Saboteur

Name: Saboteur
Genre: Thriller, War
Released: April 24, 1942
Duration: 109 min
Rating: 64
Cast: Alan Baxter, Alma Kruger, Clem Bevans, Dorothy Peterson, Ian Wolfe

1942

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Ratings

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7.7

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7.7	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Ratings

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Saboteur

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Movie Details & Credits

Universal Pictures | Release Date: April 24, 1942 | TV-PG

Starring: Alan Baxter, Alma Kruger, Clem Bevans, Dorothy Peterson, Ian Wolfe, Norman Lloyd, Otto Kruger, Priscilla Lane, Robert Cummings, Vaughan Glaser

Summary: An aircraft factory worker goes on the run after being wrongly accused of starting a fire that killed his best friend.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Genre(s): Thriller, War

Rating: TV-PG

Runtime: 109 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Staff (Not Credited)

This film, Hitchcock's first contribution to wartime American propaganda, is as polished and suspenseful as any the great director would make. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

A melodramatic journey from coast to coast shows Hitchcock at his best. It gives movement, distance and a terrifying casualness to his painful suspense. Read full review

Richard Brody

For his first thriller set in America, from 1942, Alfred Hitchcock runs loopily through a gamut of genres, filming in a range of settings, from California to New York, to depict a country that lives in the image of its movies. His set pieces take on the blue-collar drama, the Western, the high-society mystery, the urban police story, and the circus melodrama, while capturing the paranoia of a country newly at war. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

A little on the bland side in its two leads, though suave Kruger and sweaty Lloyd compensate with their vivid villainies. Lots of echoes of earlier British Hitchcock, plus the charmingly bizarre encounter with the caravan-load of circus freaks, the charity ball from which there appears to be no exit, and the classic climax atop the Statue of Liberty. Read full review

David Parkinson

Not one of Hitchcock's best, but with a few creative sequences and some sharp writing from Dorothy Parker. Read full review

Pauline Kael

A mixed-up and over-loaded American spy thriller by Alfred Hitchcok, with the unengaging Robert Cummings in the lead and an unappealing cast, featuring Priscilla Lane and Otto Kruger. Nothing holds together, but there are still enough scary sequences to make the picture entertaining.

Bosley Crowther

To put it mildly, Mr. Hitchcock and his writers have really let themselves go. Melodramatic action is their forte, but they scoff at speed limits this trip. Read full review

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User Reviews

DoniJr

Nov 9, 2018

The suspense is good and had me on the edge of my seat, but the continuous monologues that exposes what message Hitchcock meant with the film are not subtle and made me suspend disbelief for a lot of times.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

FilipeNeto

Mar 31, 2020

This is another American film integrated in the effort to moralize and mobilize the public, in the context of World War II. The whole action revolves around an attempted sabotage in a military aircraft factory, with an unjustly accused worker fleeing the authorities to try to discover theThis is another American film integrated in the effort to moralize and mobilize the public, in the context of World War II. The whole action revolves around an attempted sabotage in a military aircraft factory, with an unjustly accused worker fleeing the authorities to try to discover the truth, clear his name and avenge his best friend, who dies in the incident.

The plot has obvious weaknesses. Never would the police, in their right mind, assume that the workers who try to put out a fire are the same ones who filled with gasoline the only extinguishers available to do so. Likewise, a stranger would never trust and help someone he has just met, knowing in advance that he can be a wanted and highly dangerous terrorist. This is enough to take all the logic out of the story.

As a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, it is not surprising that the technical aspects of filming, editing and post production have been meticulously carried out. The actors are good and do their job on a regular basis, but there is nothing really remarkable here. Robert Cummings is the protagonist and does a good job, but largely inferior to the performance he would do in "Dial M For Murder", for example.

This is a film that has aged badly and will probably end up in a certain forgetfulness, which will not be complete due to the fact that it was directed by one of the greatest filmmakers ever.… Expand

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