64
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThis film, Hitchcock's first contribution to wartime American propaganda, is as polished and suspenseful as any the great director would make.
- 80The New YorkerRichard BrodyThe New YorkerRichard BrodyFor his first thriller set in America, from 1942, Alfred Hitchcock runs loopily through a gamut of genres, filming in a range of settings, from California to New York, to depict a country that lives in the image of its movies. His set pieces take on the blue-collar drama, the Western, the high-society mystery, the urban police story, and the circus melodrama, while capturing the paranoia of a country newly at war.
- 70Saboteur is a little too self-consciously Hitchcock. Its succession of incredible climaxes, its mounting tautness and suspense, its mood of terror and impending doom could have been achieved by no one else. That is a great tribute to a brilliant director. But it would be a greater tribute to a finer director if he didn't let the spectator see the wheels go round, didn't let him spot the tricks - and thus shatter the illusion, however momentarily.
- 70Time OutTime OutA little on the bland side in its two leads, though suave Kruger and sweaty Lloyd compensate with their vivid villainies. Lots of echoes of earlier British Hitchcock, plus the charmingly bizarre encounter with the caravan-load of circus freaks, the charity ball from which there appears to be no exit, and the classic climax atop the Statue of Liberty.
- 60EmpireDavid ParkinsonEmpireDavid ParkinsonNot one of Hitchcock's best, but with a few creative sequences and some sharp writing from Dorothy Parker.
- 50The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelA mixed-up and over-loaded American spy thriller by Alfred Hitchcok, with the unengaging Robert Cummings in the lead and an unappealing cast, featuring Priscilla Lane and Otto Kruger. Nothing holds together, but there are still enough scary sequences to make the picture entertaining.
- 40The New York TimesBosley CrowtherThe New York TimesBosley CrowtherTo put it mildly, Mr. Hitchcock and his writers have really let themselves go. Melodramatic action is their forte, but they scoff at speed limits this trip.