Should I mention American spy film and director Alfred Hitchcock in the same sentence, what movie comes to mind? Were I to mention that the film rolled out shortly after the United States joined World War Two? How about noting that the film is a notable thriller with an important feature atop the Statue of Liberty in New York City, New York? Many of you would have come to the film titled Saboteur (1942).
Barry Kane, as portrayed by Robert Cummings, finds himself framed for killing a friend of his at their aircraft factory in California to begin the movie Saboteur. Kane is taken into custody by the police, who doubt his testimony that a German spy named Frank Fry, as portrayed by Norman Lloyd, has made Kane look guilty while have been the perpetrator on his own.
Kane escapes police custody, only to be joined while subsequently pursuing Fry by Patricia (Pat) Martin. Priscilla Lane portrays Martin, who accepts the police line from the beginning. Much of the early tension of the film ties to Kane’s escape from the police, encountering the seemingly respectable Charles Tobin, and then meeting and finally correcting Martin’s incorrect impression of the truth.
The ability to escape the police for Kane, and then Charles Tobin, proves fortuitous. Tobin, as portrayed by Otto Kruger, turns out to be working with the police, the FBI, and a band of citizens that don’t reveal themselves until after Kane and Patricia (Pat) Martin wind up in a ghost town called Soda City. A circus convoy gets Kane and Martin to Soda City, although the tension of this extended scene and whether there is in fact help from the circus workers when confronting the larger conspiracy is worth checking out the way cinema worked nearly 80-years ago.
While in Soda City, Kane and Martin come to learn that the saboteurs, at least Frank Fry, Charles Tobin, and their police supporters, aim to blow up the Hoover Dam (aka the Boulder Dam). The damn supplies water and power for parts of southern California, Arizona and Nevada with water from the Colorado River. It is then that the audience meets Freeman and Neilson, as portrayed by Alan Baxter and Clem Bevans, respectively.
Through some astute self protection and spy craft, Kane gains the confidence of Freeman and Neilson. Transportation east along with revelations of treachery near the harbors in and around New York City are revealed to Kane. At the home of Mrs. Henrietta Sutton, as portrayed by Alma Kruger, Patricia (Pat) Martin and Barry Kane are separated while in the company of a ball sponsored by Sutton, inclusive of Freeman, Neilson, Tobin and a cabal of other dissidents aiming to hurt the American war effort. Whether and how things resolve for the parties in conflict, in part, is what leads the audience to Liberty Island (formerly Bedloe’s Island), New York.
As noted by the Encyclopædia Britannica, Saboteur‘s “central plot—about German infiltration of sensitive American industries—hit a nerve with audiences, who were paranoid about spies.” In offering an emotionally resonant movie at a time it was wanted with suspenseful scenes written by Dorothy Parker, Joan Harrison and Peter Viertel, I tip my hat to Saboteur with a rating of 4.0-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Matt Lynn Digital 