Flawed yet enjoyable thriller

Rating: 6/10 (27 August 2008)

Saboteur gets off to a cracking start as an explosion in a factory leads to worker Barry Kane being falsely accused of sabotage. He then proceeds to evade his captors and search for the rear criminals behind the plot, in order to clear his name.
The first half of the film is great entertainment with some fantastic set-pieces. (The scene with the blind man is a highlight.) Saboteur benefits from a strong and appealing lead performance from Robert Cummings and a charismatic villain in the form of Otto Kreuger.
The film suffers from an uninteresting love interest, a considerably duller second half and an occasionally sketchy plot. However the pace is picked up again in the last 20 minutes, with a tense and gripping finale.
A solid offering from Hitchcock.