Movie review – “Sabotage” (1937) ***1/2

Hitchcock in gloomy mode – there’s not going to be any happy ending for mousy Sylvia Sidney, an atypical Hitchcock heroine. For one thing she’s married to a terrorist, so you know he’s going to die; for another she has a kid brother who winds up a victim of a bomb – in a scene that still shocks. (It’s like putting Gwyneth’s head in a box.) Sure, there’s a love interest available in John Loder’s undercover cop, but does she look really interested in him? This is a gripping, dark thriller, very adult – Hitchcock’s hot streak was still going strong at this stage.