Saboteur (Hitchcock, 1942)

The aircraft factory worker Kane gets falsely accused of having set fire to the plant. He elopes, trying to find the real culprit and uncovers a vast network of fascists that are planning more terrorist attacks.

I found this a rather strange Hitchcock film. The way it handles the political messages, mixed with more than just a bit of do-gooders morality seems a bit blunt, even if this is as good a propaganda film can probably get. But the script has so many holes and weird turns that my suspense of disbelief literally jumped out the window and is still running in around in circles on the lawn. Naked.

On the other hand, there were some wonderful scenes. The encounter of Kane with the blind man in the hut is touching and the villain Fry has a wonderful subdued manner - he doesn't feel too much like a bad guy at all. The final scene on the Statue of Liberty is gripping. Most of the bad guys were strangely subdued and had a very sophisticated air about them - quite over the top for some of them.

There are a lot of crane shots which seemed strangely deliberate and the extras had an extremely staged quality, performing actions on cue and freezing again once they came close to the edge of the frame.

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