Review by Gary Tooze

Production:

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Audio:

• None

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The Film:

The night before his grandson, Tommy Grayson, a mechanic at the Midland Aircraft Corporation, is to marry Gail, a former showgirl, Major Matt Grayson, a war veteran and watchman at the plant, catches two men breaking into the machine shop. The men run, but the major shoots one of them. With his dying breath the man begs the major to "stop them" and blurts out his own name, Marty Kruger. The major leaves to call the police, but when he returns, Kruger's body is missing. The next day, a new bomber crashes during a test flight, and government agents come to investigate because five recent plane crashes involved motors from the Midland plant. Suspicion falls on Tommy when an investigation reveals that all the bad piston heads that caused the engines to freeze came from his bench. When government agents arrest Tommy, the major tells Johnson, the plant manager, about Marty Kruger, but Johnson accuses the major of trying to cover for his grandson.

Excerpt from TCM located HERE

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Firstly, this is the 1939 film Sabotage - not to be confused with Hitchcock's 1936 film - of the same name, reviewed on Blu-ray HERE. This 1939 film arrives on Blu-ray from Olive Films. This is only single-layered but has a max'ed out bitrate and the transferred image looks appealing, if, noticeably faint. The visuals are clean and detail can surprise with its clarity. The Blu-ray presentation is a positive one looking quite strong in-motion.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio is transferred via a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel mono track at 1764 kbps (24-bit). It supports the film's modest effects aside from the plane crash. The score is by William Lava (War Arrow, The Night Riders, Retreat, Hell!) and Cy Feuer (Jungle Girl) and is fairly unremarkable. There are optional English subtitles, in a gaudy yellow font, and my Oppo has identified it as being a region 'A'-locked.

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BOTTOM LINE:
Well, it's certainly not Hitchcock's, vastly superior, film. Sabotage is a simple, justice-seeking 'B' flag waver. But I don't find its wholesome qualities a total negative. it's short, positive and has some story and character development.  The Blu-ray is, typically, bare-bones of a middling-level feature. I suggest that the audience is quite small - especially at the offered price. 

Gary Tooze

January 21st, 2017