Evening star., 1942-04-24

doesn't. Not with US, At least. who
yield TO no man In fealty to the
master.
II may be, Of course, that the ro-
tund English director was trying to
4 get away from the documentary
flavor inherent in Q title such ~
"Saboteur." II that was the case
he managed = bit over well for the
general tone Of the picture Is that
Of sophisticated comedy which Il
never too sophisticated to become
slapstickish when the mood de-
scends upon the director.
"Saboteur." which introduces Rob
ert Cummings, Priscilla Lane, Otto
Kruger and q generally skilled cast,
Is chase story. The chase begins
with . fire IN IN aircraft factory In
which the police and p. B. I. With
unbecoming dH1lness for these times,
jump to the conclusion that the hero
Is guilty. To prove that he Is not,
he undertakes to track down the
guilty Naxi agent. That makes the
chase double rich. the hero pursuing
the villain, the police pursuing the
hero.
A pursuit like that covers q srest
deal Of ground-between Los An
geles and New York to be road
mappish about it--and It serves the
useful purpose Of allowing Hitchcock
to introduce those always pleasantly
wacky characters Of his who Just
seem to drop into the story. They
include . philosophic truck drive-
who keeps himself awake by lectur-
ing on the tragedy Of marriage, .
blind composer who sees more than
you can. q truculent midget with
Fascist leanings, . pair Of Siamese
twins who represent the extremes
Of fiirtatiousness and occurrences Q
soft-spoken tycoon who loves -his
grandchild ~ much n he despises
democracy and = dnnen others who
flash intD and out OF the scene.
In building toward It's rather fab
ulous and implausible climax,
Hitchcock's picture makes constant
use of the trick Of setting tlne audi
ence on the edge a its seat and
then exploding It into relaxing
laughter. The clever hand Of Dor
othy Parker = visible II. much Of
the dialogne which Achieves the pro-
portions of pretty ,iriderstatement
every time TINT kind df surprise Is
hxteeted. - x Y's ~ ~ ~
sp's - x. e s eo1
Typical Of the suspenseful inci-
dent with which .eAboteuf" d over
laid 10 . sequence Ia which the
heroine (4i1B Lanai, held prisoner
In . hotsi room, writes : '.hslp,
hslp" note On = blotter and drops
1t out q . tower window. The PIE.
ture achieves . virtual agony Of
tenSity before the note IA -its- WIld
fluttering reaches the ground after
pausing On routs at the windows o.
several curious tenants.
How 1t comes out is . matter be-
tween you and Mr.. Hitchcock, which
Is also true Of what happens during
the long final sequence IN which
the hero and villain hold q tete-a-
tete in the most fantastic setting
you ever saw for such an affair.
Hitchcock's skill in getting the
best possible performance out of his
large cast Is manifest In every foot
of "Saboteur." Even when their
material Is fiimsy to the point Of
transparency, his players are IN
there doing their best. The out
standing individual performance is
that OF Otto Kruger Is the suave,
velvet voiced ober-saboteur. Not
far behind are Cummings as the
persistent Maxi chaser, Norman
Lloyd as the furtive, -foxlike spy and
Glenn Bevans rs the blind composer.
They would be sttll better In q
more Hitchcock like picture.