THE STANFORD THEATRE
Sabotage poster

Sabotage

1936 ★ 74 min
Starring: Sylvia Sidney, Oskar Homolka, John Loder
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writer: Charles Bennett, Helen Simpson, Alma Reville
Producer: Michael Balcon

Sabotage, released in the United States as The Woman Alone, is a 1936 British spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Sylvia Sidney, Oscar Homolka, and John Loder. It is loosely based on Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel The Secret Agent, about a woman who discovers that her husband is a terrorist agent.

Trivia

  • Based on The Secret Agent (novel by Joseph Conrad).
  • Hitchcock wanted to cast Robert Donat – with whom he had previously worked in The 39 Steps (1935) – as Spencer, but was forced to cast another actor (John Loder) owing to Donat's chronic asthma.
  • According to Hitchcock, in his interviews with the French director François Truffaut, Alexander Korda, to whom Donat was under contract, refused to release him.
  • Hitchcock, who was not happy with Loder's casting, later commented, "The actor we got wasn't suitable, and I was forced to rewrite the dialogue during the shooting". Charles Bennett says Sylvia Sidney was upset when Loder was cast because she agreed to make the film to work with Donat.

Previous Showings

10 Runs • 7 Festivals

13,165 tickets sold

All runs on record (10):

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