Sabotage
Tags: suspenseful, murder

Plot synopsis:
First we see a dictionary page highlighting SABOTAGE, then a power station with one chimney smoking in the moonlight, then a gaudily lit London street at night. The lights in the streets go out. Lit only by flashlight, we see a large machine half in water. Several hands excitedly fuss with the machinery, digging up a muddy substance. A first voice says: "Sand!", then another voice "Sabotage!", and a third : "Who did it?" The face of Karl Verloc (Oscar Homolka), walking in the shadows, emerges to fill the screen.Customers at the BIJOU cinema exit to the street after the power goes off. Some loudly insist on getting a refund. At the box office, the clerk and the owner's wife are hesitant to refund anything, as they are short of cash.A youngish man Ted Spencer (John Loder) stands on a step and spouts off comically as though he knows the law and repeats there is no need to return money, as there is no fault by the cinemas owners.Meanwhile, Verloc comes into the BIJOU surreptitiously although Ted observes him. He quietly goes to bed at the dwelling in back of the screen and lies down as if he had been napping.Verloc's young wife Sylvia (Sylvia Sidney) is hesitant to give refunds, and believes her husband is still out, but Ted tells her he saw him come in, so she goes into the apartment, finds Verloc, and asks whether to refund the money. Verloc tells her to go ahead and give refunds, as he will be getting some money shortly.Just as refunds are about to be given, the power comes back on, customers laugh and reenter the BIJOU.The Verlocs are the owners of the BIJOU. They live, together with her little brother Stevie (Desmond Tester), in the rear apartment. Right after the blackout, the cook leaves, leaving Stevie in charge of finalizing dinner. Stevie fumbles and breaks a dish, which he hides in a drawer.Scotland Yard suspects Verloc is an agent for a foreign power, part of a gang planning other attacks. Detective Sergeant Ted Spencer was assigned to investigate Verloc under cover, and attempt to get hard evidence against him. Spencer poses as a greengrocer's helper, selling fruit and vegetables in a shop right next to the cinema. The family comes into the shop often, and he ingratiates himself with Stevie and his sister by providing many extra services.Ted is attracted to the beautiful Sylvia but she wants nothing to do with his advances.Ted invites Stevie and Sylvia to a full lunch at Simpson's, a fashionable restaurant. At the lunch, Sylvia explains that her husband is a good man who has been kind to her and her little brother.She is an American who came to London with Stevie to escape the Depression in America, but when the economy crashed in England, too, they were down on their luck and to survive she married a kind older man who protected them. They are running the BIJOU, but struggling economically.Verloc receives a phone call and goes to the London aquarium to receive pay and more instructions. He is tailed by police, who want to identify the entire saboteur gang, but knowing the foreign bosses are "people you and I will never catch" as one policeman tells another.Verloc meets his contact in front of an illuminated tank where a huge turtle is swimming. A passerby (Charles Hawtrey) enthusiastically describes the reproduction of fish at the aquarium and compares them to humans.Verloc is paid but scolded because his power station stunt was disappointing. "London must not laugh" is the order given to Verloc. "We want the English to worry about what happens in England and thus pay no attention to what happens elsewhere in Europe". Agents must not fear retribution to earn their money.Then the contact assigns Verloc to put a bomb in Piccadilly Circus station "the center of the world", and produce fear, not laughter. Verloc isn't a forceful villain, just a weak, man of no moral fiber who objects to the idea of murder but decides to go through with it for money.The bomb is to be prepared by an agent who runs a pet shop as a front. Verloc realizes that he is in over his head, and tries to get out of the fearsome responsibilities, but he is scolded again and he accepts.
In a dreamy sequence the scared Verloc sees the fish swimming in the tank and imagines them as motor cars filled with passengers moving around Piccadilly Circus when an explosion demolishes all buildings around. Suddenly the fish in the tank reappear.Again tailed by Scotland Yard, he proceeds to the pet shop. At the pet shop, an old biddy wants to return a canary that won't sing. The shop owner Professor Chatman (William Dewhurst), has no trouble getting the bird to warble, implying that it's the lady's fault. Verloc is led to a stuffy kitchen where a chaotic nconventional family of three, a father, daughter, and granddaughter live, to talk to Chatman.Chatman opens a cabinet, reaching for bomb making stuff and first finds the granddaughter's doll in the cabinet. He then explains to Verloc that the bomb is up to Chatman, only the delivery will be up to Verloc.They agree to disguise the bomb in a cage with canaries, addressed to Stevie, who will enjoy the birds.A clandestine meeting for gang members is arranged for Verloc's apartment. Ted has no difficulty identifying something is afoot, since anyone wanting to see Verloc must walk up to the front of the Bijou, pass into the dark screening room, walk along its side to a curtain next to the screen. Behind the curtain is Verloc's door.Ted gets Stevie to show him how to get behind the screen to a window from which he might overhear what is going on at the meeting Verloc is having with other shifty-eyed foreigners in ill-fitting suits. Unfortunately, he is spotted by the conspirators and pulled into the room.The conspirators end their meeting, telling Verloc the job is his alone. Verloc exits to talk to his neighbor the greengrocer, and elicits comments that confirm that Ted is a policeman under cover.Meantime Sylvia has become gradually more suspicious about Verloc's activities. However, she hesitates and delays.Professor Chatman sends Stevie a pair of canaries in a cage, with the package bomb concealed in a drawer underneath. Verloc reads a sealed message that the bomb is set to go off at 1:45. Ted admits he is a detective and detains Verloc asking him details over and over, pretending he has no suspicions of Verloc himself. Verloc, wanting an alibi for the time of the explosion, arranges for Stevie to take the package to Picadilly and leave it in the station cloakroom by 1:30. The excuse is that a film canister needs to be returned nearby. It must be walked over, because it is inflammable and it cant be carried on a bus.The heartbreakingly cheerful brother is carrying the bomb along with film canisters labeled "Bartholomew the Strangler. Because the Lord Mayor's parade is on that day, Stevie is delayed by all manner of events. A street vendor pulls him out of a crowd in order to demonstrate a new toothpaste. He's stopped from crossing a street because the parade is marching by. He enjoys watching the parade. The parade has snarled traffic. When he gets on a bus the conductor ironically warns, "Don't set fire to me or the other passengers." The bus keeps hitting red lights.There are many cuts between the oblivious Stevie, with a time bomb in a package under one arm while petting a fluffy puppy with his free hand and talking to an old lady, those big outdoor clocks whose arms get ever closer to 1:45, until the explosion.Ted receives orders to go to the explosion scene. When Stevie does not get back home for a meal, Sylvia starts to worry and ask questions, and learns the awful truth from Verloc.Verloc confesses his part in the sabotage, while standing near the model boat which she and her brother had made, then blames Spencer for Stevie's death, saying he prevented Verloc from delivering the bomb himself. Verloc suggests to Sylvia that they could have a child of their own, as if to compensate for her loss.Sylvia, deeply depressed and confused at the revelation, hears laughter from the audience. She wanders into the theater in shock, and sits to watch "Who Killed Cock Robin," a 1935 Disney cartoon featuring a parody of Mae West. Momentarily, she laughs, but when the arrow is loosed and slays poor Cock Robin, the laughter on her face changes to an expression of agony and terror.Her eyes and expressions subtly convey an emotional cascade of stunned realization, immense sadness, and suppressed hysteria. She realizes what a monster her husband is.Sylvia explodes after sitting to dinner with Verloc. He orders his still shocked and dazed wife to a "get a grip" and get prepared to deny everything. He goes on to order her to scold the cook about the overcooked cabbage soup on the dinner table.Without dialogue, the camera shifts from her face, to Verloc's, to the food they are eating, to her hold on a carving knife, until they both rise, stare at each other, and it happens: she stabs him in the stomach with the knife.Meantime, Ted discovers, at the scene of the blown up bus, part of the film canister from the BIJOU that most likely was carried by Stevie, so he returns to the BIJOU.We see Sylvia sitting, dazed, right past the doorway, and in the foreground, the feet of the slain Verloc.When Spencer arrives at the apartment, he realizes what has happened, but insists that Sylvia shouldn't admit that she knifed her husband. He takes her out of the apartment and tries to convince her that he is in love with her, and talks about getting on a boat crossing the Channel to France and together escape the police.Professor Chatman's daughter berates him for leaving a bird-cage with the shop's identification at Verloc's, and insists he go back to retrieve it. Chatman enters the apartment just ahead of a squad of detectives coming for Verloc. When the detectives knock, he locks the door and announces he has a bomb and will blow it up if they enter.The detectives at the door assume they are hearing Verlocs voice, and take the threat seriously. They evacuate the building. They argue about who should stay near the apartment: the single guy says he will stay and let the married ones go to a safer place, but one of the marrieds jokes that since hes already married, his life is over anyway so he might as well stay.Sylvia is dazedly responding to Ted's love declaration, and kisses him, but she refuses to run away, and is just on the edge of confessing to a policeman when an explosion and fire at the cinema intervenes. The evidence of her crime is destroyed, and effectively prevents the policeman from remembering whether it was before or after the explosion that she said, "My husband is dead!"At the end we see Sylvia and Ted walk away together.

Review: Hitchcock later said he should have ended the sequence differently, and many viewers might agree, but what happens is in keeping with the themes and plot of the movie, and the suspense sequence is also masterfully done.
Then there is a tense, famous scene at the dinner table, filmed as an absolutely masterful montage by Hitchcock.These scenes, and the finely crafted atmosphere of "Sabotage", make it worthwhile despite a few small faults, and despite the possibility that many viewers will not be comfortable with some of the plot developments.
Like most Hitchcock films, "Sabotage" is a great thriller directed with a fluid, self-assured style.
They moved to London to run the Bijou, a struggling movie house.Among the notable scenes is the meeting between Sidney's husband (played by Oskar Homolka) and a spy contact at the London aquarium; to the backdrop of a huge turtle swimming in an illuminated tank.
It is a rare example of the visual power of film and an illustration of what acting for the camera is all about.And perhaps most amazing is the long and unbearably suspenseful journey of young brother Stevie across London, unaware that he's carrying a ticking time bomb..
Such a great loss for each.The way Hitchcock handles the delicate situation involving the cute boy, Mrs. Verloc's (Sylvia Sidney)little brother, riding the bus with a time bomb in a package under one arm while petting a fluffy puppy with his free hand is necessary for what happens at the end of the film.
Hitchcock skillfully blends the clip from "Cock Robin" into his story of "Sabotage." Mrs. Verloc deeply depressed and confused following her brother's death hears the laughter coming from the audience.
One is reminded how a later director/writer Preston Sturges would use a similar technique with a Mickey Mouse cartoon in his classic "Sullivan's Travels."There is also a clear message by Hitchcock on sabotage, today terrorism; those so-called martyrs for a cause are in reality misguided devils who end up killing the innocent and helpless instead of the ones their feeble minds believe to be the deceivers and exploiters of the human race..
We even see a British crowd in the movie theater watching a Disney flick (which is well noted in the opening credits).1934's THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH was an effective early thriller, better than the 1956 remake, however, this is the film to start with if studying Hitchcock's career.
One of the best sequences in the film is when Mrs. Verloc's younger brother (played by Desmond Tester) is asked to deliver a package (unknowingly a bomb) for Adolf Verloc.
It gives you characters to care about, especially Mrs. Verloc, played masterfully by Sylvia Sydney as a happy wife who discovers the hard way that her husband is a terrorist (don't worry, no spoilers here; we find this out in the first scene).
The films caught attention in American (especially "The Thirty-Nine Steps" and "The Lady Vanishes"), and Hitchcock was invited to come to America by David Selznick, who would be his producer from 1939 onward.The other comments on this film have pointed out some of the best moments, such as the explosion scene and the death of Verloc (Oskar Homolka).
Adapted from the Joseph Conrad novel "The Secret Agent" but markedly better both in terms of its linear treatment of the thin central story and its sharper, more measured ending, "Sabotage" introduces us to Mr. Verloc (Oskar Homolka), the owner of a London cinema who sidelines as a secret agent for a mysterious foreign power, "the people you and I will never catch" as one policeman tells another.
After causing a power outage that produces laughter rather than the desired fear, Verloc is assigned a more deadly job, to cause an explosion in Piccadilly Circus, "the center of the world," as Verloc's controller calls it.It's impossible to watch the film now without thinking of 9/11 or the London subway bombings, a world of murderous, anarchic terrorism Conrad's novel and Hitchcock's film anticipated without quite comprehending.
Mrs. Verloc, played by screen vet Sylvia Sidney (she was the case worker helping the Maitlands in the afterlife in "Beetle Juice" 52 years later) is the closest we have to a rooting interest, though her concern seems less with the husband or the policeman who woos her than her little brother, Stevie (Desmond Tester).Hitchcock's direction offers a little of the comic relief more prominent in his other films, and some arresting visuals for their time, especially that of a fish tank which morphs into a London street under attack.
(Verloc's owning a cinema may be a comment on the deceptively transformative power of cinema, or a wink in the direction of his sideline activity in the novel, selling Edwardian porn.) Mostly "Sabotage" is a film that grabs you by the throat and never lets go, making its 80-minute running time feel like forever going by in an instant.It all comes down to the scene on the bus.
The picture is an adaptation of the Joseph Conrad's novel about Verloc (Oscar Homolka) , an anarchist bomber and owns a theater who actually is an unknown secret agent for the foreign government in London pre-WWII .
The movie has the expressionist German atmosphere , the suspense is continued and appears lurking and menacing in the theater , streets and during the bus scenes , when the boy carries the bomb .
Sabotage Based on Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel " The Secret Agent," the story concerns Detective Sergeant Ted Spenser ( John Lodger), who is disguised as a greengrocer in order to uncover the details of a plot to destroy London.
The owner of the theatre, Mr. Verloc ( Oscar Homolka), is involved in the plot, but his young wife ( Sylvia Sidney) and her younger brother Stevie ( Desmond Tester) are ignorant of it.
Soon feeling that something is up and under pressure from his co-conspirators, Verloc sends Stevie to deliver something for him, only the young boy doesn't know he's delivering a time-bomb.There are many standout scenes in this film.
For example, the suspense Hitchcock builds on the bus with the conductor, who ironically warns Stevie, " Don't set fire to me or the other passengers." The last is the entire sequence in which Mrs. Verloc finds out what has just happened.
At the tail end of his British period, at a time when standard cinematic technique and narrative convention were well established, Hitchcock was effectively a researcher, of the kind that hadn't really been seen since the days of Griffith.Sabotage is adapted from the Joseph Conrad novel Secret Agent, and it's worth taking a peek at a synopsis of the book to see the differences in the movie version, two of which are very significant.
There are a few pointless technical touches, such as Homolka's vision of London in the fish tank glass, or Stevie's face popping up among the crowd of boys, but these are not as distracting as they could be in Hitch's earliest pictures.Hitchcock rarely gave his actors any coaching, and relied upon a good professional cast to deliver the goods.
Little-known stage veteran William Dewhurst, who plays the "professor", is a joy to watch, and it almost looks as if his scenes are about to turn into Monty Python sketches.Much as I detest the phrase "experimental film", this was truly an experimental era for Hitchcock, or at least one in which his pictures were going through a process of natural selection.
Hitchcock makes centrepieces out of several scenes; the best of which include a cross-fade with an aquarium and a London street, the striking opening sequence that sees London go dark; of course, the infamous scene on a bus - and my personal favourite and the crux of the film - the climatic scene that sees saboteur Karl Verloc (played to perfection by Oskar Homolka) try to pass the blame for his actions on to the Scotland Yard inspective who rumbled him.
The only third party who does know is Sgt. Ted Spencer; the Scotland Yard inspector employed to work a vegetable stall next door as a cover to investigate Mr Verloc.This film is most famous for the sequence that sees young Desmond Tester carry a bomb onto a packed London bus.
By having the story run the way it should, Hitchcock showed early on the sort of flair that would ensure Psycho a place on 'best film' lists forty five years after its release.
It's obvious why Joseph Conrad's novel appealed to the great director, as the story itself is packed with suspense and Hitchcock always makes the best of it.
Based on a Joseph Conrad story - The Secret Agent - Sabotage presents us with an Eastern European terrorist living in London with his unsuspecting British wife and her young brother (Tester).
Unfairly overlooked by most film critics in favour of Hitchcock's more famous British movies like "The 39 Steps" and "The Lady Vanishes", this thriller actually surpasses both of them in terms of agonising suspense and story.
The jocular response is "All the more reason for me.." just as the conversation on marriage with the milkman in "Blackmail." In "Sabotage," there is a brief mention of having a child from the marriage—indicating that the marriage had little physical relationship, probably because of the wife's interest in raising her young brother with their meager means.The kissing scenes in Hitchcock's film are noteworthy: "Notorious," "Marnie," "Torn Curtain," "Topaz" etc.
Yet, "Sabotage" is a good film despite these flaws."Sabotage" is interesting if only because it is a great example of Alfred Hitchcock's talent for building suspense.
It is Pure Hitch and even though in Later Years He Commented on Regrets concerning a Major Plot Point, it is Exactly that Plot Point that Exclaims His Unorthodox Artistry and Experimental, but Polished, Flourishes that made Alfred Hitchcock a Film Artist of the First Order.The Film's Ingredients: Actors Sylvia Sidney, Oskar Homolka, and Desmond Tester are Superb and Fleshed Out. In Melodramatic Cinematic Terms the Center by which Hitch Unleashes His, now Familiar Themes within a Movie Making Playground are Classic and Copied to this Day.The Cityscape Terrorism Plot has become a Timeless Time-Bomb.
Why Homolka didn't just pack it in and call off the bombing is not quite explained.Sabotage certainly does have the usual Alfred Hitchcock tension built into the film.
And a Bomb On a Bus. Released in 1936 - This intriguing early film directed by Alfred Hitchcock contains a great opening scene where the electrical power goes off all over London, which is caused by a willful act of sabotage.The camera then gives the viewer a sweeping panoramic view of the situation, scanning over the city that's now in shadows and blackness with an emphasis placed on selected historical sites.This excellent beginning immediately grabs the viewer's attention as Sabotage's gripping, well-crafted story gets underway, moving the action along at a fine clip.Adapted from Joseph Conrad's novel "Secret Agent", Sabotage tells the tale of a Scotland Yard undercover detective who is hot on the trail of a suspected saboteur who's part of a diabolical plot to set off a powerful bomb in broad daylight in downtown London.When the detective's cover is blown, the plot begins to unravel and go haywire.Even at this early phase of Hitchcock's career as a director, it's plainly obvious to see that he had something of a strong fascination with butcher's knives, already.Featuring a really strong cast, this first-rate, b&w Suspense/Thriller has a running time of only 76 minutes..
This isn't one of Hitchcock's finest...it's an example of what happens when a filmmaker relies overmuch on a transcription from the written word, rather than conceiving things anew to make it all work as a film.The acting is mechanical, the characters are all revealed to us up front to be exactly who they are with no discovery or irony, the outcome as plainly inevitable as clockwork.But there are images of note...particularly Verloc imagining London blasted into ruin as a film frame jammed in front a projection lamp and then melting.
It is not a Hitchcock film without a memorable or suspenseful set-piece, Sabotage has those, the highlights are the scene on the bus with the bomb and the death of Verloc though Verloc imagining London in ruin is chilling stuff too.
However, "Sabotage" lacks one key element keeping it from really being a classic: context.For a basic plot summary, "Sabotage" sees an English theater owner (Oskar Homolka) and his wife (Sylvia Sidney) get caught up in an espionage plot with shades of terrorism.This movie is classic Hitch through and through.
This is probably one of Hitchcock's better-known movies from his early British period, but that's only because of the famous "bomb on the bus" scene.
The movie stars Sylvia Sydney, a New Yorker by birth, who also appears in the film as an American married to Oscar Homulka, a terrorist by the name of Verloc, and John Loder, an under-cover detective for Scotland Yard, who assumes the role of a green grocer and keeps an eye on the evil plots of his neighbor Verloc, who runs a cinema as a front for his gang of conspirators.
Mrs. Verloc's brother's role, played by Desmond Tester as Stevie must be the most heart-wrenching child character in Hitchcock's body of work.
The excellent Oscar Homolka, Sylvia Sidney, John Loder and that winning youngster Desmond Tester, are held tightly to the frontier of plot development and, inside the slender confines Hitchcock allows them, supply thoroughgoing characterizations.For reasons vague, minor cinema owner Verloc has been ordered to terrorize London.
I thought the film was filled with great performances, most notably Sylvia Sidney (who is very beautiful by the way!) and her husband Oskar Homolka.
The most memorable sequence in "Sabotage" (you'll know it when you see it end) contains what Mr. Hitchcock later admitted to be a misjudgment in the way a character's demise is conceptualized.****** Sabotage (12/2/36) Alfred Hitchcock ~ Sylvia Sydney, Oscar Homolka, Desmond Tester, John Loder.
There is suspense, there are funny scenes, but Sabotage is, compared with The Man Who Knew Too Much or The 39 steps, a rather serious movie that investigates the dark sides of the condition of human nature in modern times.
Because there is another character, Mrs. Verloc (played by Sylvia Sidney), who will eventually come to realize what she has been slowly fearing all along -- that her husband is the person behind the acts of sabotage -- she has to lose a person close to her to take action.
Watching Alfred Hitchcock's early British films is a treat for this viewer, particularly in seeing the director's experimentation with themes that will become better known in his more famous American movies.
"Sabotage" becomes an intriguing psychological drama even after the early revelation of the parts his key characters play in the story.Particularly vile is Karl Anton Verloc (Oscar Homolka), a terrorist conspiring to plant bombs in association with an underground cadre.
'Sabotage' is a film that Hitchcock did not like later in his life.
'Sabotage' is a neat little thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock when he was still working in Britain in the 1930's.It has many flaws, but also contains one of the best, most suspenseful scenes you'll find in a Hitchcock film.
Hitchcock actually regretted filming the breathtaking sequence where an innocent young boy naively takes a bomb on a London bus, after negative critical response.
He's really a terrorist plotting evil deeds against London, but his wife remains largely unaware until her live-in teenage brother Stevie is killed as a result of Verloc's actions.Some great scenes and ideas presented here.
Desmond Tester as younger brother, Stevie, and John Loder as undercover detective, Ted, are merely serviceable.Notable moments include: Homolka visualization of a bomb's effect on a city block superimposed upon an aquarium fish tank; inner workings of a clock and a bomb superimposed upon each other; the incredible suspense of the boy on his way through town carrying the bomb, intercut with clocks he passes; the confrontation of Sidney and Homolka over the dinner table.Controversy met the film over the shock of the bomb's damage.
For the technique are few or no errors presented but on the performances Hitchcock doesn't look that the characters develop their emotions instead they just living the moment, so when the end comes no one believes the melodramatic reaction of Mrs. Verloc and the agent of Scotland Yard attitude towards her, this character in particular is at times quite pathetic.
A group of foreign agents are involved in terrorism blackouts and bombings in London, and a young wife (Sylvia Sidney) has no idea that her movie theater owner husband (Oscar Homolka) is one of them.
With its elements of meta-cinema and characters like Verloc and the bomb-maker, we can see that Hitch is using the Conrad original as a base for revealing his darkest thoughts...his power as a film maker to sabotage an audience's preconceptions...simultaneously empathising with a woman that no-one seems to listen to.
I'm not sure if in the final analysis the movie had anything important enough to say in order to justify showing the death of a child by terrorism, but I salute the director for willing to attempt it from Conrad's story.Oscar Homolka is quite a bit more handsome than I've seen him in other films, although it's interesting to note that the film features absolutely no romantic scenes or signs of affection between his character and his wife, played by the lovely and talented American actress Sylvia Sidney.
In this 1936 film from Alfred Hitchcock, a foreign terrorist group is operating in London, and their agent (Oskar Homolka) operates a movie theater as a cover, along with his unsuspecting wife (Sylvia Sidney) and her teenage brother.
Basically Karl Verloc (Oskar Homolka) is a cinema owner and a member of a gang planning to sabotage operations in London, and he lives with his wife Sylvia (Beetlejuice's Sylvia Sidney) and her teenage brother Stevie (Desmond Tester).