A solid, fast-paced Hitchcock thriller, albeit with few surprises

Rating: 8/10 (27 June 2020)

Alfred Hitchcock's 1942 film Saboteur is notable for being his first to feature and all-American cast. Based on an idea by Hitchcock, the screenplay by Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison and Dorothy Parker is one of several of the director's films about an innocent man forced to go on the run in order to clear his name, and it owes something of a debt to his earlier British film The 39 Steps.
Saboteur sees Robert Cummings' Barry Kane being accused of committing sabotage a US airbase when he is handed a fire extinguisher filled with gasoline to use on a deliberately-started fire. Resolving to prove his innocence and bring the real saboteur to justice, Kane promptly sets off across the United States on the trail of a man named Fry. The parallels with The 39 Steps immediately become obvious, with Kane encountering various villains and eccentrics, constantly having to keep one step ahead of the police, having drag to along with him a reluctant young woman who initially distrusts him, and eventually thwarting a secret criminal organisation (Hitchcock fans will note that the film thus also acts as a template for North by North-West).
Nevertheless, Saboteur is not a remake of Hitchcock's earlier film and it stands up well on its own merits. In contrast to the brave and intelligent but slightly hapless and out of his depth Richard Hannay, Barry Kane is written as a determined man of action, who can ride a horse, fire a gun, and handle himself in a fight. He is motivated not just by self-preservation, but also by a desire to stop Fry and his organisation causing any more deaths and he passionately condemns totalitarian regimes when talking to the villainous Charles Tobin, although his sense of morality also prompts him to try and save Fry's life during the film's climax. Cummings fills the role well, and makes a likeable leading man, and he works well with Priscilla Lane, who plays love interest Patricia.
There is much decent characterisation, such as Vaughan Glaser's Uncle Phillip, a perceptive old blind man who instinctively believes that Kane is innocent, and the circus troupe members on whose land train Barry and Pat stow away on. Billy Curtis' anti-democratic Major is especially entertaining. Freeman, one of the spies, discusses his parenting dilemmas with Barry, whilst Otto Kruger's Tobin makes a debonair villain.
Hitchcock's decision to make extensive use of location filming - which cinematographer Joseph A. Valentine makes good use - pays off. The sets generally mesh well with the location filming, especially the impressive river set. The scenes in New York are really well shot, with great use made of various camera techniques including long-shots and aerial shots. The cinema scene is masterful, with the action on screen reflecting Fry's actions in the theatre, and the climax inside the Statue of Liberty is impressively realised, involving a mock-up of part of the statue and some trick photography to show Fry falling to his death. Frank Skinner's occasionally melodramatic score provides an almost continuous accompaniment to the film and works rather well.
Saboteur is perhaps one of Hitchcock's less well known films, and it lacks the twists and surprises of his finest work, but it serves as a solid example of how polished and accomplished even his less celebrated movies are.