23. Sabotage (1936)

NOTE: This review will contain some spoilers concerning the film. Read at your own peril.

Hitchcock continues the momentum he has built up with his last three films and expands on his abilities as a director with an excellent look into suspense and a character's ability to cope with horrific events.

Anton Verloc (Oscar Homolka) throws sand into a generator which causes a blackout in London. He returns almost unseen to the movie theater he owns where his wife (Sylvia Sidney) is trying to appease the patrons who demand their money back. When she talks to her husband, he tells her to refund the money since he has some money coming to him. The power is restored and the patrons return to watch the film. The next day Verloc goes to the aquarium to meet a contact who is disappointed that the blackout wasn't taken seriously by Londoners. He tells him to pick up a parcel and place it in Piccadilly station which will cause some "fireworks". Verloc meets the bombmaker and is told when the bomb will explode. Meanwhile, a Scotland Yard detective Spencer (John Loder) believes that Verloc is the saboteur and is caught eavesdropping on a gathering between Verloc and a group of criminals. Suspicious that the police are aware of him, Verloc has his wife's kid brother Stevie (Desmond Tester) carry the bomb package to the train station as a favor. What will happen when the bomb goes off with its abominable results?

Sabotage is one of Hitchcock's more overlooked films probably due to confusion with its title. The movie is loosely based on Joseph Conrad's novel Secret Agent which just happened to be the title of Hitchcock's previous movie. The title also bears similarity with his 1942 movie Saboteur. Despite the confusion, the film does stand out as I mentioned before with its deliberate pacing and building of tension as Verloc's plan goes into effect. I remember in college seeing a clip of the film where Stevie is on the bus unaware of the bomb (while the audience knows it) he's carrying in a study of how suspense is built up as the clock gets closer and closer to the explosion. In his interview with Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock did express regret for Stevie's death, but in my opinion it just made the audience hate Verloc's character even more.

Sylvia Sidney gives a great performance throughout the movie but especially after the explosion where she hardly says a line but every viewer knows what she is thinking. The confrontation between she and Verloc at the climax of the film is expertly handled. Oscar Homolka is very effective in his role not playing the character as some sort of psycho, but as one completely indifferent to the consequences of his actions. John Loder's role was supposed to be originally played by Robert Donat, but when he was unable to take it due to his asthma, the role was reduced. Loder is ok, but he's a victim of the role since he's been more effective in other movies.

Critics raved about the film (the movie currently holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes - one of four Hitchcock films to do so) especially about the directing. The New York Times praised Hitchcock's use of suspense. The Monthly Film Bulletin attributed the directing as something unique to Hitchcock (the critic didn't use Hitchcockian) and being very precise. Graham Greene in the Spectator praised the film (except for Loder and Tester's performances) and say that the film marked where Hitchcock has really "come off".

Special credit in the movie is given to Walt Disney for the use of his 1935 Silly Symphonies cartoon, Who Killed Cock Robin?

Hitchcock's cameo appearance is about 9 minutes in when after the power is restored outside the movie theater, you can see Hitchcock look up at the street lamp.

Sabotage is in the public domain and can be viewed on several different streaming sites as well as be on DVD from anyone who can dupe and print cover art for a disc. I recommend the Criterion Channel's print of the film. While not being a faithful adaptation, Hitchcock does follow a bit of the theme of Joseph Conrad's Secret Agent which can be purchased here.

22. Secret Agent (1936)

Hitchcock had reclaimed his prestige with the release of his last two films, The Man Who Knew Too Much and The 39 Steps. Using the spy genre from the last film, Secret Agent would adapt the Campbell Dixon play which merged two Somerset Maugham short stories about his British Agent Ashenden.

The story, set during WWI, has Edward Brodie (John Gielgud) return home on leave only to read his obituary in the newspaper. He is then sent to a man known as R, who gives him a new identity (Peter Ashenden) an assignment to take over a recently departed agent. He goes to Switzerland to stop a German who plans to stir up the Arabs. He is teamed with an attractive blonde (Madeleine Carroll) and an assassin called the General (Peter Lorre).

Ashenden and the General go to a church to meet up with an organist who is a double agent, but he is found dead at his organ with a torn button as the only clue to the killer. At a casino later that night, the button is dropped on the roulette table and is identified by a tourist named Caypor. While on a mountain hike, the General pushes Caypor off a cliff (Ashenden doesn't want to do much with murder) only to find out that Caypor is not the man they're after. Elsa no longer wants anything to do with this line of work and runs off with an American tourist Robert Marvin (Robert Young). Ashenden and the General visit a chocolate factory to obtain a clue and then learn that Marvin is the man they're after. Can our heroes catch up with the train the spy is on before reaching enemy territory?

Secret Agent is good, its just not great. When The 39 Steps was released, some of the press focused on the film having a romantic angle between Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. I wonder with the release of this film, Hitchcock decided (or was told) to play up more of the romantic angle with Elsa being torn out of her love for Ashenden and the duty to her assignment, which I really felt slowed down the film. The movie does move at a good pace for the majority but I started to lose interest around that point in the film. Granted, Hitchcock was later informed that audience did not appreciate the wrong man being murdered.

John Gielgud was a great actor who had just come off runs of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, but his character just doesn't have the same interest or connection with the audience like Robert Donat had in The 39 Steps. Madeleine Carroll also gave me the same vibe with a good performance, but a character I don't think was well written. Peter Lorre probably steals the show again playing the General with enough buffoonery to laugh at, but when you come right down to it, he's a psychopath. Robert Young is the all-American boy character but the writing was predictable enough that anyone would have known he was the enemy spy.

Critics were mixed in their reviews. The New Yorker called it a good picture and a nice followup for Hitchcock after The 39 Steps. The Monthly Film Bulletin said the acting was good, as was the technical aspects but the ending seemed rushed and trying to convey a message which it didn't do so clearly. The New York Times liked Lorre's performance but thought Carroll's wasted her talent and the camerawork and sound recording were subpar. Graham Greene writing reviews for The Spectator, said the film was a series of melodramatic episodes that didn't seem to follow each other or lead to anything spectacular.

The film is available on several streaming sites being in the public domain, even though I haven't seen a version available that is superior to others.

21. The 39 Steps (1935)

Hitchcock's career got a much need shot in the arm with the release of The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1934. Now looking back at his previous successes The Lodger and Blackmail, his followups to those films didn't follow the same genre (The Ring, Downhill, Juno and the Paycock). Hitchcock avoided that by finding his next source of inspiration from John Buchan's 1915 novel, The Thirty-Nine Steps.

Here Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) a Canadian staying in England attends a music hall performance where chaos ensues after a shot rings out. The woman who fired the shot Annabella Smith (Lucie Mannheim) asks Hannay for protection back at his flat. There, she tells him that her life is in danger and because he helped her, he is at risk as well. She tells of the 39 Steps, a spy organization who is trying to procure government secrets out of England. She is on her way to a town in Scotland, to see a man who may be able to assist her. That night, she enters his room with a knife in her back saying they'll get him next. He manages to sneak out of his place in the morning past her assassins and finds out en route to Scotland to carry out her mission, that he is wanted for her murder. Hannay then later escapes the train, encounters a farmer, who may be tempted to turn her in, meets up with the head of the 39 Steps, speak on the fly at a political rally and be handcuffed to a woman (Madeleine Carroll) who is certain that he is a murderer. And still, how are the 39 Steps going to smuggle their loot out of the country?

The film is pure fun from beginning to end with Hitchcock giving the tale the required suspense, adventure and humor to keep the audience curious as to what happens next. Hitchcock told Francois Truffaut that he would have rather done Buchan's next book, Greenmantle, but he had a thing about adapting works of fiction that were considered the best of an author (Hitchcock apparently 10 years later planned to adapt Greenmantle, but Buchan's estate wanted to much for the rights). The movie follows the spirit of the book, even though a bunch of things were changed. The book had Hannay try to prevent the assassination of a visiting diplomat, but since that was pretty much the main focus of The Man Who Knew Too Much, Hitchcock and screenwriter Charles Bennett came up with this new take on the book.

Hitchcock's camerawork uses the same fluidity that we saw in his previous film, while using smart edits to his advantage. Two that stand out is when the apartment maid opens Hannay's apartment, sees Annabella and screams, its sound blends into the train whistle at the station. Second would be after the Professor shoots Hannay and falls over dead, the screen fades to black where we are taken back to the farmer's cottage to see what saved him.

Robert Donat was cast in a role well suited for his talents and just at the right time since he had just come off filming The Count of Monte Cristo and was reported to sign a contract with Warner Brothers (unfortunately, Donat's battle with asthma put a stop to this as he never ventured across the Atlantic again after returning to England). He is able to play the Hitchcock everyman with an added touch of dignity and and yet showing his chops at humor, menace and nervousness in probably one of the best male performances in a Hitchcock film.

Madeleine Carroll does a really good turn as Pamela with a snippy attitude when she thinks Hannay is going to be jailed but when handcuffed together, you can really think she's going through torture (reportedly Hitchcock as a practical joke handcuffed the two together and then "lost the key"). Peggy Ashcroft has a small but memorable performance as the farmer's abused wife who wishes for a better life. Lastly who can forget Wylie Watson as one of the most unforgettable characters in a Hitchcock film, Mr. Memory.

 In England, the film was a roaring success both commercially and critically. The film was promoted there more as a romantic adventure to entice the women to the audience. The New Galley 1400 seat theater was filled to capacity practically for every showing during its 5 week run there giving it an impressive 16 week run at the West End. The film did very well in Canada, primarily since the novel's author John Buchan was recently named Lieutenant Governor. It did well in various cities in the US, but advertising was mainly through word of mouth and executive producer Michael Balcon was somewhat disappointed by the results.

The Times said called the movie "a first rate film of adventure edged with comedy". The Manchester Guardian praised Madeleine Carroll and said despite the implausibilities of the story, said the movie was "something that is entertainment in the best sense of the word". The Motion Picture Daily said, "This has the speed, suspense and imagination in detail characteristic of a director with an American sense of box-office values and the humorous values, emphasized, nicely balance the melodrama."

Hitchcock makes his cameo appearance about 7 minutes in after Hannay and Annabella leave the music hall, Hitchcock walks across the frame tossing a piece of litter on the ground.

The movie is pretty popular and is available streaming of numerous sites. I'd recommend the Criterion edition on DVD and Blu-Ray (which can be bought here) or currently streaming on the Criterion Channel. Buchan's novel can be purchased here.

20. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

Following three dismal efforts, Hitchcock was given another chance in a genre that suited him best, suspense. The film here mixed with espionage and a slew of touches which would become Hitchcock staples for the next few decades, drew rave reviews both here and in the USA where the director would be getting a larger appreciation of his work.

Bob and Jill Lawrence (Leslie Banks and Edna Best) are vacationing in St. Moritz with their daughter Betty (Nova Pilbeam). Jill participates in a clay pigeon shooting contest, but loses when she is distracted by the sound of a watch belonging to a man named Abbot (Peter Lorre). That night, Jill dances with a French skier, Louis Bernard (Pierre Fresnay), when he is shot through the window. Dying, Bernard instructs Jill to get a brush containing a note from his room and deliver it to the British Consul. Bob goes after the brush and finds the note which gives a clue to the assassination in London of a foreign leader. When Bob is to give the authorities this information, he receives a note saying that Betty has been abducted and she will only be safe if the Lawrences keep their mouth shut. Arriving back in London, Bob and his secretary (Hugh Wakefield) go after clues to the spy ring (headed by Abbot) which leads the adventures to a dentist chair, a church revival, a concert at St. Albert Hall and a climactic shootout.

The movie apparently had its origins in the early 30's with a script by Charles Bennett for a Bulldog Drummond film called Bulldog Drummond's Baby. British International Pictures didn't go ahead with the production (not sure if it was because Wardour films would be doing The Return of Bulldog Drummond in 1934 and held the rights to the character). When Hitchcock moved to British Gaumont in 1933, the script came with him and was reworked into The Man Who Knew Too Much (the title taken from a series of G.K. Chesterton short stories).

As mentioned before, we have a lot of touches to the film which often are associated with Hitchcock films: the MacGuffin (Bernard's note), the average person thrust in a situation beyond his/her scope of control, a climactic scene in a public landmark (St. Albert Hall), subtle bits of humor. The music heard in the film is all source material (music coming from a radio or performance) but Hitchcock's directing is so fluid that you hardly notice the absence of a score.

His directing skills really bounced back with this effort. Since Blackmail, many of the Hitchcock's films had been slowed down to a crawl with long takes that slowed the film down and made the viewer think that they were watching the filming of a play. His camerawork here is very effective. One scene in particular that stands out is when being questioned by a British intelligence officer, Jill receives a phone call from the kidnappers. Now circa 1932, it seemed Hitchcock would have done a medium shot with with Bob and the officer huddled around, but here we get a closeup of Jill, in her own confused state, with only Bob's chin peeking in. Suspense is also brilliantly built in the concert performance when the assassin plans his act when the cymbals clash, so we get an excellent lead up with the cymbal player, Betty looking around, the assassin getting his gun ready, a shot of the intended victim and the spy ring waiting listening to the concert on the radio.

The acting is top notch here with obviously, Peter Lorre stealing every scene he's in. Lorre, in his first English speaking role (unless you count the alternate English language version of M (1931), available on Blu-ray from Criterion) conveys all of the menacing touches he would show over the next few decades. Edna Best is also very good in her scenes (even though they number fewer than you'd think) but results in her taking charge at the end.

Critics raved about the film. The BFI Film Monthly called it first class cinema and a high water mark in British film production. The Kinematograph Weekly noticed that Hitchcock had found the genre that worked best for him calling the movie artless fiction staged on a spectacular scale. The New York Times called it a notably written and acted bit of story telling praising Hitchcock as one of England's most imaginative directors.

Hitchcock told Francois Truffaut that he closed St. Moritz as the opening location since he had honeymooned there. He wanted a scene at the beginning where a figure skater is skating a code to the spies, but he couldn't make it work. He had also wanted Bob to go to a barbershop rather than a dentist and have him not noticed by the spies because of the hot towels covering his face pre-shave, but a chose not to because of a similar scene a couple of years earlier in I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. Lastly he wanted Jill to be hypnotized into becoming the assassin, but it just wouldn't have been as effective.

The film would be remade by Hitchcock in 1956 with James Stewart and Doris Day in the leads and the opening scenes moved to Marrakesh, but following the same basic premise. Hitchcock would call this version the work of a talented amateur and the remake was one made by a professional.

Hitchcock's cameo occurs around 34 minutes in the film right before Bob enters the church, a man is a black trenchcoat is seen walking on the sidewalk. While not as noticeable as his other cameos, it is supposed to be the director (one rumor is the man walking with Hitchcock is Charles Bennett, but its only a rumor).

The movie is in public domain, but I really urge you to watch the Criterion version on DVD, Blu-ray, (available for purchase here) or on the Criterion Channel. I will have to admit, my enjoyment of the movie did increase with a better looking version rather than some print that anyone could put on the market for a couple of dollars.