Saboteur

A man (Robert Cummings) on the run and facing charges of sabotage enlists a young woman (Priscilla Lane) to help him uncover the true culprits.

Saboteur is a solid thriller from director Alfred Hitchcock featuring a supporting cast that, perhaps unfortunately, overshadows the leads.

Otto Kruger is fantastic as the suave, but decidedly cold, villain. Despite relatively limited screen time, he makes a strong impression as a ruthless, calculating, yet still three-dimensional antagonist.

Similarly, Vaughan Glaser makes the most of his small role as Priscilla Lane’s character’s blind uncle, by bringing a genuine warmth to the part and finding a way to make his character’s otherwise trite dialog, somehow work.

Saboteur could almost be called North by Northeast, such are the similarities between it and Hitchcock’s’ later masterpiece North by Northwest. Both involve a cross-country flight by the protagonist, both involve a suave spy villain, and conclude atop famous landmarks. The biggest difference in terms of quality between the two films lies in the leads.

While Robert Cummings and Priscilla Lane are both fine, they’re no Cary Grant and Eve Marie Saint. Each comes across a little wooden at times, and so it’s no surprise that, according to the IMDB, director Alfred Hitchcock originally wanted Gary Cooper or Joel McCrea for Cummings’ part, and Margaret Sullavan or Barbara Stanwyck for Lane’s. A McCrea/Stanwyck pairing might have elevated Saboteur to perfection, but we’ll never know.

Wishful casting aside, Saboteur is a great thriller, even if the script does get a little ridiculous at the end, what with the police allowing Cummings’ character, a prime suspect to accompany the detectives in the apprehension of another suspect, but that’s small potatoes.