Sabotage (1936, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) ***/****

Hitchcock is known as the "master of suspense."  In Sabotage, there is one particular sequence which is  very suspenseful.  It involves a time bomb.  The audience knows when it will go off.  The characters however, are ignorant of its presence and as time tick away we realize that it is definitely going to go off.  I liked Sabotage for its suspense and its interesting character.  Sylvia Sidney is very beautiful and a pleasure to watch.  Oskar Homolka plays Verloc, a movie theatre owner who's wife (Sidney) slowly begins to suspect him of being a saboteur.  It is no spoiler that she is correct.   Her younger brother is the unfortunate recipient of the time bomb and the suspense is created as he is diverted on the way to his destination.  There is an undercover Scotland Yard constable who grows more and more suspicious of Verloc as the plot unfolds.  This is not the best of Hitchcock's films but it is an enjoyable early one.  The cast is good and the story and characters are admirable as well.