Sunday, February 27, 2005

Hitchcock movie: Sabotage

I am on my Hitchcock kick again. I ought to write down what I think of all of these individual movie. Most I have taped off of Turner Classic Movies channel. Others I have found bargain DVDs on. I found a ten pack at Best Buy of some of his unknown movies for less than $20. Better than renting.

From 1936 and a pre-war atmosphere, Hitchcock is still learning his methods in this movie. Sabotage, once reissued to the United States as I Married a Murderer has an immigrant in London concocting bomb plots. However, Scotland Yard has already been tailing him.

This was very suspensful. You can feel Hitchcock playing with the medium here with some of his fades and especially the sequence where the boy "pops" into the crowd scene when the lead actress faints.

One of the reasons this one may not be entirely remembered is the sequence on the bus, right before the bomb is set to explode. "Some critics objected to the way Hitchcock chose to end the sequence involving the delivery of the bomb on the bus. Hitchcock, stung by the criticism, is said to have regretted his decision. Nonetheless, the treatment is faithful to Joseph Conrad's book." (Internet Movie Database) I saw an interview on Hitchcock where he says it was a mistake to have the bomb go off while it was on screen.

With that in mind, it is still a great movie. Now one can also see how this was a precursor to the even better and more suspenseful films that Hitchcock subsequently did.

4 out of 5 stars

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