Hitchcock's running men

Rating: 7/10 (6 May 2016)

Saboteur belongs to the group I call "middle Hitch" - neither among his timeless masterpieces (Psycho, Rear Window, Vertigo...) nor among his very good movies (To Catch a Thief, Suspicion...), but still better than his rare weak efforts (Jamaica Inn, Frenzy...).
The "middle Hitch" includes breezy, fun genre movies (The Lady Vanishes, Young and Innocent...), with flashes of genius here and there. Saboteur follows the "innocent man on the run" template which the director had been tackling since The 39 Steps and which will peak decades later with North by Northwest.
Leads Robert Cummings and Priscilla Lane are lightweight but likable; the story of a young man wrongly accused of sabotage who must escape the police and find the real culprit is entertaining, although Hitchcock's own assessment (in one of his insightful interviews with Truffaut) that the script lacks discipline and is cluttered with too many ideas seems accurate.
7/10