Saboteur (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Saboteur is a 1942 American spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock with a screenplay written by Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison and Dorothy Parker. The film stars Robert Cummings, Priscilla Lane and Norman Lloyd.
Plot
Aircraft factory worker Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) is accused of starting a fire at the Stewart Aircraft Works in Glendale, California, an act of sabotage that killed his friend Mason (Virgil Summers). Kane believes the real culprit is a man named Fry (Norman Lloyd) who, during their efforts to put out the fire, handed him a fire extinguisher filled with gasoline, which he passed on to Mason. When the investigators find no one named "Fry" on the list of plant workers, they assume Kane is the culprit.
Earlier, on the way to lunch, Kane and Mason had seen Fry's name on an envelope he dropped. Kane remembers the address and travels to a ranch in the High Desert. The ranch owner, Charles Tobin (Otto Kruger), appears to be a well-respected citizen but reveals that he is working with the saboteurs. Kane learns from a piece of mail he sees that Fry has gone to Soda City. Tobin has called the sheriff, but Kane escapes the police, taking refuge with a kind blind man (Vaughan Glaser) whose visiting niece, Patricia "Pat" Martin (Priscilla Lane), is a model famous for appearing on billboards. Although her uncle asks her to take Kane to the local blacksmith shop to have his handcuffs removed, she attempts to take him to the police. Kane insists he is innocent and kidnaps Martin. When he takes control of the car and stops, she jumps out and tries to signal a passing car to stop. He uses the fan belt pulley of her car's generator to break his handcuffs apart, causing the car to overheat and break down.
As night falls, the couple stows away on a circus train. The circus performers recognize them as fugitives but decide to shield them from the police. Kane and Martin reach Soda City, a ghost town where the saboteurs are preparing to blow up Boulder Dam. Kane is discovered by the saboteurs, but conceals Martin and convinces the saboteurs that he is allied with them. After foiling their plan to destroy the dam, Kane convinces them to remove his manacles and take him with them to New York. He learns of their plan to sabotage the launching of a new U.S. Navy battleship at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Kane's performance has fooled Martin as well; she contacts the authorities, hoping to get to New York to obstruct the saboteurs' plans.
The saboteurs reach New York but find the phone at their office disconnected, indicating the police are on to them. They meet with New York dowager Mrs. Sutton (Alma Kruger) and other conspirators at her mansion, during a grand society party. Kane finds the captured Martin, who was betrayed by a corrupt sheriff. As Kane attempts to signal her to escape, Tobin arrives. He recognizes Kane and exposes him. Tobin has Kane knocked out and locked in the mansion's cellar. Martin is imprisoned in an office at Rockefeller Center. The next morning, Kane triggers a fire alarm at the mansion and escapes. Martin drops a note from the office window, which is found by some cab drivers.
Kane reaches the Navy Yard, but only a few minutes before the launching. Rather than wait to explain to the Yard authorities, he rushes out to search for the saboteurs. He spots Fry in a fake newsreel camera truck, prepared to blow up the slipway during the launching. Their struggle prevents Fry from detonating the explosion until seconds after the successful launch of the USS Alaska battleship. {{#tag:ref|The fictional ship in Saboteur is not connected with the real USS Alaska.|group=Note}}
Fry takes Kane prisoner, and with his two accomplices returns to the Rockefeller Center office. The police and FBI, alerted by Martin's note, are waiting for them. The accomplices are caught, but Fry dodges into the back of an adjacent movie theater (Radio City Music Hall). He shoots a man in the audience and escapes in the panic. In front of the theater, Kane sees Fry get into a taxi. Still holding Kane in custody, the FBI refuses to follow Fry, so Kane tells Martin to shadow the saboteur. She follows Fry onto the ferry to Bedloe's Island ("Liberty Island" in the present day), attracting his attention, and then to the Statue of Liberty. She calls the FBI, and at their direction, goes into the statue to find Fry and distract him. In the viewing room in the statue's crown, she strikes up a conversation with Fry, stalling him until Kane and the FBI arrive.
Kane escapes his escort and encounters Martin, who tells him that Fry is escaping. Kane pursues Fry onto the viewing platform on the torch. When Kane emerges from the tunnel, he confronts Fry at gunpoint. While backing away from Kane, Fry accidentally falls over the platform's railing and clings to the statue's hand. Kane climbs down to try and save Fry. As the police and FBI agent reach the platform, watching from the railing, Fry's grip slips. Kane grabs the sleeve of Fry's jacket and tries to pull him to safety; however, the stitching in the jacket gradually tears. Helpless and terrified, Fry falls to his death in spite of Kane's effort to rescue him. Kane climbs back up and embraces Martin.
Cast
- Robert Cummings as Barry Kane
- Priscilla Lane as Patricia "Pat" Martin
- Otto Kruger as Charles Tobin
- Alan Baxter as Freeman
- Clem Bevans as Neilson
- Norman Lloyd as Frank Fry
- Alma Kruger as Mrs. Sutton
- Vaughan Glaser as Uncle Phillip Martin (as Vaughan Glazer)
- Dorothy Peterson as Mrs. Mason
- Ian Wolfe as Robert
- Frances Carson as Society Woman
- Murray Alper as Truck Driver
- Kathryn Adams as Mrs Brown (Tobin's daughter)
- Pedro de Cordoba as Bones - Circus Troupe
- Billy Curtis as Major / Midget - Circus Troupe
- Marie LeDeaux as Titania the Fat Woman - Circus Troupe (as Matie Ke Deaux)
- Anita Sharp-Bolster as Esmeralda - Circus Troupe (as Anita Bloster)
- Jean Romer as Siamese Twins (as Jeanne Romer)
- Laura Mason as Siamese Twins (as Lynn Romer)
