Early Hitchcock

Sabotage

Sabotage is the story of perfunctory wife Sylvia, married to, but not in love with, Verloc – a cinema manager and part-time anarchist. Verloc becomes aware of the investigations of the detective Ted, who is posing as a greengrocer and has befriended Stevie, Sylvia’s younger brother and third member of their household. Verloc, conscious of the police attention uses an unknowing Stevie to deposit a bomb at Piccadilly Circus while he himself is under surveillance. Stevie is delayed and is killed by the time-bomb.

Sylvia soon works out the circumstances of Stevie’s death and murders Verloc in rage. She wants to confess but Ted, who is now in love with her, won’t let her. The film ends with the bomb-maker who supplied Verloc going to the cinema, discovering the body of Verloc and, on hearing approaching police, blowing himself up destroying all evidence of Sylvia’s murder. Sylvia is then free to rebuild her life with Ted.