MovieChat Forums > Saboteur (1942) Discussion > Why I like this movie so much

Why I like this movie so much

posted 15 years ago by laxlon
3 replies | jump to latest

You can't predict where it's going to take you. The movie is going in one direction and then it turns a corner and it's going in a new direction. It's always a surprise, always keeps you interested. But at the same time, the movie never loses the focus of the hero's goals, to prove his innocence and find the real saboteur. Today's films are so formula-bound they are just not as compelling as films like this one. But I haven't seen this in a while, where was Hitchcock in this one, I've forgotten.

Just realized that lowly billed Norman Lloyd had the title role.

[–] rexshard93 15 years ago

Hitchcock appears in the middle of the film. I think outside the drugstore. Its the scene before Alan Baxter and Robert Cummings enter the hotel of Mrs. Sutton.

Hitchcock never liked obvious plot twists. I remember Hitchcock saying in Dick Cavett that "you must always avoid the cliche." I think its a great film. Have you seen Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent? That's another great film.

[–] laxlon 15 years ago

Yes I have seen Foreign Correspondent and I like the way Hitchcock mixes humor with his suspense sagas.

Jesse Royce Landis did the job in North by Northwest as Thornhill's mother and in Foreign Correspondent we have the line:"Cancel my rhumba lesson!" All great fun along with the adventure. Nobody has any comic relief in films today.

[–] rexshard93 15 years ago

I also like the scene in the beginning of Foreign Correspondent where Robert Benchley (Stebbins) says "25 years and I end up on milk."