While American filmmakers in the 1930’s found suspense in domestic threats (gangsters, fugitives), British filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock were understandably more focused on foreign threats (spies, terrorists). In Sabotage, loosely based on a Joseph Conrad novel, the terrorists who have recruited Karl Verloc (Oskar Homolka) hail from an unidentified country and are fighting for an unidentified cause, which brilliantly shifts focus from politics in general to one woman in particular: Mrs. Verloc, played wonderfully by Sylvia Sidney, the female face of late 30’s proto noir (see her also in Fury, 1936; You Only Live Once, 1937). She’s unaware of her husband’s activities, which escalate from adding sand to a generator’s bearings to cause a citywide blackout to placing a time bomb in the Piccadilly Circus subway station. This latter act will be carried out incorrectly, resulting in tragedy not only for anonymous Londoners but for Mrs. Verloc and her little brother Stevie (Desmond Tester). John Loder plays Scotland Yard Detective Ted Spencer who has been watching the Verlocs undercover for weeks. Even in 1936, Hitchcock had perfected the art of inserting comedic moments into very dark crime pictures, such as the Disney cartoon playing in the movie theater just before a quietly, perfectly realistic stabbing. Also note the scene in which Verloc holds a covert meeting inside a public aquarium, which might very well have inspired similar aquarium scenes in later noirs like The Lady from Shanghai (1947) and The Lineup (1958).