Saboteur (1942)

I was drawn to watch and re-watch some Alfred Hitchcock movies after covering The White Shadow (1923) a few weeks back.  I decided, after polling some of my Cinema and Media Studies folks, to give Saboteur (1942) a spin.  In many ways, it embodies the formula of the classic Hitchcock thriller:  a man is wrongly accused of a horrible crime and must clear his name with the help of a beautiful woman (see also North by Northwest, The 39 Steps, The Wrong Man) and add in a cross-country chase (again, see North by Northwest, another film that reaches its climax atop a national landmark).  Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) is a blue collar worker at an airplane plant during World War II.  One day, Barry meets a strange co-worker by the name of "Fry" (Norman Lloyd) and, shortly after, a fire breakouts at the plant, killing Barry's best friend and leaving Barry the prime suspect.  

The police begins to pursue Barry, branding him a treasonous, wartime, saboteur.  He attempts to clear his name by tracking down "Fry," who he soon discovers is a member of financed gang of saboteurs fronted by Charles Tobin (Otto Kruger).  Their planned target?  The Hoover Dam.  When faced with the increased stakes of what a major power outage could mean for America, Barry decides that he must not only clear his name but bring down this malicious gang.  

What makes Saboteur unique is the political (sub)text.  The film, scripted by Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison, and Dorothy Parker, continually questions the motives of those who are quick to accuse and betray Barry to the police.  This begins when Barry meets a kind blind man (Vaughan Glaser), the man is able to "see" Barry for his inherent goodness, despite knowing him for only a few moments (add that to the list of the psychically enabled while being optically challenged individuals in fiction).  Unfortunately, the man's niece Pat (Priscilla Lane) does not share her uncle's optimism and is quick to unleash her suspicions on Barry.  The blind man chastises his kin, saying that she is quick to lock step with a mob mentality without giving Barry a fair shake.  "Don't you know I can see a great deal farther than you can?  I can see intangible things.  For example, innocence," he tells her.  

Interactions similar to this happen throughout the film as Barry finally gains the acceptance of Pat.  I admired the film for having a political message, one that still resonates today, however the message is handled with such a heavy hand that it comes off as being a little shrill.  Not only do we have dialogue that is extremely on the nose (see above which, despite Glaser's rather great performance, still feels a bit forced) but we get it repeatedly.  Once or twice would have sufficed!  Still, Hitchcock knows how to handle his film form and we get a classic chase sequence in the Statue of Liberty.  Moreover, there are some really great, poetic, minimalist compositions:  smoke coming across the abstracted hangar doors of factory linger in my memory.  It may not be one of my favorite Hitchcock films, but Saboteur offers some intellectual and aesthetic pleasures that Hitchcock would only refine throughout the duration of his career.