wrong with that.

"Wrong man" thriller looks great on DVD
The factory where Barry Kane(Bob Cummings)and his friends work building war time airplanes explodes into flame during a lunchtime break.When Kane and his best friend move in to put out the fire with fire extinguishers (the sprinkler system was mysteriously out of order), Kane's friend is killed. When it's uncovered that the fire extinguisher handed to them by Fry was filled with gas, the authorities suspect sabotage and Kane becomes the prime culprit. Now Kane must track down the mysterious an unfriendly stranger named Fry (Norman Lloyd in a sharp, scary performance) in order to prove his innocence. Fry mysteriously vanishes leaving Kane (in a witty reference to Orson Welles "Citizen Kane")the only visible suspect of the sabotage. In the process he discovers a facist group called "the Fifth Column" which, somehow, is involved in this conspiracy.

A midperiod minor classic from Hitchcock, "Saboteur" features a number of marvelous sequences that make it instantly memorable. The sequence where Kane tries to save someone dangling from the Statue of Liberty foreshadows his later films like "North by Northwest" and even "Vertigo". The full screen presentation (for those who are interested no movies were shot in widescreen prior to the mid-50's. Widescreen was designed to couteract the effect of television)looks quite good. Universal clearly spent quite a bit of time spiffing up this black and white thriller. The transfer is quite good with solid blacks, whites and grays. The picture occasionally suffers from a bit of edge enhancement and there are occasional analog imperfections but, on the whole, "Saboteur" looks terrific. Universal has done a great job of paying tribute to Hitchcock by putting together this carefully researched and transferred disc.

My only complaint is that there isn't a commentary track featuring someone like Peter Bogdanovich and some of the production crew/cast interviewed for the DVD. Additionally, some comments from Bogdanovich's famous interviews with Hitchcock for his book would also have spiced this up a bit. There weren't many comments on "Saboteur" included in the book but those that reference the film and its era would have been welcome.

The DVD includes a documentary on the making of the film with interviews with Pat Hitchcock O'Connell (Hitch's daughter), actor Norman Lloyd (who plays Fry and became a frequent Hitchcock collaborator and ultimately ended up co-producing "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" with Joan Harrison), associate art director Robert Boyle and cast members. We also get to see Hitch's storyboards for certain sequences in the film as well as Hitch's sketches, production photographs, photo and poster gallery from the film. We also get production notes, cast and filmmaker info and the original theatrical trailer. A nicely done package by Universal, "Saboteur" was put out as part of Universal's series of Hitchcock films back in the year 2000. The witty script (credited by Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison and the witty Dorothy Parker), performances (Bob Cummings does a great job in light of the fact that he wasn't Hitch's first choice. Gary Cooper turned down the part and Joel McCrea wasn't available although he was eager to work with Hitch again after "Foreign Correspondent")and direction, "Saboteur" may be of its time but it transcends the era it was made in.

Wartime Fear on the Silver Screen...
Amidst World War II Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) gets falsely accused for blowing up an aircraft factory on the west coast, however, he has one clue which he intends to follow up on. This clue takes him to to the deserts of the United States where he finds reluctant help through a blind man and his daughter Patricia (Priscilla Lane). It seems like the clues lead toward the Big Apple where Barry intends to find the saboteur who really blew up the airplane plant. Saboteur is a suspenseful film that was made during World War II when there was an actual fear for saboteurs, traitors, and spies. This fear must have enhanced the suspense that the film provides, and it is still a thrilling cinematic experience that leaves the audience agape from the beginning to the end.