Hitchcock Day 5 - Saboteur (1942)

Saboteur – 1942

Robert Cummings, Priscilla Lane

First off, Priscilla Lane. Wow.

Um, what was I saying? Oh yea, Hitchcock’s 1942 Saboteur. The fifth of Hitchcock’s films and the second to have a decidedly pro-America message. Cummings plays a worker at an aircraft factory who is wrongly accused of setting the factory on fire, and spends the film chasing down the conspirators, picking up the reluctant Lane along the way.

It is full of pro-democracy rhetoric, people who help shelter Cummings’ character, explaining as they do things like “It is my duty as an American citizen to believe a man innocent until his is proven guilty.” It ends with a climatic show down at the Statue of Liberty and Priscilla Lane reciting the words inscribed on it. 

The suspense isn't bad, and given the lack of a-listers (Bob Cummings was a comedian and Lane gave up acting a few years later), it's a better movie than expected, but like Foreign Correspondent its dated message drags it down a little too much.

Also notable for a script crafted in part by Dorothy Parker.

Tomorrow...Shadow of a Doubt...

Priscilla Lane...