Sabotage (1936)

Synopsis: Alfred Hitchcock once said suspense is like a bomb: The audience knows it's about to go off, but there's nothing they can do about it. (He also said, "There's no terror in the bang--only in the... Alfred Hitchcock once said suspense is like a bomb: The audience knows it's about to go off, but there's nothing they can do about it. (He also said, "There's no terror in the bang--only in the anticipation of it.") In this film, the director puts that simile to good use. Shy and unhappy Sylvia Verloc (Sylvia Sidney) runs a small movie theater with her brooding husband, Karl (Oskar Homolka). Her young brother Stevie (Desmond Tester) lives with them and runs errands. Next door to the theater is a grocery where the charming and inquisitive clerk Ted Spencer (John Loder ) works. Ted gets to know and care for Mrs. Verloc, revealing that he is a Scotland Yard detective investigating Carl for his part in a criminal conspiracy and confirming the wife's nagging suspicions about her husband. As discovery and arrest approach, Carl assigns the unknowing young Stevie the errand of delivering a package containing a bomb. The torturously tense sequence that follows is among the most memorable in cinema history. [More]

Starring: Oscar Homolka, Sylvia Sidney, John Loder, Desmond Tester

Starring: Oscar Homolka, Sylvia Sidney, John Loder, Desmond Tester, Matthew Boulton, Austin Trevor, Torin Thatcher, Aubrey Mather

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Producer: Michael Balcon, Ivor Montagu
Screenwriter: Charles Bennett, Ian Hay, Alma Reville, Helen Simpson
Composer: Louis Levy

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