SABOTAGE

UK, 1936, 76 minutes, Black and white.
Oskar Homolka, Sylvia Sidney, John Loder.
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Sabotage is an early Alfred Hitchcock sound film, from the mid-1930s. It was made after The Thirty-Nine? Steps and The Secret Agent.

The film was based on a novel by Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent. Since Hitchcock had made a film with that title the year before, this one was called Sabotage.

It is the story of anarchists, based on the siege of Sydney Street in the early 20th century. Sylvia Sidney plays the wife of an anarchist, played by Oskar Homolka. She begins to suspect her husband of terrorist activity and has to make a decision as to what she will do, especially in his regard.

The film is brief, builds up its suspense, creates an atmosphere of how anarchists operated in the early 20th century.

It was remade in the 1990s by playwright Christopher Hampton with Bob Hoskins as the anarchists and Patricia Arquette as his wife. There is a strong international cast in support including Gerard Depardieu, Jim Broadbent, Christian Bale, Eddie Izzard as well as Robin Williams as the sinister professor.

1. The quality of this Hitchcock thriller? Early sound, the British industry in the thirties? An early espionage Hitchcock film? His use of suspense?

2. The title, the credits and the focus on the dictionary explanation? The irony of the American title 'A Woman Alone'? Sabotage and the overtones of espionage, destruction, spies, traitors, patriotism? How well were these themes explored?

3. The device of having the situation of the cinema, its ordinariness, a cover for Verloc, Mrs Verloc and her brother and their ordinary work? Problems of money, machines breaking down, repayments? The atmosphere of the neighbourhood in London? The use of the cinema, for example, with the Disney sequence, the build-up to the climax, the explosion? Why was Hitchcock using the cinema for these purposes? The London atmosphere and its authenticity, realism with which the audience could identify? Fear and suspense for the audience?

4. The focus on Mrs Verloc, an ordinary woman, her work, the dilemma of getting the money back to the patrons, her love for her husband, her not suspecting anything? Yet her suspicions? Her anxiety and fearfulness? The bond between her husband and herself? The bond? with her brother? The detective and the impact of his presence? Her puzzle? Helping him? Her fear that something would happen?

5. The contrast with Mr Verloc, a mysterious character, his appearance, foreign, sinister? How likable? The mysterious early sequences and the information that he was a saboteur? The context for his sabotage? The background to the anarchists and his loyalties? His arrival home, staying in his room, lies? His relationship with his wife - did he love her? The build-up to the bomb and its transport? Giving it to the boy?

6. The build-up for the carrying of the bomb and audience suspense, the elaborate scenes of the Mayor's procession, the boy's enthusiasm? The focus on the cans of film? His presence on the bus? The continual focus on the clocks for the time? The pathos of the explosion and its visual impact? Audience sympathies against Verloc, for his wife?

7. The build-up to Mrs Verloc's reception of the news? The famous scene in which she kills him? Comment on the techniques of communication amongst the two, the unspoken communication, Verloc's attitude, Mrs Verloc's attitude, the focus on the knife, her dilemma, the actual killing and its impact on her? Why is it so famous?

8. How important was the character of the detective, the audience knowing his role, his presence, the market? His suspicions of Verloc and trying to verify them? The attraction to Mrs Verloc?

9. The build-up after Verloe's death, the theatre? The build-?up of the contacts with the anarchists, the interrogation, the people involved, the bomb and the man arriving at the theatre, his discovery of Verloc, the delay of the time? The counterbalance of the theatre showing Disney, clearing it? The final impact of the explosion?

10. How much guilt did Mrs Verloc feel? How innocent was she, how guilty? What did she think? Her trying to cope? Her escaping and yet her being rescued by the detective? The irony that there was no evidence after the explosion? How well did Hitchcock explore themes of conscience within the suspense?

11. How satisfying a blend of human drama, espionage, thriller suspense? Its influence on Hitchcock's later films?