SABOTAGE (1936) **1/2 Quite the gamut of definitive Hitchcock shots; you don't even have to wait fifteen seconds for the most famous but I do believe that I enjoyed the swimming tortoises best. No matter, like waiting for the famous light bulb, the film offers very little by way of mystery but quite a bit by way of exclamation. There's no mystery per sé, but no small buildling of.I guess, concern more than suspense. There is also a steady build-up of plot tributaries along the way and you just know that once he gains sight of the end of the tunnel that he's not going to tie his shoe neatly. Now I wonder.probably the most important shot in the film is Oskar Homolka's eyes at the dinner table.absolutely incredible, more expressive in black and white than much of anything you can think of in colour or even surround sound. Were Hitchock's films really cast that brilliantly or did the genius have a supernatural ability to make a mountain out of a mole hill? Same with Silvia Sydney: it's a fine performance, but her face had to be everything Hitchcock could have dreamed of and yet it also seems to morph along the way. There's got to be more to that than lighting and make-up. Required viewing for anyone who just wants to have a bit of fun with fireworks.
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