A lesser work for this director, but still an engaging enough wartime chase thriller.

Rating: 6/10 (8 August 2010)

Saddled with actors he didn't want and a script full of improbable characters, Alfred Hitchcock still manages to shape Saboteur into an absorbing enough thriller. In some ways, the film can be viewed as a precursor to the later (and better) North By Northwest. A falsely accused hero undertaking a cross country odyssey to clear his name, pursued by the law and the bad guys, with a climax atop a famous landmarkthe similarities between the two films are clear to see.
Aircraft mechanic Barry Kane (Robert Cummnings) is wrongly accused of sabotaging the factory at which he works during WWII. As the police close in on him, Kane realises he is going to have to clear his name alone. He goes on the run, hoping to track down the real saboteur, Frank Fry (Norman Lloyd). Kane's journey quickly becomes an epic cross-country chase, made all the more dangerous when he discovers that Fry is working for a large spy network with enemy agents all over the country. One of the only people Kane can trust is Patricia Martin (Priscilla Lane), a headstrong young woman he befriends along the way. Together Kane and Patricia make it all the way to New York City, where they find themselves in the house of a seemingly sweet old rich lady, Mrs Van Sutton (Alma Kruger), who is, in fact, another link in the spy chain. Finally, they corner the saboteur Fry on the statue of Liberty, where a struggle to the death ensues on the high torched arm of the famous Lady Liberty.
Saboteur is not really one of the better Hitchcock movies, but it still has its moments. There is a dryly amusing scene in a travelling circus van populated by circus freaks; a clever shootout at the Radio City Music Hall; and, of course the famous finale on the Statue of Liberty. Too much of the dialogue is uncommonly stilted for a Hitchcock movie, and the performances are merely competent without standing out in any way. Sometimes the narrative seems to jump to the next incident or set piece in a rather jerky, jumbled manner (again uncommon for Hitch) but happily it just about manages to pull its various loose ends together by the end. Overall, Saboteur is a perfectly watchable and entertaining film, albeit dated and not quite in the very best tier of the director's work.