Word: saboteurs
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...Saboteur (Frank Lloyd; Universal) is one hour and 45 minutes of almost simon-pure melodrama from the hand of the master: bejowled, Buddha-ball Director Alfred Hitchcock (The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Rebecca, etc.), whose guileless countenance and cherubic demeanor mask a talent for scaring hell out of cinema audiences...
...Saboteur's ingredients are not uncommon, but Master Hitchcock deals them out in a sinister manner that makes them appear so. The story is concerned with the efforts of a Pacific Coast aircraft-factory mechanic (Robert Cummings) to track down the man (Norman Lloyd) who set fire to the plant. That is not easy, for Cummings himself is mistakenly wanted by the police as the saboteur...
...melodramatic journey from coast to coast shows Hitchcock at his best. It gives movement, distance and a terrifying casualness to his painful suspense. It leads the hero to the palatial Nevada ranch of the master saboteur (Otto Kruger), into the hands of the police, out of them to an abandoned desert mining town loaded with paraphernalia to blow up Boulder Dam, on to Manhattan and an ironic denouement. The Girl (Priscilla Lane), of course, is picked up en route...
...Alfred Hitchcock film is still, happily, something of an event; and it is a pleasure to report that the ill effects of "Suspicion" have vanished from the master's mind. Not that "Saboteur" is his best offering, but he has come back into his own again, back to the chase and all its whirls. The result is a tense two hours of entertainment dealt out with a freshness of approach and a relish of taste unusual in recent screen offerings...
...Hitchcock formula is fairly well known by now, and "Saboteur" rarely departs from the established norm. In fact, there are several repeat patterns from former Hitchcock triumphs, notably "The Thirty-Nine Steps," as evidenced in the handcuff scene, the dive from the bridge, and the escape up the rapids. This time the story is set in America. An aircraft factory in Los Angeles is sabotaged; Barry Keane, one of the workers, is accused of setting the fire. He runs away from the police and trails the real saboteur across the country, till the chase comes to a feverish...