Author: womo

“Sabotage!, also released as “The Woman Alone”, is a 1936 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is based on Joseph Conrad’s novel “The Secret Agent”. It should not be confused with Hitchcock’s film “Secret Agent” released the same year, or his 1942 film “Saboteur”.

Karl Verloc (Oscar Homolka), the owner of a cinema, is part of a gang of terrorists from an unnamed European country who are planning a series of attacks in London. Their exact motives are not made clear. Scotland Yard suspects Verloc’s involvement in the plot and assigns Detective Sergeant Ted Spencer (John Loder) to investigate Verloc, initially under cover. Spencer conducts the investigation posing as a greengrocer’s helper, selling fruit and vegetables in a shop right next to the cinema.

Verloc’s young and beautiful wife (Sylvia Sidney) believes that her husband is a good man because he has been kind to her and her little brother, Stevie (Desmond Tester), who lives with them. However, gradually she comes to suspect that her husband may be one of the people behind the terrorist attacks. The final straw comes when her little brother is killed, along with many other people, when a bus explodes. The boy had thought that he was simply delivering a film canister, but he was unknowingly carrying a time bomb for Verloc, to be detonated in the London Underground station under Piccadilly Circus. The boy had become distracted along the way, which had delayed his delivery, and thus the bomb exploded en route to its final target.

Verloc confesses to his wife, but then blames Scotland Yard and Spencer for Stevie’s death, saying that they were the ones who prevented Verloc from successfully carrying out the bomb delivery himself. Soon afterwards, as Verloc and his wife are preparing to eat dinner, she stabs him to death with a knife. When Spencer arrives to arrest Verloc he realizes what has happened, but insists that she shouldn’t admit that she killed her husband. Nevertheless, she starts to confess her crime to a policeman. Meanwhile, at this very moment, the terrorist bomb maker sneaks into Verloc’s room to retrieve the birdcage that had been used to deliver the bomb out of fear that it might incriminate him. But as the police surround the building, he detonates a bomber-coat he wears in the event he is about to be caught. The explosion and fire interrupts Mrs. Verloc’s confession, destroying all evidence of her crime and effectively preventing the policeman from remembering whether it was before or after the explosion that she told him, “My husband is dead!” At the end we see an uneasy Mrs. Verloc and Ted Spencer walk away together.

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Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, produced by Michael Balcon, Screenplay by Charles Bennett, story by Joseph Conrad, starring Sylvia Sidney, Oskar Homolka, John Loder.

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Source: “Sabotage (film)” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 19 June 2012. Web. 26 July 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabotage_(film).

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“The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog” is a silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1926 and released on 14 February 1927 in London and on 10 June 1928 in New York City. The film, based on a story by Marie Belloc Lowndes and a play Who Is He? co-written by Belloc Lowndes, concerns the hunt for a “Jack the Ripper” type of serial killer in London. The wrong man is accused of the crime and is forced to try to prove his innocence.

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Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, produced by Michael Balcon and Carlyle Blackwell, written by Marie Belloc Lowndes (novel) and Eliot Stannard, starring Marie Ault, Arthur Chesney, June, Malcolm Keen and Ivor Novello.

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Source: “The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 24 June 2012. Web. 9 July 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lodger:_A_Story_of_the_London_Fog.

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Young and Innocent (U.S. title: The Girl Was Young) is a 1937 British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Nova Pilbeam, Derrick De Marney and John Longden. It is very loosely based on Josephine Tey’s novel A Shilling for Candles (1936).

In the opening scene of the film, Christine Clay (Pamela Carme), a successful actress, argues passionately with her jealous ex-husband. He makes particular reference to Robert Tisdall, a young man staying near her at her retreat on the English coast. Christine slaps him several times across the face, but he hardly reacts, choosing instead to depart without a word.

The next morning, Robert Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) happens to be walking along the seaside cliffs when Christine’s body washes ashore. He runs to get help and call the police, but two young swimmers arrive just in time to see him racing away from the corpse. A belt from his raincoat, which had just recently gone missing, is found next to the body, further implicating him in her strangling. He is subsequently arrested and becomes the main suspect, partly because of a large sum of money Christine left to him in her will, a gift he was unaware of. Saddled with a despondent barrister, Tisdall doubts if his innocence will ever be established. He elects to take advantage of a crowded courthouse and make his escape.

Tisdall coerces Erica Burgoyne (Nova Pilbeam), daughter of the local police Chief Constable, to give him a ride in her Morris car. Though she is initially unsure about her passenger, Burgoyne eventually becomes convinced of his innocence and elects to help him in any way that she can. They are eventually spotted together, forcing both to stay on the run. Tisdall tries to prove his innocence by tracking down the stolen coat.
The duo succeed in tracking down Old Will (Edward Rigby), a sociable china-mender and bum that was known to have received Tisdall’s coat. He agrees to help them find the man who gave him the coat; unfortunately, all that Old Will can remember about the man is his distinctive eye twitch.

Upon searching the pockets of the coat, Erica finds a box of matches from the Grand Hotel, a place Tisdall has never been to. She is separated from the group, however, and taken in by the police. Upon realizing that his daughter has fully allied herself with the murder suspect, her father chooses to resign his position as Chief Constable rather than arrest her for assisting Tisdall. Nonetheless, Erica and Old Will go to the Grand Hotel together, hoping to find the true murderer. In a memorably long, continuous sequence, the camera moves forward through the hotel ballroom, finally focusing on the drummer in a dance band performing in blackface. Recognizing Old Will in the audience, and seeing policemen nearby (unaware that they have followed Old Will in the hopes of finding Tisdall), the man performs poorly due to fear and is berated by the musical conductor. A nervous breakdown, exacerbated by a drug he has been taking to try to control the twitching, causes the man to pass out in the middle of a performance, drawing the attention of Erica and the policemen. Immediately after being revived and confronted, he confesses his crime and begins laughing hysterically. In the end, Robert Tisdall and Erica Burgoyne are united, with Erica’s father smiling benevolently.

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Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, produced by Edward Black, written by Charles Bennett, Edwin Greenwood and Anthony Armstrong, story by Josephine They, Gerald Savory and Alma Reville, starring Nova Pilbeam, Derrick De Marney and Percy Marmont.

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Source: “Young and Innocent” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 31 May 2012. Web. 4 July 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_and_Innocent.

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