AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

twhiteson Allegedly, director John Ford was once asked by a reporter why the Apaches chasing the eponymous stagecoach in 1939's "Stagecoach" didn't just shoot the stage's horses to stop it. Ford's reply: "Well, that would have ended the movie." I kept thinking of that Ford response while watching Alfred Hitchcock's 1942 film "Saboteur." The plot: Ordinary, average Joe American, "Barry Kane" (Bob Cummings), works in a Los Angeles aircraft plant where a fire breaks-out. Kane and a co-worker friend rush to put out the flames during which they're handed a fire extinguisher by someone whom they think is a fellow co-worker named "Frank Fry" (Norman Lloyd). The extinguisher, though, contains gasoline which accelerates the flames and kills Kane's friend. In the ensuing investigation, suspicion turns on Kane because there was no record of a Frank Fry working in that plant. Thus, Kane is accused of deliberate sabotage and causing the death of his friend. Rather than face the charges, Kane decides that only he can track down the mysterious Fry and clear his name. So, he flees with the authorities hot on his trail. Along the way, he inexplicably picks-up a beautiful blonde model, Patricia Martin (Priscilla Lane), who is initially convinced of his guilt, but then starts to believes him. (And also falls in love with him.) Pat's conversion towards Kane's point of view is helped when they stumble upon a whole ring of saboteurs bent on aiding the fascist cause. To the shock of Kane and Pat, these saboteurs are led by a smooth-talking, sophisticated western rancher, "Charles Tobin" (Otto Kruger) and a grand dame of NYC society, "Mrs. Sutton" (Alma Kruger). Kane and Pat experience a host of captures and narrow escapes while trying stop the ring's next plot to destroy a battleship upon its christening launch in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It all culminates in a chase on the top of Statue of Liberty.As others have noted, "Saboteur" comes across as an American version of Hitchcock's 1935 "The 39 Steps" and a precursor to 1959's "North by Northwest." It features many plot elements that were used in both those films. However, "Saboteur" is not considered a Hitchcock classic like "The 39 Steps" and "North by Northwest." Why "Saboteur" does not get the accolades of those other films is usually based on its cast being inferior due to having lightweight Bob Cummings and pretty singer-turned-actress Priscilla Lane as its leads. However, I think its script is just not as smart or clever.In fact, I thought "Saboteur" was pretty stupid mainly because the supposedly ruthless and sophisticated sabotage ring was so incredibly stupid. They repeatedly capture Kane and Pat. Yet, instead of putting bullets in their brains and then burying them, the ring keeps them alive and puts them unrestrained and unobserved in rooms by themselves from which they quickly escape. As much as I wanted Kane and Pat to succeed, I still found myself saying: "Shoot them!" whenever the sabotage ring had them in their clutches. There was NO REASON whatsoever for the ring to keep these two alive. Yet, the ring kept doing it.I wonder if anyone ever asked Hitchcock why the saboteurs didn't just kill Barry Kane and Pat Martin and if he replied: "Well, that would have ended the movie."

Hitchcoc If one could accuse Alfred Hitchcock of having a formula, it might be the one where a person who is innocent stumbles into a situation where he/she (usually he) is blamed for something he/she didn't do. The cards are stacked against them and it is up to them to prove their innocence. It often involves extensive travel with a companion who distrusts them at first (prototype "The Thirty-Nine Steps). In this one, a saboteur in a plant gets himself killed and the protagonist, Robert Cummings, gets blamed for what happens. He is pursued by the law, captured, handcuffed, but manages to free himself. He pursues the evildoer to New York City where we have one of the most famous scenes in all of cinema, involving the Empire State Building. Of course, King Kong played that venue earlier. At times this lacks the sparkle of some of Hitch's films, but it still has a great deal of suspense an excitement.

ofpsmith Alfred Hitchcock made a lot of films where an innocent person get's into some big trouble. In Saboteur we see our hero, factory worker Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) run across the country after being accused of the murder of his coworker. Along with Pat Martin (Priscilla Lane) Barry has to prove his innocence and prevent the next sabotage effort. Yeah, Barry's friend was killed by sabotage. This film bares a lot of similarities to North by Northwest and The 39 Steps both also by Hitchcock. This is a great film like all Hitchcock films. I recommend Saboteur to any Hitchcock fan or anyone who likes good movies in general. It's suspenseful, it's enthralling, and it's a lot of fun.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Given the "Masters", director Alf Hitchcock, touch the movie is a lot better then it could have been without O'l Alfie directing it. It's about a man Barry Kane, Robert Commings, on the lamb for a crime that he didn't commit: Treason against the USA. It was in fact Barry's co-worker, who was not even employed there, at the aircraft plant Frank Fry, Norman Lloyd, who after a fire broke out at the plant handed Barry a fire extinguisher that was filled with gasoline that ended up burning the place down and killing Barry's friend and person he handed it to Ken Mason, Virgil Summers. Now on the run and wanting to prove his innocence Barry tries to track down Fry and have his brought to justice, in the electric chair, before he dose any more damage as well as clear his name.It's pretty model Pat Martin, Priscilla Lane, who after being kidnapped by him hooks up with Barry, Pat is obviously suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome, in finding Fry and his cohorts who are planning to do bigger and worser things to the USA! That in bombing the both the Hoover Dam and sinking at it's launching at the Brooklyn Navy Yark the latest US battleship the USS Alaska. As it turns out Fry belongs to this group of saboteurs who want to knock the USA out of the war, against Germany & Japan, before it even starts going full blast.***SPOILLERS****The exciting final takes place at of all places the Statue of liberty where the fleeing Fry is totally isolated, surrounded by Manhattan Bay, with no where to go but up with Barry and a squad of New York City policemen and FBI agents chasing him. Fry could have easily escaped on the mainland with the help of his fellow senators but choose to go to Liberty Island for no other reason, as far as I could tell,but to see the sights! Wearing a cheap suit that he bought in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, off a pushcart peddler, and dangling on the statue's Torch of liberty Fry gets cooked by, with Barry losing his grip on him, falling some 130 feet to his death below.What's so unusual about this film is that were never given the name of the country that Fry and his fellow saboteurs working for even though it was obvious to anyone watching it was Hitler's Germany! It may have been that the movie was made before the attack on Pearl Harbor and before Germany's,four days later, deceleration of war on the USA. That in it's distributors not trying to increase the tensions with the German Government, which were high already, that the USA was still at peace with. P.S Look for Actor Robert Mitchum in a walk-on role as an aircraft worker, which he in fact was, earlier in the film going with both Barry & Ken to the plant mess-hall before the deadly fire broke out.