MOVIEmeter
SEE RANK
Down 643 this week

Sabotage (1936)

7.1
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 7.1/10 from 7,675 users  
Reviews: 68 user | 38 critic

A Scotland Yard undercover detective is on the trail of a saboteur who is part of a plot to set off a bomb in London. But when the detective's cover is blown, the plot begins to unravel.

Director:

Writers:

(from the novel: "The Secret Agent" by), (screen play), 4 more credits »
0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 1418 titles created 10 months ago
 
a list of 51 titles created 1 week ago
 
a list of 1006 titles created 7 months ago
 
a list of 3595 titles created 1 month ago
 
a list of 1001 titles created 19 Mar 2012
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: Sabotage (1936)

Sabotage (1936) on IMDb 7.1/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of Sabotage.

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Crime | Mystery | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.9/10 X  

A man and his wife receive a clue to an imminent assassination attempt, only to learn that their daughter has been kidnapped to keep them quiet.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Peter Lorre
The 39 Steps (1935)
Crime | Mystery | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X  

A man in London tries to help a counterespionage agent. But when the agent is killed and he stands accused, he must go on the run to both save himself and also stop a spy ring trying to steal top secret information.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim
Torn Curtain (1966)
Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X  

An American scientist publicly defects to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to find the solution for a formula resin and then figuring out a plan to escape back to the West.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Stars: Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Lila Kedrova
Sleuth (1972)
Mystery | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.1/10 X  

A man who loves games and theater invites his wife's lover to meet him, setting up a battle of wits with potentially deadly results.

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Stars: Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Alec Cawthorne
Mystery | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1/10 X  

A mysterious, tall blonde woman, wearing dark sunglasses murders one of a psychiatrist's patients, and now she goes after the high-priced call girl who witnessed the murder.

Director: Brian De Palma
Stars: Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen
The Red House (1947)
Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.8/10 X  

An old man and his sister are concealing a terrible secret from their adopted teen daughter, concerning a hidden abandon farmhouse, located deep in the woods.

Director: Delmer Daves
Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Lon McCallister, Judith Anderson
The Village (2004)
Drama | Mystery | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.5/10 X  

The population of a small, isolated countryside village believe that their alliance with the mysterious creatures that inhabit the forest around them is coming to an end.

Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Stars: Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, William Hurt
Mystery | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

A woman reports that her young daughter is missing, but there seems to be no evidence that she ever existed.

Director: Otto Preminger
Stars: Laurence Olivier, Carol Lynley, Keir Dullea
Phone Booth (2002)
Mystery | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1/10 X  

Stuart Shepard finds himself trapped in a phone booth, pinned down by an extortionist's sniper rifle.

Director: Joel Schumacher
Stars: Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker
Mystery | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.4/10 X  

A murder inside the Louvre and clues in Da Vinci paintings lead to the discovery of a religious mystery protected by a secret society for two thousand years -- which could shake the foundations of Christianity.

Director: Ron Howard
Stars: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen
Gaslight (1940)
Mystery | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4/10 X  

Twenty years after the murder of Alice Barlow, her house is finally occupied again. However, the husband of the couple who have moved in has a secret which he will do anything to keep hidden.

Director: Thorold Dickinson
Stars: Anton Walbrook, Diana Wynyard, Frank Pettingell
Midnight Lace (1960)
Thriller | Mystery
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X  

In London, a newly-wed American woman's sanity comes into question, when she claims to be the victim of a stalker.

Director: David Miller
Stars: Doris Day, Rex Harrison, John Gavin
Edit

Cast

Complete credited cast:
...
Mrs. Verloc (as Sylvia Sydney)
Oskar Homolka ...
Her Husband (as Oscar Homolka)
Desmond Tester ...
Her Young Brother
John Loder ...
Ted
Joyce Barbour ...
Renee
Matthew Boulton ...
Superintendent Talbot
S.J. Warmington ...
Hollingshead
William Dewhurst ...
Edit

Storyline

Mr. Verloc is part of a gang of foreign saboteurs operating out of London. He manages a small cinema with his wife and her teenage brother as a cover, but they know nothing of his secret. Scotland Yard assign an undercover detective to work at the shop next to the cinema in order to observe the gang. Written by Col Needham <col@imdb.com>

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Taglines:

...A Bomb Plot ...A Killing ...Justice

Genres:

Mystery | Thriller

Certificate:

Unrated | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

11 January 1937 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

I Married a Murderer  »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

(Full Range Recording System)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

Robert Donat was originally slated to play Ted Spencer, but a prolonged illness prevented him from playing the role. See more »

Goofs

When Ted is leading Mrs. Verloc to the police station, his arms go from being at his side to around her between shots. See more »

Quotes

[first lines]
Man in power plant: Sand.
2nd Man in power plant: Sabotage.
3rd Man in power plant: Wrecking.
4th Man in power plant: Deliberate.
2nd Man in power plant: What's at the back of it?
3rd Man in power plant: Who did it?
See more »

Crazy Credits

Opening credits are shown with a background of a dictionary page open to the definition of "Sabotage". See more »

Connections

Referenced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Sabotage (2013) See more »

Soundtracks

"Love's Old Sweet Song (Just a Song At Twilight)"
(1884) (uncredited)
Music by J.L. Molloy
Lyrics by G. Clifton Bingham
Sung a cappella by a man lighting candles
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

 
A Great Sylvia Sidney Vehicle (before "Beetlejuice")
11 February 2005 | by (Kentucky) – See all my reviews

Like most Hitchcock films, "Sabotage" is a great thriller directed with a fluid, self-assured style. But given its thriller genre what makes "Sabotage" unique is that moments into the movie we know the identity of the saboteur, we know who is the undercover detective, and we know that the police have all but solved the case. So Hitchcock's suspense must come from somewhere else and in the meantime he must entertain us with character development. And that task falls to his heroine. Hitchcock had an uncanny ability to cast actresses who were a perfect fit (at that exact point of their career) to play a particular heroine. Fortunately he again makes the right choice and we are treated to a fine performance from Sylvia Sidney (imagine an expressive Sasha Cohen without ice skates).

The film is essentially a Sylvia Sidney vehicle as she plays a woman who slowly realizes that her husband is a monster. She is a young American woman who married an older European (nationality unknown) man who apparently showed kindness to her and her young brother Stevie (played by Desmond Tester) when they were down on their luck. They moved to London to run the Bijou, a struggling movie house.

Among the notable scenes is the meeting between Sidney's husband (played by Oskar Homolka) and a spy contact at the London aquarium; to the backdrop of a huge turtle swimming in an illuminated tank. The tank cross-dissolves into Piccadilly Circus as it is demolished in his imagination.

Another is late in the film when Sidney sits in the theater in numb shock, watching a Disney cartoon ( ( "Who Killed Cock Robin ?" )). There is not a word of dialogue but her eyes and expressions subtly convey an emotional cavalcade of stunned realization, immense sadness, and barely suppressed hysteria that will stay in your memory forever. It is a rare example of the visual power of film and an illustration of what acting for the camera is all about.

And perhaps most amazing is the long and unbearably suspenseful journey of young brother Stevie across London, unaware that he's carrying a ticking time bomb.


42 of 47 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
Best Hitchcock-English Movie? matini_martini_5
Stevie's accent miriamwebster
Sabotage and London bus and train bomb scenes turkeycat
best disc jtompkins-1
Nerdy Guy Leaving Aquarium With His Girlfriend peytonplace1
How come Sylvia could be informed of her brother's death by the media? patrick8828
Discuss Sabotage (1936) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?