Saboteur (1942)
Trivia
Alfred Hitchcock's original cameo was cut by order of the censors. He and his secretary played deaf pedestrians. When Hitchcock's character made an apparently indecent proposal to her in sign language, she slapped his face. A more conventional cameo in front of a drugstore was substituted.
The special effects crew took stills of the Statue of Liberty's upraised hand, her torch, and the ledge beneath it. These were re-created to scale on a Universal Pictures soundstage.
The set used as the ranch house of Charles Tobin (Otto Kruger) was used as the home of the Brenners for another Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds (1963). It originally was a leftover set from a Deanna Durbin movie shot on the Universal backlot.
The shot of the ship on its side toward the end was a shot of the ocean liner S.S. Normandie, which had caught fire and capsized at its pier in New York. The fire was an accident, not sabotage (a cutting torch set fire to some kapok life vests), though there were rumors of sabotage at the time.
In this movie, there are brief appearances by Alfred Hitchcock (Man in front of drugstore) and Robert Mitchum early in his career (Passerby on stairs in the factory).
According to the Australian videocassette sleeve notes, this was Alfred Hitchcock's first movie with an all-American cast.
Although the script was originally written with Germans in mind as the villains, Alfred Hitchcock decided not to mention Germans at all in this movie. The villains thus became far more vague.
Alfred Hitchcock wanted to be sure of a degree of authenticity for certain roles and was not averse to unconventional casting to achieve it. For instance, he pulled the company's best boy from the electrical crew to play the friend killed in the factory fire because Hitchcock thought he looked perfectly like a working man.
Alfred Hitchcock thought that Robert Cummings was "a competent performer", but found his performance, and the movie, suffered because Cummings "belongs to the light-comedy class of actors" and had "an amusing face, so that even when he's in desperate straits, his features don't convey any anguish." He thought Priscilla Lane "simply wasn't the right type for a Hitchcock picture."
When the French liner, the S.S. Normandie burned and partially sank in New York City harbor, Alfred Hitchcock quickly dispatched a Universal newsreel crew to the scene to get footage that he incorporated into this movie, intercut with studio shots of the saboteur smiling from the back seat of a taxi as he looks out on the supposedly sabotaged ship.
The United States War Office "redflagged" the film over concerns regarding the implication that the capsizing of the SS Normandie was sabotage. Sabotage had been a concern but after an investigation it was deemed an accident due to carelessness, rule violations, lack of coordination between the various parties on board, lack of clear command structure during the fire, and a hasty, poorly-planned conversion effort. Hitchcock said "the Navy raised hell with Universal about these shots because I implied that the Normandie had been sabotaged, which was a reflection on their lack of vigilance in guarding it." Despite official objections, the shots remained in the final film as intended.
For the shots of police inspecting the long circus caravan at night, Alfred Hitchcock created perspective by using vehicles and people of different sizes, starting with full-sized trucks and extras at the closer end of the caravan, using smaller trucks and shorter people as it receded into the distance, and finally miniatures and cutouts with workable arms with tiny illuminations to simulate flashlights at the far end.
This movie and Shadow of a Doubt (1943) were the only two movies Alfred Hitchcock made at Universal Pictures in the 1940s. Both were box-office failures. This film came in at #69 in 1942.
Alfred Hitchcock chose to use the European "Finis" at the end of the movie rather than the traditional "The End" to suggest to the audience that the sabotage ring was finished.
Alfred Hitchcock wanted Gary Cooper or Joel McCrea for the lead role. Cooper wasn't interested in doing a thriller. McCrea wanted to work with Hitchcock again, but was unavailable. So the role finally went to Robert Cummings.
The only actor that Alfred Hitchcock gave much direction to was Otto Kruger, who never pleased him as the head villain. Otherwise, he preferred to let the actors and actresses work out their roles in rehearsal and gave them direction mostly on timing in front of the camera. He believed he could solve any acting problem with camera work, such as filming Kruger's lengthy fascist soliloquy from a disconcerting distance.
To achieve the sensation of the people at the ship launch being thrown up in the air during the explosion on the dock, Alfred Hitchcock had the cameras pan quickly down each of the extras, from head to toe, and cut them together quickly.
Universal Pictures was concerned with the fifty plus sets Alfred Hitchcock ordered, including a vast desert scene to be built on Stage 12 with a reconstruction of part of a river and waterfall, as well as the set for the Park Avenue mansion's grand ballroom.
According to associate art director Robert Boyle, Alfred Hitchcock knew "almost any shot will not hold longer than five seconds, and that a matte in particular is going to be on for no more than five seconds. Then the audience doesn't have time to find the problems."
Alfred Hitchcock cut corners wherever he could. The mansion set was built onto a staircase leftover from a Deanna Durbin musical, a backlot storage building became the doomed aircraft plant. He also included numerous mattes and rear projections, the use of which has long been the subject of debate about Hitchcock (ingenious cinematic statement or obvious special effect?).
For the factory sabotage, Alfred Hitchcock simply used a shot of the front of the building with black smoke slowly billowing into the frame. Robert Boyle said Hitchcock made a drawing "in which he drew just the big doors and then he did a big scribble. He said, 'There will be an explosion.' And I thought that scribble more illuminating than the finest drawing you could make."
Alfred Hitchcock was particularly distressed about not getting the villain he wanted. To convey the sense of these homegrown fascists being regular people, the ones you would least likely suspect, he wanted the very All-American former silent movie actor and Western star Harry Carey. However, Carey's wife Olive Carey was very indignant about the suggestion. Hitchcock told François Truffaut she said, "I am shocked that you should dare to offer my husband a part like this. After all, since Will Rogers' death, the youth of America have looked up to my husband!"
Theatrical movie debut of Norman Lloyd (Frank Fry).
At one point, Alfred Hitchcock wanted Henry Fonda to star.
Before he sold the property and the services of Alfred Hitchcock to Frank Lloyd Productions and Jack H. Skirball for £24,000, David O. Selznick had originally planned to film it with Gene Kelly, who had not as yet made a movie, in the leading role.
Alfred Hitchcock tried to get John Halliday for the villain role. He was living in Hawaii, and travel restrictions imposed after Pearl Harbor made it difficult for him to be available in a timely fashion.
As Charles Tobin (Otto Kruger) is coming down the staircase, notice that the scene is printed backwards. The handshake is with left hands, the dancers are facing vice versa, and the musicians are playing left handed.
Actors and actresses were sometimes shot from a great distance to convey the vastness of the American landscape.
Alfred Hitchcock originally wanted Margaret Sullavan or Barbara Stanwyck for the leading female role, but it went to Priscilla Lane.
Not a favorite of Alfred Hitchcock's, he rued the fact that he couldn't land any of his first choices for the lead. One of those was Robert Donat.
[Laura Mason] (birthname Jeanne Lynn Romer) and [Jean Romer], who play the Siamese Twins in this movie, played the twins in [The Great Gatsby (1949)] (1949).
A scene of the hero and heroine caught in a sandstorm was cut during editing and replaced with a shot of them huddled together on a rock.
There really was a U.S.S. Alaska. She was the first of two ships in the Alaska class. She was designated CB-1, and was a heavy cruiser. She was ordered in 1940 and laid down in 1941. She was launched in 1943 and served with distinction in the Pacific until the end of the war. The other Alaska class cruiser was the U.S.S. Guam. Four more ships in this class were planned, but never built, when the war ended in 1945.
Charles Tobin (Otto Kruger) suggests as a book for Barry Kane (Robert Cummings), "Death Of A Nobody". It was meant as a portent of Barry Kane's future. There was such a book (released in 1911) authored by Jules Romains. It is an author's view of life and events, and not a murder mystery.
There is not a Soda City in California. However, Soda Springs does exist and it is located near Hwy. 395, which was visible on the road sign when the highway patrolman stops the truck.
While being held in the library of Mrs. Henrietta Sutton (Alma Kruger), Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) was trying to signal Pat Martin (Priscilla Lane) by highlighting a book title with his thumb. The books next to "ESCAPE" are: Method of Criminal Investigation, Coaster Captain, Sketch of a Sinner, The Rash Act, Conquerors of Time, and Bad Company. Coaster Captain actually foretold the next sabotage event, which was in the New York City harbor.
Samuel S. Hinds as "Foundation Leader" is in studio records and casting call lists for this movie, but he was not seen in the final print.
The title shot was done by shooting a wall of corrugated panels at their normal proportion and having an actor outside of the frame slowly walk towards a spotlight that was off to the side by about 45º. This created a shadow that was about twice as wide as is should be and the angle allowed the corrugated surface to block bands of shadow. This image was then cropped at the top and bottom while being compressed horizontally to restore the shadow to a reasonable width. This is why the corrugated panels seem to be so narrow. While it would have been far easier to simply composite two shots, this way one can see the "white line" texture of the corrugate to appear within the shadow.
Evelyn Ankers was one of Universal Pictures' top three female stars along with Maria Montez and Deanna Durban. Evelyn Ankers could have easily been cast as Pat Martin, as she and Priscilla Lane were essentially the same type. However, Universal Pictures was grooming Ankers to be their answer to Fay Wray, and was planning on putting her in many horror movies, and Alfred Hitchcock may have preferred an actress more known for dramatic roles. As well, Universal Pictures hired Lane to be part of a movie team with their contract player Robert Cummings.
In the lipstick sign scene Martin gets change back for her milkshake. Later, at the Statue of Liberty, she again asks for change - this time for a pay phone.
Included among the American Film Institute's 2001 list of 400 movies nominated for the top 100 Most Heart-Pounding American Movies.
Priscilla Lane's character looks for Brooklyn at the end of this film. In two years, she'll play a character (in Arsenic and Old Lace) who lives in Brooklyn.
Originally, Barry Kane was to be named "Barry Ford", Patricia Martin was "Teddie Miller", and Philip Martin was "Edward Miller".
Director Cameo
Alfred Hitchcock: A man visiting the newsstand in front of the drug store where Barry Kane is taken upon arriving in New York City.
Spoilers
The famous shot of Frank Fry (Norman Lloyd) falling from the Statue of Liberty was an optical illusion. Instead of falling away from the camera, Lloyd was actually leaning back on a saddle, while the camera moved away from him.
A couple of slightly different versions have been offered about how Alfred Hitchcock got the shot of Frank Fry (Norman Lloyd) falling from the Statue of Liberty. One version claimed Lloyd sat on a revolving, tottering chair, making appropriate movements. Another says he was suspended on a wire. What is for certain is that he was shot against a black background while the camera swiftly pulled away from him, and the Statue and ground below were matted in later.
Alfred Hitchcock used the idea of "looks can be deceiving" throughout this entire movie. Examples: 1) Fire extinguisher filled with gasoline; 2) Charles Tobin playing with his granddaughter when he is first introduced; 3) "Blind" Man Philip Martin who is "totally aware" of everything that is going on; 4) Patricia Martin (Priscilla Lane) believing that Barry is a saboteur, because she believes he "looks" like a saboteur, and he has a saboteur's disposition; 5) The "little" Major in the Circus Caravan who is a "big" troublemaker; 6) "Abandoned" Soda City; 7) Freeman (Clem Bevans) believing Barry based on what he saw, and the "surface" information Barry provided to him; 8) Patricia Martin believing the Sheriff (Charles Halton and his words; 9) A party for charity affairs hosted by Mrs. Sutton (who secretly works with spies and saboteurs); 10) People ignoring Barry and his words (about Mrs. Sutton and others with her being spies and saboteurs) by saying that Barry is drunk and he is not even dressed; 11) Barry and Patricia Martin are "trapped" at a public place (Mrs. Sutton's big party); 12) Patricia Martin using "lipstick" to write the information about her; 13) The cop not taking Barry and his words seriously about the ship being sabotaged; 14) Frank Fry and the bomb detonator are inside of a fake American newsreel truck. Another example is the use of an old-fashioned field telephone in the visually "abandoned" office at Soda City. The message that comes through this telephone is what matters, not the physical appearance of the phone. Another interesting touch is Barry doesn't reveal anything about Patricia Martin to Freeman (Clem Bevans) in Soda City, but he later learns that Freeman knew far more than he did about Patricia Martin when they reach Mrs. Sutton's room.
