This is a thrilling Hitch movie about a high-class rebellious group plotting to blow up major factories , installations , dams and ships . A factory worker ( Robert Cummings ) wrongfully framed of sabotage at a munitions plant set off on pursuit the traitor ( Norman Lloyd still today acting ) who accused him . He is forced to take on the lam and attempts to elude police while tries to find the real culprit . Our hero flees from the web of circumstance evidence threatening to entrap him . At the beginning a gorgeous model ( Priscilla Lane ) suspects Cummings might be the terrorist planting bombs around factories , but later on , being helped by the personable heroine until a groundbreaking climax finale .

Top-notch and top form Hitchcock movie about a WWII worker turned fugitive who tries to unmask the true saboteur . This exciting story is briskly paced and has a brooding , doom-laden atmosphere , including habitual crop of memorable sequences . Hitch uses impressive locations as Boulder Dam , Radio City Music Hall and the Statue of Liberty to intensify the suspense . Some overwhelming set pieces and breathtaking ending on the Statue of Liberty with incredible special effects by the craftsman John P Fulton who has a long career as FX designer . It contains usual Hitch touches constantly boost the action . Interesting screenplay by Joan Harrison -Hitchcock's usual- , Dorothy Parker and Peter Viertel , Deborah Kerr's husband . Atmospheric cinematography in white and black by Joseph Valentine and suspenseful musical score by the classic Frank Skinner . The picture bears certain remembrance to ¨Sabotage(1936)¨ with Silvia Sidney and Oscar Homolka who Hitchcock directed during his first British period . The story deals with ordinary Hitchcock theme as ¨ Wrong guilty¨ such as ¨ Thirty nine steps¨ , ¨Foreign correspondent¨ , ¨Wrong man¨ , ¨North by Northwest¨ and ¨To catch a thief¨ . Rating : Above average for its numerous quirky touches of the Master of suspense and beginning and finishing memorably . Worthwhile watching and indispensable and essential seeing for Hitchcock fans .

Overall, this is entertaining and odd film. Don't try to make sense of it. There are more holes in the story than a computer could keep up with, but Robert Cummings and a cast of minor characters are mostly fun to watch in this "Fugitive"-like story.

Unlike the popular TV show and then 1993 movie, this fugitive isn't looking for a one-armed man, but a two-armed Nazi saboteur by the the name of "Frank Fry." Cummings ("Barry Kane") gets blamed when a defense plant blows up in Los Angeles and goes on the lam looking for the man who did it (Fry) to clear his name.

The first 40 minutes or so are very tense and interesting. Then Priscilla Lane ("Pat Martin") enters the story, and it starts to bog down a bit with some sappy dialog. Director Alfred Hitchcock often did that with his female characters, to the point I wonder if he had a clue how woman talked. Lane's character here was a little lame.

Actually, the villains played by Otto Kruger ("Charles Tobin") and Norman Lloyd ("Frank Fry") were the best, in my opinion......just fascinating. Kruger's acting and dialog was especially good.

If you haven't seen this film but saw Hitchcock's well-known "North By Northwest," you'll chuckle at the ending and really enjoy it. Instead of a climactic scene at Mount Rushmore, here we have a memorable last 10 minutes at the State Of Liberty. As usual, Hitchcock camera angles are great and fun to view.

The film begins at an aircraft plant in America during WWII. Unexpectedly, there's an explosion and the place is destroyed--thanks to deliberate sabotage. Not only did someone start the film but they filled the fire extinguishers with gasoline!! Oddly, the police automatically assume that Barry (Bob Cummings) is guilty since he handed one of the extinguishers to a friend following the initial explosion. But Barry knows that a mysterious man, Mr. Fry, is responsible and he escapes and seeks out this character on a wild cross-country trek.

The very first time I saw "Saboteur", I really, really liked it--but that was almost 30 years ago. Today when I saw it again, I enjoyed it but also now realize that the film really isn't at all original. In many ways, it's a lot like two earlier Alfred Hitchcock films and one later one--"The 39 Steps", "The Girl Was Young" and "North By Northwest". All three have a man on the run from the law who is innocent and all three team up with a girl who is unwillingly pulled into the affair and all three have the woman come to believe in the man's innocence. Because of this, the film automatically loses a couple of points since it just isn't very original. Plus, while the sabotage angle was great for propaganda purposes back in 1942, today it makes the film seem a bit dated. Now don't get me wrong--it IS a good film.

An additional problem with "Saboteur" is that the film relies on a HUGE cliché--strangers who INSTANTLY assume the leading man is an innocent man and who help him escape the police. In real life, this would almost never happen--yet in this film it happens repeatedly.

Because of these serious weaknesses, the film is very uneven. While it is well-crafted by Hitchcock and the acting is nice, the story really is sub-par and poorly written at times. It's hard to score a derivative and clichéd film highly, even if it is well made. Watchable and interesting but flawed...seriously flawed.