Saboteur

Rating: 7/10 (17 April 2007)

I remember seeing this classic film directed by the Master of Suspense, Sir Alfred Hitchcock once before, but it was only the ending I could recall from the last time seeing it, so it was a good idea I watched it again. Basically, set in World War II, a fire is started at a Los Angeles military aircraft factory, and Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) is wrongly accused of the sabotage, and he is convinced the real culprit is Frank Fry (Norman Lloyd), who he met before the incident occurred. But no-one named Fry is found on the plant workers' list, so Kane is arrest as the saboteur, but he manages to escape and is on the run as a fugitive to catch the man who actually started the fire. He finds an address for Fry on an envelope and travels to Central Valley where he finds a ranch occupied by well respected citizen Charles Tobin (Otto Kruger), but of course he is part of the sabotage and has Kane captured, but he escapes once again. He finds refuge in a shack where a blind man shows him hospitality, but the man's billboard model niece Patricia 'Pat' Martin (Priscilla Lane) spots his handcuffs, and instead of taking him to the blacksmith's like the man wanted she attempts taking him to the police. Kane manages to stop her though, using a car generator's fan belt to cut his cuffs apart, and he kidnaps her to go along with him and prove his innocence, heading for Salt City. When there he finds the saboteurs, who are planning to blow up Boulder Dam, and he convinces them he is the saboteur like the newspapers are reporting, and he foils their plans to destroy the dam. Kane joins the saboteurs as they travel to New York City where they plan to attack a new US Navy ship, USS Alaska, being launched at Brooklyn shipyard. Martin was going to again go to he police, but she is swayed by a corrupt chief, and when she finds Kane again, and after trapped in a room dancing in a crowd they are locked by the bad guys separately at the Rockfeller Center. Martin manages to drop out a message for help to the FBI from the office window, while Kane sets off the fire alarm, he rushes to the shipyard and spots Fry in a fake news van controlling a bomb that will detonate when the champagne flute is broken. Martin realises the situation as well, and she manages to see Fry as well and follows him all the way to the top of the Statue of Liberty, and she stalls them while the FBI, who believes Kane now, and he make their way towards them. When they arrive Fry dashes to the top of the Statue lantern, and Kane follows him where there is no escape, and the villain loses his balance, he hangs on for dear life and Kane climbs down, grabbing his sleeve to try and help him back up, but the sleeve tears and Fry falls to his death, but Kane and Martin hug each other in the end. Also starring Alan Baxter as Freeman, Clem Bevans as Neilson, Alma Kruger as Henrietta Sutton and Vaughan Glaser as Phillip Martin, and Hitchcock's cameo is the man standing in front of Cut Rate Drugs as the saboteur's car stops. The performances by Cummings and Lane are suitably tense, and the actors playing villains get their time as well, the best moments are the chase sequences and of course the Statue of Liberty sequence, but there are some other surprises along the way, such as Kane and Martin being picked up by a freak circus, and temporarily joining the bad guys, it is a fine film that I can see is a must see, a great classic spy thriller. Sir Alfred Hitchcock was number 75 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons. Very good!