Powerful

Instant Favorite.

Absolutely Brilliant!

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

One might not think a film made in 1936 could be so relevant today, but this one really is. It starts with the power supply for much of London being cut off by a terrorist bombing of the Chelsea Power Station. I need hardly remind anyone of the many contemporary media warnings of such threats, whether by bombs or by the new means of 'hacking'. The Great Blackout in New York City decades ago, and the huge power cut for much of Canada many years ago, may have been 'dry-runs'. Such threats are more relevant now than in 1936. But the eeriest thing in this film is to see a bus blown up by a bomb in a busy London street, killing its passengers. This really happened in 2005, 69 years after this film was released. Are the Islamic terrorists watching Hitchcock films? Or was Hitchcock just that far ahead of his time in seeing what was coming? This film is far more powerful than THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1934, see my review), and shows Hitchcock's suspense muscles tightening considerably. The unlikely star of the film is Oscar Homolka, who spent the rest of his career as a steady character actor. Here he is the lead, and he gives a spectacular performance. Hitchcock likes to close in on his face, especially when Homolka is silent, just as he had done two years earlier with the equally expressive face of Peter Lorre when he was also silent. What is it about these Central European actors of that generation who did not need to speak in order to act? Well, of course, they had grown up in the era of silent films, and they knew what a face could say without opening its mouth. As a stage actor in Vienna, which he fled because of the Nazis, Homolka had played Othello, and in this film we see the real stuff he was made of, which is that of a towering talent. This film is loosely based on a Joseph Conrad novel, THE SECRET AGENT (this novel would later be made into a feature film four more times, and in 2016 into a BBC TV series). The female lead in this film is Sylvia Sidney, who was famous for her sad eyes. She was very petite. She is perfect for the part of Homolka's wife, and she too says much without speaking. This is an extremely intense film, where the tension goes on increasing in the usual Hitchcock manner. Homolka lives in London but is in liaison with some terrorists, and considering that his boss has a German accent and this is 1936, we get the message. A character actor who plays one of the 'bad guys' is Peter Bull (uncredited), whom I used to know when he ran an astrology shop in Notting Hill Gate long ago. His heavy protruding lower lip resembled Hitchcock's. We see a great deal of London life in this film, whether on location or on a huge set makes little difference, as it is all thoroughly authentic. Hitchcock loved grocer's shops (his father had been a cabbage dealer) and street markets. The featured area in the film is S.W.5, which is the Earl's Court area, as it may have looked at that time. The editing of this film by Charles Frend is sensational, and greatly adds to the power of the movie. The scenes in the aquarium are suitably weird, and add to the furtive atmosphere of Homolka meeting and receiving instructions from his Nazi handler. This is truly vintage Hitchcock at its best.

Released in 1936 - This intriguing early film directed by Alfred Hitchcock contains a great opening scene where the electrical power goes off all over London, which is caused by a willful act of sabotage.The camera then gives the viewer a sweeping panoramic view of the situation, scanning over the city that's now in shadows and blackness with an emphasis placed on selected historical sites.This excellent beginning immediately grabs the viewer's attention as Sabotage's gripping, well-crafted story gets underway, moving the action along at a fine clip.Adapted from Joseph Conrad's novel "Secret Agent", Sabotage tells the tale of a Scotland Yard undercover detective who is hot on the trail of a suspected saboteur who's part of a diabolical plot to set off a powerful bomb in broad daylight in downtown London.When the detective's cover is blown, the plot begins to unravel and go haywire.Even at this early phase of Hitchcock's career as a director, it's plainly obvious to see that he had something of a strong fascination with butcher's knives, already.Featuring a really strong cast, this first-rate, b&w Suspense/Thriller has a running time of only 76 minutes.

Master of Suspense director Sir Alfred Hitchcock started his successful career in his home country, and this was one of the last films he made before going to the United States (although he did return home for Frenzy), I was interested. Basically Karl Verloc (Oskar Homolka) is a cinema owner and a member of a gang planning to sabotage operations in London, and he lives with his wife Sylvia (Beetlejuice's Sylvia Sidney) and her teenage brother Stevie (Desmond Tester). His wife and her brother know nothing about Karl's big secret, even after a big incident where many lights in a part of London were turned off, but there are worse things to happen than that. Suspecting something is going on with Verloc, Scotland Yard assigns undercover Detective Sergeant Ted Spencer (John Loder) to keep an eye on him, working near the cinema and investigate. Sylvia didn't originally know anything, but her suspicion arises, and at a reasonably good time because the gang assign Karl to put a bomb in the metro, so he sends young Stevie with a bag for him to "deliver", but he does not make it all the way to the right location for the explosion. In the end the villain Karl gets what he deserves being stabbed by his own wife, and London seems to be safe from anymore sabotage incidents, and Sylvia walks away with Ted. Also starring Joyce Barbour as Renee, Matthew Boulton as Superintendent Talbot, S.J. Warmington as Hollingshead, William Dewhurst as Professor A.F. Chatman, and Hitchcock's cameo is as the man passing looking up when the lights go back on. The acting is reasonable, the best scene is certainly unknowingly carrying the bomb in the bag, and there are some good tense moments you would expect from the great director, a watchable mystery thriller. Very good!

Whilst Alfred Hitchcock is considered by many to be one of the best directors to walk the Earth and still has a wide fan base of out and new film fans, some of his early work is well, unremarkable. This was even commented by Paul Merton, in his documentary for BBC 4. Luckily Sabotage is one of Hitchcock's better British works.A spy ring is trying to attack London, hoping to distract Britain from there Foreign enemies. But their attack on London's power supply have failed to install and a sense of fear in the British public. Karl Verloc (Oscar Homolka), a cinema owner, is assigned a mission to place a bomb at Piccadilly Circus with the aim of causing fear and panic. But Verloc is being watched by Ted (John Loder), a police officer who is undercover working for a fruit and veg stool outside the cinema. Ted attempt to find out what's happening by becoming friendly with Verloc's wife (Sylvia Sidney) and her younger brother Stevie (Desmond Tester). But the two do not know anything. With the terrorist plot taking shape Verloc ends up making Stevie unwitting pawn to plant his bomb, and it becomes a race against time to stop him.There are some familiar Hitchcockian traits, such as the two main protagonists having a love-hate relationship before they warm to each other. But for the most part this was a well paced thriller about the need to stop a terrorist attack. There is tension and a good example that a thriller doesn't need a lot a action scenes to make it exciting. This is a big spoiler but it has to be said: some people have criticised the film for allowing the bomb to go off and people getting killed, including Hitchcock himself. But this gives the film an edge, and was revolutionarily for the time. It shows that people do get hurt and gives the film a more darker psychology. This would be good if it was done in a modern film.The acting in the film is pretty standard, not good or bad to report, but the characters do not have as much depth as they should. They was a moment when Karl Verloc showed doubt about his mission and that should have been played up more.Overall a pretty good thriller with a lot of potential. It is worth watching if you are interested in Hitchcock's work.