perhaps the best example of a film which embodies the two aspects of hitchcock's career (the british work and the american films), "saboteur" came suitably enough in the early years of his work. on paper the film seems like an early prototype for "north by northwest", with the famous landmark-based action atop the statue of liberty laying down the blueprints for the mount rushmore sequence in "north by northwest".
the film is very dark, unusually so for the time. as a result the film is beautifully shot, with the tone of the film lending richly to the character. the actual characterisation is fairly complex too, with the incidental character of the friendly truck driver reminding of the later work of a character-rich filmmaker like martin scorsese.
the film comes complete with the expected kick in the teeth, complete with bitter irony at the end of the film. as the only person that can clear him falls to his death, our hero barry kane (robert cummings) sees his one chance of clearance fall with it. this carries one definitive trait of hitchcock; an unexpected, non-hollywood climax.
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