The 39 Steps

Rating: Null/10 (24 March 2007)

Better than its reputation, but not one of Alfred Hitchcock's masterpieces, "Saboteur" is a light-hearted romp in the vein of the master's earlier picture, "The 39 Steps".
The plot? Robert Cummings plays Barry Kane, a man who finds himself trapped in another of Hitchcock's "wrong man" plots. Wrongly accused of being both a spy and a murderer, Kane must run from the authorities whilst also pursuing the film's real villain. Sounds familiar? Maybe, but Hitchcock practically invented the "running man" genre, and this film, along with earlier Hitchcock pictures like it, continue to influence modern thrillers to this day.
As a chase movie, "Saboteur" works well. The film jumps from sequence to sequence, until it concludes with a typically grand, Hitchcockian climax. Critics accuse the film of being trite - the plot exists only to lay the foundation for thrills - but Hitch knows this. He cater's lovingly to an audience whose needs are both base and very human; sex, violence, romance, thrills and a little comedy.
Released in 1942, "Saboteur" was one in a long line of subtle propaganda pictures by Hitchcock. Here our hero - typically Hitchcockian, the poor guy is a bundle of paranoia and anxiety - uncovers a Nazi spy ring which he eventually defeats on the Statue of Liberty. This is silly - the Nazi's started off (and were fanned by) as a tool of wealthy westerners against communism and anti-monarchist movements - but the plot leads well to the film's ironic final act. Here Kane must literally become a saboteur to defend his country, lending Hitchcock's title a double meaning; a suspected saboteur and a real one.
8/10 - Worth two viewings.