Alfred Hitchcock
Sabotage

THE REVIEW

Sabotage is a Hitchcock from '36.

Alfred is 37 years old, fresh off the success of Secret Agent, and already quite famous in his homeland. It's curious that Sabotage is inspired by a novel by Joseph Conrad: "The Secret Agent" which has the same title as the previous film but has nothing to do with it.

Sabotage is one of Hitchcock's few failures; at the box office, it was a half flop, and the critics turned up their noses as well. However, even a minor Hitch puts half of the genre and degenerate cinematography in its pocket (savasandir).

That clockwork mix of suspense, surprise, plot twist, humor is unique and immediately recognizable. It has carved a path in the mystery/comedy/thriller genre and cinema as a whole, still deep, clear, and straight. Everyone else follows, it's not worth seeking new paths, the navigator always points to this one.

Verloc is the owner of a cinema but is also involved in shady dealings, stuff of attacks, sabotages. Miss Verloc is the wife, young and quite beautiful. She will catch the eye of the fruit vendor adjacent to the cinema, who is not a fruit vendor, he is Ted Spencer, a Scotland Yard agent on Verloc's trail.

One never gets bored in the 75 minutes of this short-long/long-short (film). I find it extraordinary how Hitchcock manages to make tragedy light and the joke more incisive (pay attention to the dialogues, such wit is no longer seen), the “comic” interlude that seems only transitory but instead adorns, embellishes, beautifies, and defines. Without this aspect, we couldn't talk about Hitchcock; it would just be a (good) film like many others.

Anyway, Sabotage, although less "fortunate" compared to others and perhaps less loved even by Hitchcock himself – who once said that if he could redo it, he would change two or three things – remains an example of cinema for its skillful use of ingredients.

The stylistic perfection of the images, the perfect use (oh what an ugly term but I can't think of others) of the soundtrack, the editing, the photography, the didactic superimpositions, are all things that set a precedent and are present in Sabotage.

I can't say more, it might be that with Hitchcock it's like this, he says it all, you just have to watch.