Sabotage

"A bomb plot... A Killing... Justice."

1936 1h 17m EN

👍

6.7

SOLID

★6.7TMDB · 384

DramaThrillerCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Karl Anton Verloc and his wife own a small cinema in a quiet London suburb where they live seemingly happily. But Mrs. Verloc does not know that her husband has a secret that will affect their relationship and threaten her teenage brother's life.

“A bomb plot... A Killing... Justice.”

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Cast

Sylvia Sidney
Mrs. Verloc
Oskar Homolka
Karl Verloc - Her Husband
Desmond Tester
Stevie - Her Young Brother
John Loder
Ted
Joyce Barbour
Renee
Matthew Boulton
Superintendent Talbot
S. J. Warmington
Hollingshead
William Dewhurst
The Professor

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writers: Charles Bennett
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 77-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

ERA

Did you know

90 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, shot by Bernard Knowles. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Charles Frend shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Sylvia Sidney and Oskar Homolka and Desmond Tester carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "A bomb plot... A Killing... Justice.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0028212 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Alfred Hitchcock directs. Bernard Knowles behind the camera. Charles Frend cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 77-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
290 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, shot by Bernard Knowles. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Editor Charles Frend shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Sylvia Sidney and Oskar Homolka and Desmond Tester carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "A bomb plot... A Killing... Justice.".
7IMDB entry: tt0028212 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 8 themes, including "london, england", "husband wife relationship", "based on novel or book", "bomb".

The technical file

Cinematography: Bernard Knowles
Editing: Charles Frend
Runtime: 77 min · 1h 17m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
IMDB: Sabotage (1936)

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Alfred Hitchcock

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2022-03-28
★ 7/10
Perhaps not one of Hitchcock's most prominent films, but it's a tense crime thriller telling the tale of a family of recent émigrés to Britain who are struggling to run their small London cinema. Oskar Homolka ("Mr. Verloc") falls foul of some criminals who offer to pay him for carrying out an act of sabotage. This doesn't quite cause the mayhem they desire so he is unwittingly, this time, involved a much more deadly action. Unbeknown to him, Scotland Yard are on to them and have planted a detective (John Loder) in the greengrocers who befriends the family. The plot unfolds slowly and tensely. Loder and ("Mrs. Verloc") a slightly dewy-eyed Sylvia Sidney fall for each other as we go along. That storyline slightly districts from the suspense and the ending comes along a bit too rapidly for me. Great to watch, though...

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