Saboteur (1942)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Aircraft factory worker Barry Kane flees across the United States after he is wrongly accused of starting the fire that killed his best friend.
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What critics compared Saboteur to
Just when we thought that Hollywood had emerged from the stock Cold War villain era, Australian director Phillip Noyce (Rabbit Proof Fence, Patriot Games, Dead Calm) has cleverly resurrected the classic US enemy in an espionage thriller reminiscent, in story and style, of Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur.
The use of circus freaks is being construed as mean spirited, but these misshapen folk are good and caring (and, yes, funny) characters, much the same way Alfred Hitchcock depicted them in "Saboteur" (1942).
This last extended chase sequence reminds us of two Hitchcock strategies: His juxtaposition of patriotic images and espionage, as in "North by Northwest" and "Saboteur," and his desperate chases through uncaring crowds, reminders of "Foreign Correspondent" and " Strangers on a Train ."
He arouses sympathy for the thoroughly unlikable Nicholas, turning him into one of the hapless protagonists of "North by Northwest," "The Wrong Man" or "Saboteur."
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The star of "Topaz" is Hitchcock, who, except for his brief, signature appearance, remains just off-screen, manipulating our emotions as well as our memories of so many other Hitchcock films, including "Foreign Correspondent," "Saboteur" and "Torn Curtain," all inferior to "Topaz."