Sabotage is not among Hitchcock's very finest, and I consider The Lady Vanishes and The 39 Steps better films from his British period. However, it is still a great, though perhaps a too-short length, film and one of his most underrated. There are more audacious films of his visually(Vertigo, Rebecca and To Catch a Thief for examples) but it is still a very well made film and the sets exude a lot of atmosphere. It is very well-directed by Hitchcock with some really nice touches and a visual style that makes you think yes this is Hitchcock. The dialogue provokes thought and keeps you gripped and guessing, while the story draws you in- due to its high levels of suspense and great atmosphere- with the 75 minutes or so just flying by. It is not a Hitchcock film without a memorable or suspenseful set-piece, Sabotage has those, the highlights are the scene on the bus with the bomb and the death of Verloc though Verloc imagining London in ruin is chilling stuff too. Sylvia Sidney is wonderful in a nuanced and quite touching performance, the scene where her character is watching Who Killed Cock Robin saw Sidney express many different emotions that made that scene tense and moving at the same time. Oskar Homolka's Verloc has a strong air of menace, you only have to look at his appearance for starters, yet there is a hint of a sympathetic edge. To conclude, a great British Hitchcock and one of his most underrated efforts. 9/10 Bethany Cox

In the era of 9/11 and terrorist bombings in London and Madrid, Sabotage has assumed an uneasy relevance for today's audience. Sometimes terror does indeed live among us.

In this case it operates the Bijou Theater in London. It's personified by Oscar Homolka of obscure Eastern European origins. Homolka is married to Sylvia Sidney and her juvenile brother Desmond Tester lives with them. She's completely unaware of her husband's other activities as a saboteur.

In the Joseph Conrad novel Homolka is clearly identified as an anarchist and I wish Alfred Hitchcock had done that or at least made it more clear who was doing all this terror and why. Might have helped the audience in understanding the motivation of the characters. I also do find it hard to believe Sylvia Sidney was that dense in that she had no clue what Homolka was up to.

John Loder plays the green grocer next door who in reality is a Scotland Yard inspector doing undercover work. In fact at one point he's spotted doing the surveillance by the gang and his cover is blown. Why Homolka didn't just pack it in and call off the bombing is not quite explained.

Sabotage certainly does have the usual Alfred Hitchcock tension built into the film. Unfortunately the tension is like badly wasted energy on a story that really has too many holes in it.

Most of Hitchcock's pre-Hollywood films have been pretty much ignored by American audiences with only a few exceptions (such as The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes). Of the several somewhat forgotten films is this dandy suspense film from 1936. What I particularly liked about the film was that it COULD have chosen the easy way out of a dilemma but chose for the grittier solution. This provided much greater realism which is so important when making a film about terrorists. In essence, there often is NOT a happy ending and these maniacs hurt a lot of innocent people.

Although the titles are similar, this should not be confused with Hitchcock's propaganda film The Saboteur from 1942. While a good film (and at times great),it is nowhere nearly as well-written and suffers from predictability--and Sabotage is NEVER predictable!