Saboteur (film)
Encyclopedia
Saboteur is a 1942 Universal
film
directed by Alfred Hitchcock
with a screenplay written by Peter Viertel
, Joan Harrison, and Dorothy Parker
. The movie stars Priscilla Lane
, Robert Cummings
, and Norman Lloyd
. It should not be confused with a Hitchcock film of a similar title, Sabotage
(also known as The Woman Alone, 1936).
, an act of fifth column
ist sabotage that killed his best friend. Kane believes that the real culprit is a man named Fry (Lloyd) whom he had seen at the plant just before the fire. When no one named “Fry” is found on the list of plant workers, Kane becomes a fugitive, running from the authorities to find the real saboteur.
Having seen Fry's name on an envelope, Kane heads to the address, a ranch
in the Central Valley. The ranch's owner, Charles Tobin (Otto Kruger
), is seemingly a well-respected local citizen but it is later revealed that he is secretly in league with the saboteurs. Turned in by Tobin, Kane manages to escape from the police. He takes refuge with a kind blind
man whose visiting niece is a billboard model
, Patricia "Pat" Martin (Priscilla Lane
). When her uncle asks her to take Kane to the local blacksmith
shop so that he can have his handcuffs removed, she instead attempts to take him to the police, believing that it is the right thing to do. Kane catches on, and overpowers and kidnaps Martin, protesting his innocence. He eventually uses the fan-belt pulley of her car's generator to cut off his handcuffs, which causes the car to overheat.
They arrive in the abandoned Soda City and stumble into a mine, a staging area for the saboteurs' plan to blow up Boulder Dam
. After Kane is discovered by the saboteurs, he convinces them that the newspaper and radio accounts are true and that he is, in fact, a saboteur in league with them. Finding their plans to destroy the dam foiled, the saboteurs head for New York City
with Kane, planning to sabotage the launching of a new U.S. Navy
ship USS Alaska
at the Brooklyn shipyard
. Kane's performance fooled Martin as well, who flees, hoping to get to New York in time to stop them.
The saboteurs meet in the mansion of a New York ally. There Kane finds the captured Martin, who had gone to the police but was betrayed by a corrupt chief privy to the conspiracy. As Kane attempts to signal to her that she should escape, Tobin arrives and recognizes Kane, denouncing him as a foe to the conspiracy. The saboteurs lock Kane in the cellar and Martin in an office at Rockefeller Center
. Martin drops a note from her window, which notifies the FBI
. The FBI rescues her, while Kane triggers a fire alarm back at the saboteurs’ mansion and frees himself.
Kane arrives at the shipyard to warn the Navy, and finds Fry at the controls inside a fake newsreel truck. Kane struggles with Fry long enough that the ship is safely out of the dock before Fry can activate the detonator. Holding Kane at gunpoint, Fry is driven to Rockefeller Center, only to find the police waiting. Fry's flight from the officers eventually takes him to the top of the Statue of Liberty
, with Martin following all the way at Kane's behest. She stalls Fry until the FBI arrive, and Kane, who has been brought along to identify him, dashes away from his police escort to chase Fry.
Kane follows him out to the statue's torch, and Fry, trying to escape, loses his balance and falls off over the torch's banister. Fry manages to grab hold of the statue's hand while Kane begins to climb down to rescue Fry. Kane calls for help from the police who finally have arrived at the torch. Fry's grip slips and Kane quickly grabs the sleeve of Fry's jacket. The stitching on Fry's jacket sleeve tears and eventually gives as Fry tumbles to his death. Kane returns to the top of the torch and embraces the waiting Pat.
, so he first pitched the idea for the film to him; Selznick gave the okay for a script to be written, assigning John Houseman
to keep an eye on its progress and direction. Val Lewton
, Selznick's story editor, eventually passed on the script, so Selznick forced Hitchcock to offer it to other studios, "causing ill feelings between the producer and his director since it not only showed a lack of belief in Hitchcock's abilities, but also because the terms of Hitchcock's contract would net Selznick a three-hundred percent profit on the sale." Universal signed on, but their budgetary limits meant Hitchcock couldn't afford Gary Cooper
and Barbara Stanwyck
, the two actors he wanted for the leading roles; Universal did bring in Dorothy Parker
to write a few scenes, "mostly the patriotic speeches given by the hero."
Production on the film began less than two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor
.
Hitchcock used extensive location footage in the film, especially in New York City, and utilized special long lenses to shoot from great distances. At one point Norman Lloyd
glances at a capsized ship in the harbor and smiles knowingly; the ship is the USS Lafayette
, which was rumored to have been sabotaged by the Germans. There was clever matching of the location footage with studio shots, particularly in the famed Statue of Liberty sequence, where actor Norman Lloyd
appeared to fall to his death. Hitchcock claimed "the Navy raised hell with Universal about these shots because I implied that the Normandie had been sabotaged, which was a reflection on their lack of vigilance in guarding it."
In 1947 a man in Germany confessed to the sabotage.
Hitchcock makes his trademark cameo appearance about an hour into the film, standing at a kiosk in front of Cut Rate Drugs in New York as the saboteur's car pulls up.
There was no music to underscore the film's climactic film scene; Hitchcock chose to let the action on the screen propel the scene on its own. The scene also utilized visual effects
that were ahead of their time. In particular, Lloyd lay on his side on a black saddle on a black floor while the camera was hauled from closeup to 40-feet above him. Film taken from the top of the Statue was then superimposed onto the black background, making him appear to drop downward, away from the camera (interview with Lloyd on the Universal
DVD).
Bosley Crowther
of The New York Times
called the film a "swift, high-tension film which throws itself forward so rapidly that it permits slight opportunity for looking back. And it hurtles the holes and bumps which plague it with a speed that forcefully tries to cover them up." Crowther noted that "so abundant [are] the breathless events that one might forget, in the hubbub, that there is no logic in this wild-goose chase;" he also questioned the "casual presentation of the FBI as a bunch of bungling dolts, [the film's] general disregard of authorized agents, and [its] slur on the navy yard police", all of which "somewhat vitiates the patriotic implications which they have tried to emphasize in the film."
Time
magazine called it "one hour and 45 minutes of almost simon-pure melodrama from the hand of the master"; the film's "artful touches serve another purpose which is only incidental to Saboteur's melodramatic intent. They warn Americans, as Hollywood has so far failed to do, that fifth column
ists can be outwardly clean and patriotic citizens, just like themselves."
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
with a screenplay written by Peter Viertel
Peter Viertel
Peter Viertel was an author and screenwriter.-Biography:He was born to Jewish parents in Dresden, Germany, the writer and actress Salka Viertel and the writer Berthold Viertel. In 1928, his parents moved to Santa Monica, California where Viertel grew up with his brothers, Hans and Thomas...
, Joan Harrison, and Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles....
. The movie stars Priscilla Lane
Lane Sisters
The Lane Sisters refers to a group of sisters, three of whom achieved success in the 1920s and 1930s as a singing act, with their popularity onstage leading to a series of successful films. A fourth sister was not successful and left this milieu and a fifth avoided show business altogether...
, Robert Cummings
Robert Cummings
Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings , mostly known professionally as Robert Cummings but sometimes as Bob Cummings, was an American film and television actor....
, and Norman Lloyd
Norman Lloyd
Norman Lloyd is an American actor, producer, and director with a career in entertainment spanning more than seven decades. Lloyd, who currently resides in Los Angeles, has appeared in over sixty films and television shows....
. It should not be confused with a Hitchcock film of a similar title, Sabotage
Sabotage (film)
Sabotage, also released as The Woman Alone, is a 1936 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is based on Joseph Conrad's novel The Secret Agent...
(also known as The Woman Alone, 1936).
Plot summary
Aircraft factory worker Barry Kane (Cummings) is wrongly accused of starting a fire at a Glendale, California airplane plant during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, an act of fifth column
Fifth column
A fifth column is a group of people who clandestinely undermine a larger group such as a nation from within.-Origin:The term originated with a 1936 radio address by Emilio Mola, a Nationalist General during the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War...
ist sabotage that killed his best friend. Kane believes that the real culprit is a man named Fry (Lloyd) whom he had seen at the plant just before the fire. When no one named “Fry” is found on the list of plant workers, Kane becomes a fugitive, running from the authorities to find the real saboteur.
Having seen Fry's name on an envelope, Kane heads to the address, a ranch
Ranch
A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...
in the Central Valley. The ranch's owner, Charles Tobin (Otto Kruger
Otto Kruger
Otto Kruger was an American actor who began his career in 1915. His career was most prolific during the 1930s and 1940s.-Career:...
), is seemingly a well-respected local citizen but it is later revealed that he is secretly in league with the saboteurs. Turned in by Tobin, Kane manages to escape from the police. He takes refuge with a kind blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
man whose visiting niece is a billboard model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
, Patricia "Pat" Martin (Priscilla Lane
Lane Sisters
The Lane Sisters refers to a group of sisters, three of whom achieved success in the 1920s and 1930s as a singing act, with their popularity onstage leading to a series of successful films. A fourth sister was not successful and left this milieu and a fifth avoided show business altogether...
). When her uncle asks her to take Kane to the local blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
shop so that he can have his handcuffs removed, she instead attempts to take him to the police, believing that it is the right thing to do. Kane catches on, and overpowers and kidnaps Martin, protesting his innocence. He eventually uses the fan-belt pulley of her car's generator to cut off his handcuffs, which causes the car to overheat.
They arrive in the abandoned Soda City and stumble into a mine, a staging area for the saboteurs' plan to blow up Boulder Dam
Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the US states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President...
. After Kane is discovered by the saboteurs, he convinces them that the newspaper and radio accounts are true and that he is, in fact, a saboteur in league with them. Finding their plans to destroy the dam foiled, the saboteurs head for New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
with Kane, planning to sabotage the launching of a new U.S. Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
ship USS Alaska
USS Alaska
Four ships of the United States Navy have been named USS Alaska in honor of the territory acquired by the United States from Russia in 1867 which later became the state of Alaska:...
at the Brooklyn shipyard
Brooklyn Navy Yard
The United States Navy Yard, New York–better known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard or the New York Naval Shipyard –was an American shipyard located in Brooklyn, northeast of the Battery on the East River in Wallabout Basin, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlear's Hook in Manhattan...
. Kane's performance fooled Martin as well, who flees, hoping to get to New York in time to stop them.
The saboteurs meet in the mansion of a New York ally. There Kane finds the captured Martin, who had gone to the police but was betrayed by a corrupt chief privy to the conspiracy. As Kane attempts to signal to her that she should escape, Tobin arrives and recognizes Kane, denouncing him as a foe to the conspiracy. The saboteurs lock Kane in the cellar and Martin in an office at Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...
. Martin drops a note from her window, which notifies the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
. The FBI rescues her, while Kane triggers a fire alarm back at the saboteurs’ mansion and frees himself.
Kane arrives at the shipyard to warn the Navy, and finds Fry at the controls inside a fake newsreel truck. Kane struggles with Fry long enough that the ship is safely out of the dock before Fry can activate the detonator. Holding Kane at gunpoint, Fry is driven to Rockefeller Center, only to find the police waiting. Fry's flight from the officers eventually takes him to the top of the Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
, with Martin following all the way at Kane's behest. She stalls Fry until the FBI arrive, and Kane, who has been brought along to identify him, dashes away from his police escort to chase Fry.
Kane follows him out to the statue's torch, and Fry, trying to escape, loses his balance and falls off over the torch's banister. Fry manages to grab hold of the statue's hand while Kane begins to climb down to rescue Fry. Kane calls for help from the police who finally have arrived at the torch. Fry's grip slips and Kane quickly grabs the sleeve of Fry's jacket. The stitching on Fry's jacket sleeve tears and eventually gives as Fry tumbles to his death. Kane returns to the top of the torch and embraces the waiting Pat.
Production
Hitchcock was under contract to David O. SelznickDavid O. Selznick
David O. Selznick was an American film producer. He is best known for having produced Gone with the Wind and Rebecca , both of which earned him an Oscar for Best Picture.-Early years:...
, so he first pitched the idea for the film to him; Selznick gave the okay for a script to be written, assigning John Houseman
John Houseman
John Houseman was a Romanian-born British-American actor and film producer who became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director Orson Welles from their days in the Federal Theatre Project through to the production of Citizen Kane...
to keep an eye on its progress and direction. Val Lewton
Val Lewton
Val Lewton was an American film producer and screenwriter, best known for a string of low-budget horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the 1940s.-Early life:...
, Selznick's story editor, eventually passed on the script, so Selznick forced Hitchcock to offer it to other studios, "causing ill feelings between the producer and his director since it not only showed a lack of belief in Hitchcock's abilities, but also because the terms of Hitchcock's contract would net Selznick a three-hundred percent profit on the sale." Universal signed on, but their budgetary limits meant Hitchcock couldn't afford Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
and Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
, the two actors he wanted for the leading roles; Universal did bring in Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles....
to write a few scenes, "mostly the patriotic speeches given by the hero."
Production on the film began less than two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
.
Hitchcock used extensive location footage in the film, especially in New York City, and utilized special long lenses to shoot from great distances. At one point Norman Lloyd
Norman Lloyd
Norman Lloyd is an American actor, producer, and director with a career in entertainment spanning more than seven decades. Lloyd, who currently resides in Los Angeles, has appeared in over sixty films and television shows....
glances at a capsized ship in the harbor and smiles knowingly; the ship is the USS Lafayette
USS Lafayette (AP-53)
USS Lafayette was the French luxury liner following the latter's seizure under the maritime right of angary in New York by the United States after the Fall of France....
, which was rumored to have been sabotaged by the Germans. There was clever matching of the location footage with studio shots, particularly in the famed Statue of Liberty sequence, where actor Norman Lloyd
Norman Lloyd
Norman Lloyd is an American actor, producer, and director with a career in entertainment spanning more than seven decades. Lloyd, who currently resides in Los Angeles, has appeared in over sixty films and television shows....
appeared to fall to his death. Hitchcock claimed "the Navy raised hell with Universal about these shots because I implied that the Normandie had been sabotaged, which was a reflection on their lack of vigilance in guarding it."
In 1947 a man in Germany confessed to the sabotage.
Hitchcock makes his trademark cameo appearance about an hour into the film, standing at a kiosk in front of Cut Rate Drugs in New York as the saboteur's car pulls up.
There was no music to underscore the film's climactic film scene; Hitchcock chose to let the action on the screen propel the scene on its own. The scene also utilized visual effects
Visual effects
Visual effects are the various processes by which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the context of a live action shoot. Visual effects involve the integration of live-action footage and generated imagery to create environments which look realistic, but would be dangerous, costly, or...
that were ahead of their time. In particular, Lloyd lay on his side on a black saddle on a black floor while the camera was hauled from closeup to 40-feet above him. Film taken from the top of the Statue was then superimposed onto the black background, making him appear to drop downward, away from the camera (interview with Lloyd on the Universal
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
DVD).
Reception
The film did "very well at the box office even with its B-list cast"; it made a "tidy profit for all involved."Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called the film a "swift, high-tension film which throws itself forward so rapidly that it permits slight opportunity for looking back. And it hurtles the holes and bumps which plague it with a speed that forcefully tries to cover them up." Crowther noted that "so abundant [are] the breathless events that one might forget, in the hubbub, that there is no logic in this wild-goose chase;" he also questioned the "casual presentation of the FBI as a bunch of bungling dolts, [the film's] general disregard of authorized agents, and [its] slur on the navy yard police", all of which "somewhat vitiates the patriotic implications which they have tried to emphasize in the film."
Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine called it "one hour and 45 minutes of almost simon-pure melodrama from the hand of the master"; the film's "artful touches serve another purpose which is only incidental to Saboteur's melodramatic intent. They warn Americans, as Hollywood has so far failed to do, that fifth column
Fifth column
A fifth column is a group of people who clandestinely undermine a larger group such as a nation from within.-Origin:The term originated with a 1936 radio address by Emilio Mola, a Nationalist General during the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War...
ists can be outwardly clean and patriotic citizens, just like themselves."
External links
- Saboteur at TCM Movie DatabaseTurner Classic MoviesTurner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...
- Saboteur posters and other images from eyegate.com