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Amazon.co.uk Review
This classic among Hitchcock's British movies of the 30s draws, unusually for him, on the work of a major writer for its source--Joseph Conrad's tale of seedy London-based espionage, The Secret Agent. Not that Hitch and his screenwriter, Charles Bennett, kept much of Conrad's novel beyond the bare bones of the plot. Verloc, an anarchist (played with appealing melancholy by Oscar Homolka), runs a South London fleapit cinema as a cover for his political activities. (In the original it's a porno bookstore--Hitch clearly thought the cinema was the nearest the censor would pass.) His young wife (the sad-eyed Sylvia Sidney) knows nothing of his undercover assignments. She's devoted to her naïve younger brother, and when Verloc involves the lad in his schemes the results are catastrophic.
The cast also features a young hero, a police detective woodenly played by John Loder, but Homolka and Sidney, as the sadly mismatched couple held together only by need, are unfailingly watchable as the brooding domestic atmosphere darkens towards tragedy. The trademark Hitchcock tension is well in evidence, though Hitch later reckoned he committed a "grave error" in letting one nail-biting scene end with the death of a sympathetic character (and a cute puppy). Though the film was shot almost entirely on studio sets, the director drew on his own Cockney childhood to create a wonderfully shabby, down-at-heel milieu of grubby London backstreets where the reek of gas lamps and rotting vegetables on the cobbles is all but palpable. --Philip Kemp
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
When people think of Hitchcock films, they talk about the tension, the frights and the shocks. They forget that almost all of Hitchcock's films were based upon good, sometimes excellent thriller novels (in this case provided by Joseph Conrad.) He also had an intelligent group of screenplay writers with him. To cut a long story short, the dialogue in this film (as in most hitchcocks) is marvellous: it is fun and witty when it won't be ruining the tension, and as the film draws to its cushion-bitingly tense conclusion it supplies speeches which are realistic and engaging but not hackneyed, and which allow us to actually enjoy and immerse ourselves in a brutally nerve-racking finale, without dissecting or judging it.
While John Loder (in standard english hero form) attempts to emulate Robert Donat, and does a fair job too, Sylvia Sidney provides a fantastic performance as the wife who is unwilling to think badly of her husband, but gradually becomes more and more cautious. Oscar Homolka also does brilliantly by providing a character who is more hateful for his weakness and his concordance with others' orders than for his evil deeds.
Part of the film (the bit with the bus) is nasty and unpredictable enough to even be something that Quentin Tarantino 60 or 70 years later wouldn't dare do, and this, joined with its many other assets remind us that this isn't a generic tinseltown picture, but a classic Hitchcock which everyone WOULD enjoy, yet a piece that probably only the fans will have the opportunity to appreciate.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Sabotage is one of Hitchcock's best British features, a smart updating of Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent that cleverly gets around the censor's objections to the author's saboteur hiding behind the counter of a Soho shop selling mucky books under the counter by turning him into the manager of a seedy fleapit cinema, which is clearly the next best thing. That's not to say that Hitchcock isn't pushing the material as far as he can - in the film's most famous sequence he doesn't just put a boy with bomb on bus but a loveable puppy as well while the police are resolutely unambitious, simply happy to go after the minions rather than the masterminds - though he does lose the petty politics of the novel and the tragic finale to turn it into a more conventional and pacier thriller. Rather than a useless talking shop of anarchists who never do anything until manipulated by a foreign government into action, Verloc's acquaintances here are a more overtly criminal gang made up of the likes of Torin Thatcher and Peter Bull, and Verloc himself is a more mercenary figure in it for the money. It also changes the target of the atrocity, no longer the symbolic Greenwich and an assault on `time itself' but Piccadilly Circus, `the centre of the world.'
More significantly, Sylvia Sidney's Mrs Verloc is a much stronger figure here than in the novel, with more than a mere insinuation of romantic attraction to John Loder's undercover cop who is ultimately willing to cover up a crime for her (in true movie formula you know they'll get together because they start off hating each other). That their relationship has more than a hint of Hitchcock's earlier Blackmail is perhaps not so surprising considering its screenwriter Charles Bennett's prominence among the four credited writers. But while it may follow the formula of many of Hitchcock's British films, it's still filled with strikingly memorable detours like the bomb-making professor and his silent but communicative daughter and granddaughter ("Is the father dead?" "I don't know. He MIGHT be.") and technical flourishes such as an Aquarium tank turning into Piccadilly Circus as it crumbles into dust after a imagined bomb blast. And it also has a terrific turn from Oskar Homolka as Verloc, who may be a less complex figure than Conrad's self-critically semi-autobiographical creation, but still manages a superb combination of pathetic desperation and amoral reptilian menace.
One of Hitchcock's best, unlike the plethora of public domain releases flooding the market, Network's UK PAL DVD copy is superb, looking almost like new, and comes with a few minor extras - an introduction by Charles Barr, a featurette on the locations introduced by Robert Powell and a brief stills and poster gallery.
More significantly, Sylvia Sidney's Mrs Verloc is a much stronger figure here than in the novel, with more than a mere insinuation of romantic attraction to John Loder's undercover cop who is ultimately willing to cover up a crime for her (in true movie formula you know they'll get together because they start off hating each other). That their relationship has more than a hint of Hitchcock's earlier Blackmail is perhaps not so surprising considering its screenwriter Charles Bennett's prominence among the four credited writers. But while it may follow the formula of many of Hitchcock's British films, it's still filled with strikingly memorable detours like the bomb-making professor and his silent but communicative daughter and granddaughter ("Is the father dead?" "I don't know. He MIGHT be.") and technical flourishes such as an Aquarium tank turning into Piccadilly Circus as it crumbles into dust after a imagined bomb blast. And it also has a terrific turn from Oskar Homolka as Verloc, who may be a less complex figure than Conrad's self-critically semi-autobiographical creation, but still manages a superb combination of pathetic desperation and amoral reptilian menace.
One of Hitchcock's best, unlike the plethora of public domain releases flooding the market, Network's UK PAL DVD copy is superb, looking almost like new, and comes with a few minor extras - an introduction by Charles Barr, a featurette on the locations introduced by Robert Powell and a brief stills and poster gallery.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
A quite enjoyable espionage tale from the master of suspense.London is being terrorized by an unknown bomber, and movie theatre cashier(sylvia sidney) begins to suspect that her husband,and theatre owner(oscar homolka) is behind it all.The shadowy camerawork brooding atmosphere suit the london setting and add to the ruthlessness of homolka when he gets an unfortunate person to unwittingly deliver his next bomb.Sylvia sidney may be known to some from her roles in such movies as blood on the sun,love from a stranger and ,more recently,damien omen 2.This "special edition" comes with an introduction by historian charles barr(3:37),a nice featurette on the locations of the movie,with robert powell,(11:13)and an image gallery(0:28).Hardly special but not bad.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
sabotage
An interesting example of Hitchcock's early work. Well paced and balanced with humour and thrills and characters you can care about.
Published 9 months ago by C. Newman
Fine early Hitchcock
This adaptation of Conrad's "The Secret Agent" is among Hitchcock's best early films, which I think puts it among his best films, full stop. Read more
Published 9 months ago by W. Hamilton
CraigPLewis
There is a nice photo on the front cover, along with a white bacground. This makes the things in the foreground appear easier to look at. Read more
Published 13 months ago by CraigPLewis
Early Hitch
The Master of Suspense here does an amazing job at building up suspense in this film and the use of montage one of the first films to really take advantage of this relatively new... Read more
Published on 17 Dec 2009 by sherman31
Wilful destruction of buildings or machinery with the object of...
One of the darker movies of Hitchcock's British career, but one of the most successful at the box office, Sabotage is by no means a flawless film, but still does manage to come out... Read more
Published on 4 Sep 2008 by IWFIcon
Recommended.
This is a just barely okay print of a pretty good early Hitchcock movie that would be a classic but for the dismal and very badly judged romantic ending. Read more
Published on 8 April 2008 by Johnnybluetime
A somewhat overlooked Hitchcockian gem that packs quite an emotional...
The genius of Hitchcock is best seen in his early British films. Back in the 1930s, working with relatively unknown actors and actresses, low budgets, and seemingly rather... Read more
Published on 17 Dec 2006 by Daniel Jolley
Compact and "Bijou"
"Sabotage" is an entertaining film, one that for the most part is full of suspense ,but which ultimately is let down by a curiously flat ending. Read more
Published on 7 May 2006 by L. Davidson
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