North by Northeast

Rating: 8/10 (23 April 2010)

In suburban Glendale, California, factory worker Robert Cummings (as Barry Kane) survives the firebombing of his workplace, but becomes prime suspect in the crime. Falsely accused as the titular "Saboteur", Mr. Cummings recalls employee Norman Lloyd (as Frank Fry) was present during the bombing, but the defense factory has no evidence the man ever worked there, or even existed. Across the United States to New York, Cummings must evade authorities, find the mysterious Mr. Lloyd, and prove his innocence. Pretty billboard model Priscilla Lane (as Patricia "Pat" Martin) provides part-time feminine companionship.
This film featured, inarguably, director Alfred Hitchcock's favorite feature film story - the falsely accused, or "wronged" man attaching himself to a cool blonde and being perused by both the police and criminal types "Saboteur" contains elements which appear in many of the director prior works, and in almost every subsequent work - with it all reaching a crescendo in "North by Northwest" (1959). This film doesn't pack the singular artistic punch as the best of the rest, but the individual sequences are masterful enough to keep it going strong until the classic ending, with Cummings obtaining Liberty from Lloyd.
********Saboteur (4/22/42) Alfred Hitchcock ~ Robert Cummings, Priscilla Lane, Norman Lloyd, Otto Kruger