Alfred Hitchcock directs Joel McCrea, Laraine Day and George Sanders in this thriller where a crime reporter is assigned covering Europe at the brink of war and gets caught up in a conspiracy he cannot fathom.

Takes a good half hour to get going but once it does we get prime Hitch set piece after prime Hitch set piece. Assassinations in Amsterdam, car chase, windmill cat and mouse, penthouse hotel escapes, the bodyguard hired to kill you, the fake kidnapping bluff and a plane-crash-at-sea-mega finale. The artificial sets are a little clunky but this tastes very much how a 1940s Mission: Impossible might have been cooked. A lesser Hitch thanks to its B list cast but one that still puts you through the ringer. George Sanders is oily and self serving as the good egg you can never truly trust. You kinda wish he was the lead.

8

Perfect Double Bill: Saboteur (1942)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin