pixrox1 Review of Saboteur: A Closer Look

Saboteur: A Closer Look (2001 Video)

Dorothy Parker plagiarized Mary Shelley . . .

[8/10 · 30 August 2013]

. . . (a story about FRANKENSTEIN) for the scene between Robert Cummings as SABOTEUR suspect Barry and Vaughan Glazer, who plays a blind man living alone in the woods (an exact description of Dr. Frankenstein's science project's only friend). This and other neat tidbits of information are revealed in SABOTEUR: A CLOSER LOOK, on the turn-of-the-century Universal Studios 14-title set of Alfred Hitchcock DVD's. A retrospective "making of" written, directed, and produced by Laurent Bouzereau (who did something similar for each title), it reveals fascinating facts about WWII, especially if the viewer can read between the lines of the redacted parts. For instance, did you know that the U.S. Navy destroyed the world's largest ocean liner--the Normandie--in New York Harbor so that Hitchcock would not risk getting seasick in order to film an example of naval sabotage, upon which the climax of the 1942 feature itself rests? This is the actual truth, since an "extra" on the Turner Classic Movie channel had a newsreel-type short from the 1940s (I think Pete Smith might have narrated it) about the Normandie recently.