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Saboteur (1942)
In Alfred Hitchcock's exciting "wrong-man" spy
thriller in the WWII era, it told about the efforts of a suspected
and framed domestic 'saboteur' to confront and capture the real,
fascist fifth columnist and foreign Nazi saboteur, in order to clear
his name and prove his innocence. His female romantic partner (a
blonde model) transformed from being an unwilling captive into a
willing accomplice in his pursuit. The characters who aided the innocent
man's odyssey included ordinary folks, such as a truck driver, a
blind man, and a group of circus performers, while the supposedly-honest
authority figures (local police, a Sheriff, a rich grandfatherly
rancher, and a dowager) were the enemy agents.
It marked director Hitchcock's first film with an entire American cast of actors,
and was his most propagandistic, patriotic-sounding work during the
war years, promoting vigilance among its viewers to prevent sabotage
and infiltration by enemy agents in the homeland. There were two other
earlier Hitchcock thrillers that shared the theme of espionage: Sabotage
(1936) and The Secret Agent (1936).
The tale, with extensive on-location footage, was
full of quirky characters, twists and turns. The war-time era suspense
film involved a fiery bombing of an aircraft plant in the LA area,
leading to a breath-taking cross-country road-chase, with stops in
the Central Valley of California, at the Hoover (Boulder) Dam, and
NYC's Radio City Music Hall. Its exciting resolution and climax was
atop the Statue of Liberty (an NYC landmark) with a fall to the death
(reminiscent of King Kong (1933))
- symbolizing the victory of democracy over tyranny.
The patriotic film was a forerunner to similar themes in
Hitchcock's North
by Northwest (1959) - (with its many famous US
monuments and sites), and obviously The Wrong Man (1957),
and it was also considered as a US version or remake of the director's
earlier British film The 39 Steps (1935).
- during the impressive title sequence, a shadowy,
subversive, anonymous silhouette of a trench-coated, hatted saboteur appeared
in front of giant corrugated sheets of aluminum siding in an aircraft
factory - he kept growing in size as he walked forward; the sinister
figure had a slight limp
[Note: Later in the film, the scene was echoed in Radio City Musical
Hall when a silhouetted figure moved across a movie screen]
- after the credits, in the opening scene, aircraft
workers at 8 am entered the Stewart Aircraft Works plant (Glendale,
CA, suburban LA) for their shift - some of whom lit up cigarettes;
aircraft munitions worker Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) and his
best friend Ken Mason (Virgil Summers) were walking along when
Mason was distracted by the sight of a hot blonde (Jean Trent)
demonstrator; he bumped into an unfamiliar and unfriendly worker
named Frank Fry (Norman Lloyd), identified by dropped envelopes
onto the floor
[Note: This would provide an unexpected clue to the man's name and
future whereabouts: the Deep Springs Ranch in Springville, CA.]
- Barry joked about the distracting blonde that had
caused Fry and Mason to stumble and fall to the floor: "Uh-oh.
Bottleneck: Mr. Roosevelt should hear this"; as the rude individual
Fry departed, Barry shouted out after him: "That just goes to show
you what a little blonde can do to hold up national defense"
[Note: Later, it would be Fry who would be the saboteur to sabotage
and 'hold up' the 'national defense'; the initial blonde
in the film would later be tied to another blonde in the film,
billboard model "Pat" Martin,
who would help to identify Fry and stand up to his evil deeds
by becoming "Miss Liberty" carrying the torch (of freedom).]
- ominously, trails and wisps of billowing black smoke
(a stand-in for the saboteur figure) began to engulf an area in
front of more corrugated steel siding and almost covered the entire
screen, foreshadowing the existence of a massive arson's blaze
- an act of sabotage; fire sirens alerted workers in the factory's lunch-room
- in a spectacular sequence, Kane was handed a fire extinguisher
to put out the flames of a blazing factory fire by Fry, which he
then passed to Mason; Kane's efforts resulted in the self-immolation
of Mason, because it was later revealed that the canister was filled
with gasoline
Death of Mason by Sabotage in Aircraft Plant -
Kane Was Falsely Blamed
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Extinguisher Handed from Fry to Kane
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Extinguisher Handed from Kane to Mason
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Mason Immolated
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- subsequently, Kane was obviously framed and falsely
accused of the death, partly due to the fact that there was no
one named Fry on the employee register; while visiting Mason's
grieving mother (Dorothy Peterson), two detectives came looking
for Kane to arrest him; Kane fled and hitched a ride with a helpful,
friendly, down-to-earth trucker named Mac (Murray Alper) - to begin
a journey to locate Fry and clear his name
- during
Kane's time as a fugitive fleeing from authorities, billboards (with
sayings) editorialized upon his predicament: "You're
Being Followed," "She;'ll Never Let You Down," and "The
Final Tribute: Beautiful Funeral"
Billboard Messages - Hitchcock's Humor (Images of Billboard
Model Patricia!)
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Ad for Motor Oil
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Ad for Drink
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Ad for Funerals
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- [Note: the film made many references to fire, torches,
or destructive explosions: aircraft workers lighting up cigarettes
as they entered the factory, an arson-saboteur named Fry, the opening
factory fire with gasoline implanted in a fire extinguisher, plans
to blow up Hoover Dam providing electric power to LA defense plants,
or to detonate a USS naval battleship during its launch, the Statue
of Liberty's Torch, the mansion's sprinkler system activated by a match, etc.]
- fortunately for Kane, trucker Mac was driving
on Rte. 395 north toward the exact location where Kane wanted to
go - the small high desert town of Springville, CA and one of its
large ranches, the Deep Springs Ranch - he remembered Fry's name
and address on the dropped envelopes from earlier (in an impressive
double-exposure) during the truck ride
[Note about Geographical Error: the actual town of Springville, CA
was located on Rte 190 on the western side of Sequoia National Forest,
about 200 miles NW of the high-desert region where he was dropped off]
- at the ranch, Kane met rich, elitist, cultured, well-respected
ranch owner and philanthropist, Charles Tobin (Otto Kruger) who was
with his daughter Mrs. Brown (Kathryn Adams) at
his backyard swimming pool; the tycoon denied knowing Fry; when Tobin
went inside, Kane became suspicious when Tobin's infant grand-daughter
Suzy Brown tossed him correspondence from Tobin's coat-pocket with Fry's name on them
- Kane noticed a recent Western Union telegram that
Frank Fry's next destination was Soda City - to meet Neilson: ("All
finished here. Joining Neilson in Soda City. Frank"); radio
broadcasts had already informed the urbane and charming Tobin that
Kane was a fugitive from the law
- in a dramatic conversational sequence, Kane confronted
the crooked Tobin for covering up for Fry and for being mixed up
in sabotage at the aircraft plant: "Frank Fry is a saboteur
who doesn't mind killing Americans for money...You can't get away
with this, Tobin! Even if I don't stop you, there are others that
will. A man like you can't last in a country like this"
- the crooked and villainous Tobin confessed that he was unconcerned about
Kane's threats against his anti-American, fascist objectives; Tobin
- who knew that Kane was a fugitive, had already reported him to
the Sheriff: "Very pretty speech. Youthful, passionate, idealistic. You see, I've already
sent for the police...Must I remind you that you are the
fugitive from justice and not I? I'm a prominent citizen, widely
respected. You are an obscure young workman wanted for the committing
of an extremely unpopular crime. Now which of us do you think the
police will believe, hmm?"
- Kane fled on horseback, but
was soon captured, handcuffed, and taken into police custody; his
efforts to incriminate Tobin fell on deaf ears: (Kane: "Just
because he's got a big ranch and a fancy pool and a lovely house
doesn't mean he's a nice guy"); as Kane was driven away, during
an opportune moment when stalled on a bridge (blocked by the same
truck (with a flat tire) that had given Kane a ride), the resourceful
Kane was able to escape by jumping off the high bridge railing into a river
- during a rainstorm, fugitive Kane received refuge,
dinner, heat from a fire, and aid in the cabin of a compassionate,
blind composer named Philip Martin (Vaughan Glaser)
[Note: The entire scene played homage to a similar one in The
Bride of Frankenstein (1935).]
- Kane decided to masquerade under the alias last name
of his dead co-worker friend, as Barry Mason; in the cabin, they
were interrupted by the arrival of Philip's visiting niece - a NY
billboard blonde model named Patricia "Pat" Martin
(Priscilla Lane); the clairvoyant blind man revealed that he intuitively
knew (through his accentuated hearing) that the stranger was wearing
handcuffs, but sensed that the 'dangerous man' was innocent: ("It
is my duty as an American citizen to believe a man innocent until
he's been proved guilty....I can see intangible things. For example,
innocence"); he urged his suspicious niece to drive to the town's blacksmith to have
the handcuffs removed
- Kane was double-crossed by Patricia who
attempted to drive him to the police station and turn him in; she was
convinced he was guilty: ("There's only one reason why a man commits
sabotage. That's worse than murder") but he resisted her efforts
to betray him; in the California desert, she stopped the car and
awaited approaching cars to seek
help; in the suspenseful sequence, he was able to frantically
grind through the chain of his handcuffs
with the fan belt of their car; then, he grabbed her and drove
off to avoid scrutiny by elderly onlookers in a car, who humorously
noted: "My, they must be terribly in love"
Patricia's Double-Cross - We're On Our Way to the
Police
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Kane Grinding Through the Chain of His Handcuffs
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- shortly later on their way to Soda City,
their car overheated (with a broken fan belt), and then on-foot in
a bizarre night-time encounter, they came into contact
with a caravan of the Russell Bros. circus trucks and some of its
performers - unusual freaks (a sequence inspired by Freaks
(1932)) - a microcosm of America (or the world) and its viewpoints; the outcast
characters included:
- Minnie and Marigold (Jeanne and Lynn Romer), argumentative
conjoined Siamese twins
- Midget (Billy Curtis), a fascistic Hitler-esque character
- Esmeralda, a good-hearted Bearded Lady
- "Bones" (a 'Human Skeleton') (Pedro de Cordoba),
chivalrous and thin
- Titania (Marie LeDeaux), a Fat Woman
- the "freaks" led by "Bones" helped
to conceal Kane and Patricia when police stopped the caravan; after
taking a democratic vote, Esmeralda (who cast the deciding vote)
rationalized: "It's the good people that stick when anybody's in trouble, and there aren't
many good people in the world. I think that we, all of us, know that
better than most....We don't give them up"
- they were dropped off 2 miles from the seemingly-deserted,
western ghost-town of Soda City; [Note: Soda City was a fictional
town; the sequence in 'Soda City' was filmed at Owens Lake, California,
USA]; Kane and Patricia discovered a cabin hideout; inside was a tripod and telescope designed to be
pointed at Hoover (Boulder) Dam; presumably, it was part of an
ongoing plot to blow up the dam; when a car approached,
Patricia hid in an adjacent room as Kane was confronted by two more
saboteurs - sinister, sexually-ambiguous Mr. Freeman (Alan Baxter)
and Neilson (Clem Bevans)
- in order to infiltrate the fascist ring, Kane decided
to pretend to be an allied saboteur that needed protection; he was
able to convince them that he was sent by Tobin; he showed them a
recent press article about his 'wanted' status'; he persuaded Freeman
to take him back East by car to their next destination and objective;
meanwhile, after overhearing Kane's duplicitous confessions about
helping them, Patricia (now disbelieving) reported him to a local
Sheriff after they left - little did she know until later that the
Sheriff was one of the conspirators
Soda City: Hideout For More Saboteurs
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Telescopic View of Hoover Dam
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Kane's 'Wanted' Article in Newspaper
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Two More Saboteurs: (l to r): Neilson and Freeman
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- before making their way to New York, Freeman had
their car swing by Hoover Dam for one last look, to speak about how
its demolition would disrupt electricity to Los Angeles and its defense
plants; in one of the creepiest moments of the film, Freeman made
some impromptu comments - about how he wished his youngest of two
male children (aged 2 and 4), a naughty and destructive child, was
a girl: ("Sometimes I wish my younger child had been a girl"), and proceeded to
describe how as a child, he had long golden locks that people would
stop to gaze at: ("When I was a child, I had long golden curls.
People used to stop on the street to admire me")
- Hitchcock's cameo appearance was at approx. 1 hour
and 4 minutes - in front of Cut Rate Drugs in New York
as the saboteurs' car pulled up in the city, he was speaking to a
woman; it slipped that their next target was in Brooklyn (at the
Navy Yard, to sabotage the launching of a new US Navy battleship)
- Freeman led Kane to a charity ball held at a
mansion by a co-conspirator - wealthy
New York dowager Mrs. Henrietta Sutton (Alma Kruger) who was generously
funding the saboteurs; after meeting Mrs. Sutton, Kane was shocked
to discover Patricia in the room; according to Freeman, Patricia
had been "indiscreet" after leaving him in Soda City when she went
to the Sheriff (who was corrupt and on the side of the saboteurs)
to report on Kane; Kane tried to signal Patricia to "ESCAPE" by pointing
to a book's spine on a shelf; but then Tobin entered the room - the
mastermind of the fifth columnists; he recommended another more appropriate,
"somehow prophetic" book for Kane - and indicated "THE DEATH OF A
NOBODY" by Jules Romains
Kane's Surreptitious Signal to Patricia to "ESCAPE"
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Tobin's Recommended Book: "THE DEATH OF A NOBODY"
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- Tobin announced to Mrs. Sutton and the others that
their entire operation at the dam had been compromised and had to
be abandoned; they had followed Patricia to her blind uncle Philip
Martin, who then went to the police; Tobin left his ranch before
officers arrived to arrest him; he criticized Freeman for his carelessness
regarding Kane: ("You might have been more efficient")
- the slimy ranch owner Tobin then began the first of
two heavy-handed monologues about the patriotic Kane and his true
character - with heavy sarcasm: "He's noble and fine and pure,
and so he pays the penalty that the noble and the fine and the pure
must pay in this world. He's misjudged by everyone. Why, even the
police have a completely erroneous impression of him. I can assure
you that, contrary to what is supposed, and to what he may himself
have told you, that young man is certainly not one of his country's
enemies"; his main point - that Kane was an imposter - startled the others:
("Mr. Kane is definitely no part of our little organization") - finally,
Patricia realized that Kane was on her side; Tobin subtly suggested
that Kane had to be eliminated, and their work must proceed the next
day in Brooklyn; however, Tobin himself was immediately leaving for
Central America: "Havana will be very gay this season"
- knowing that they were both trapped, Kane and
Patricia snuck away and entered the elegant party's ballroom dance
floor - posing as members of the upper class; she told him how she
had become the group's captive when they picked her up upon arrival
in NYC at the airport; realizing that all their exits were blocked,
Kane tried to convince an elderly male guest of their predicament:
("This whole house is a hotbed of spies and saboteurs"); he also told
another disbelieving male: "We're right in the middle of the
biggest bunch of fifth columnists in this country"
- surrounded from all angles by "ruthless" saboteurs: ("It's easy to
win when you forget about the rules"), they decided to dance together;
falling in love with Kane, Patricia remarked that she wished she had
met him earlier, possibly somewhere else like the North Pole: (Kane
concurred: "We might wind up there yet too, chasing Fry over an old glacier");
she also added: "Why couldn't I have met you 100 years ago,
on a beach somewhere?" - and they kissed; she also spoke about
being romantic in public: "I'm afraid we're not behaving very
well," to which Kane responded: "What's the difference? We weren't invited
anyway?" before they again kissed; he savored the moment: "No matter what happens,
they can never take it away from me"
- Patricia was whisked away by another dance partner,
while Kane attempted to create an evasive diversion; he spontaneously
made a public announcement about an on-the-spot auction of one of
his rich hostess Mrs. Sutton's bracelets, and was about to reveal
her true identity, but he modified his speech after being alerted
by strong-armed butler-saboteur Robert (Ian Wolfe) that a gun was
pointed toward his direction from behind a curtain on the balcony;
he was interrupted and ushered upstairs to speak to Tobin; Kane prefaced
their discussion: "Why is it that you sneer every time you refer to this country?
You've done pretty well here, I don't get it"
- in a second long monologue with Kane, Tobin (in black)
was positioned on a couch between two symmetrical pictures; during
the exchange, the camera slowly zoomed in on Kane, while Tobin was
kept in a long-shot on the sofa; the condescending Tobin admitted
his choice to be anti-American, with totalitarian-leanings and pro-terrorism
views, and expressed his disgust for any patriots or populists in
the country: "You're one of the ardent believers - a good American. Oh, there are millions
like you. People that plod along, without asking questions. I hate
to use the word stupid, but it seems to be the only one that applies.
The great masses, the moron millions. Well, there are a few of us
who are unwilling to just troop along, a few of us who are clever
enough to see that there's much more to be done than just live small
complacent lives, a few of us in America who desire a more profitable
type of government. When you think about it, Mr. Kane, the competence
of totalitarian nations is much higher than ours. They get things
done"; Kane replied: "Yeah. They get things done. They
bomb cities, sink ships, torture and murder
so you and your friends can eat off a gold plate; it’s a great
philosophy"; Tobin reacted: "I neither intend to be bombed
nor sunk, Mr. Kane. That’s why I’m leaving now. And if
things don’t arrive for you, if, uh, we should win, then
I’ll come back. Perhaps I can get what I want then: Power.
Yes. I want that as much as you want your comfort, or your job, or
that girl. We all have different tastes, as you can see. Only I'm
willing to back my tastes with the necessary force"
- Kane rebutted Tobin: "You certainly make it sound smooth and easy. Well, that's
a trick. I know the results of that power you believe in. It killed
my friend, and it's killing thousands like him. That's what you're
aiming at. But it doesn't bother you, I can see that. Because you
really hate all people. Let me tell you something. The last four
or five days, I've learned a lot. I've met guys like you, and I've
met others - people that are helpful and eager to do the right thing;
people that get a kick out of helping each other fight the bad guys.
Love and hate. The world's choosing up sides. I know who I'm with.
There are a lot of people on my side - millions of us in every country.
And we're not soft; we're plenty strong. And we'll fight standing
up on our two feet, and we'll win. Remember that, Mr Tobin. We'll
win, no matter what you guys do. We'll win if it takes from now until
the cows come home"
- Kane was knocked out from behind by Robert, and then
imprisoned in the mansion's basement-cellar storeroom overnight,
while Patricia was taken and entrapped in an office hideout (inside
the Rockefeller Center skyscraper); the next morning, Kane successfully
slipped away from the mansion by triggering a fire alarm sprinkler
system, while Patricia alerted a group of cab drivers below on the
street of her predicament by dropping an SOS note (written in lipstick
on poster-board) from the office window that fluttered down in the wind
- Kane raced in a taxi to stop the planned
sabotage of the USS Alaska battleship as it was christened
at 11:30 am and launched down a slipway at the Brooklyn Navy Yard;
there, he wrestled with armed foreign saboteur Frank Fry, who was
impersonating a newsman in a fake American Newsreel camera sound
truck; his efforts succeeded in delaying the blast (detonated by
a pushed button) so that only the dock was destroyed
- although successful at the Navy Yard in preventing
the ship's destruction, Kane was taken prisoner by Fry and his two
accomplices, and driven to the Rockefeller Center skyscraper; there,
because of Patricia's note, the police and FBI were awaiting their
arrival in the American Newsreel office; Kane was taken prisoner
(he was still a 'wanted' man), and Fry's accomplices were apprehended,
but Fry escaped
- there was an exciting pursuit after Fry
across the movie theatre stage of Radio City Music Hall, where on-screen
gunfire in the comedy being viewed was mirrored by deadly gunfire
in the audience; Fry shot and killed a man (Milton Kibbee) seated
next to his wife (Claire Whitney), to cause chaos; when the wife
realized her husband was dead, she screamed and caused a panic; Fry
then escaped from Radio City Musical Hall in a taxi, and during his
flight, he spotted and smugly smiled at a ship on its side (evidence
of an earlier successful act of sabotage) [Note: The US Navy was
displeased with the film's image of the capsized USS Normandie,
misrepresenting that its condition was the result of an accidental
fire and not sabotage.]
- the pursuit after Fry was taken up by Patricia who
now actively tracked and shadowed the saboteur via taxi; they boarded
a ferry that was bound for Bedloe Island ("Liberty Island")
where the Statue of Liberty was located; in contact with the FBI
by phone, she was directed to enter the Statue's base and stall,
distract and keep Fry occupied until Kane and the FBI arrived; she
followed him up to inside the statue's crown where she engaged in
small-talk with Fry; when he suspected her story and she mistakenly
called him Mr. Fry, she further identified her knowledge of his act
of sabotage: "It all started with an unknown blonde, an aircraft worker at a factory
in Glendale, California"; Fry sarcastically called her: "Little
Miss Liberty, carrying the torch"
- once Kane arrived at the Statue of Liberty in the
film's exhilarating conclusion (reminiscent of
North by Northwest's climax), he pursued Fry
onto the viewing platform on the statue's
torch; in a frightening, harrowing scene high up above the water
of NY harbor, Kane confronted Fry with a gun; windblown against a
cloudy sky, Fry backed away, accidentally lost his balance and fell
over the side of the platform's railing - he bounced
once and was left clinging to the space between the immense base
of the thumb and the forefinger that composed the concrete hand of
the statue; Kane climbed down to rescue and
valiantly save the spy - he half-crouched and had one hand wrapped
around part of the base of the torch; with his free hand,
he could only reach and clutch Fry's coat jacket sleeve near the
wrist; the police and FBI reached the platform and watched what was
unfolding from the railing
- Fry perilously hung
there clinging for his life as perspiration beads appeared on his forehead;
the sleeve began to gradually tear apart at the stitching or seam where
the left arm joined the shoulder; the saboteur literally dangled by
a thread; as the split widened, Fry's terror-stricken face noticed
that his entire coat jacket would soon separate; he cried out: "Quick,
the sleeve, the sleeve!" and then his arm slipped suddenly out
of the sleeve - in a disorienting, downward view from Kane's perspective,
Fry fell away through space and dropped to his death many feet below;
his face contorted, his body rotated awkwardly, and his screams became
fainter as he approached the ground: "Kaaaaaaaaaaaaannnne...." -
the film's last line of dialogue
Fry's Fall From the Statue of Liberty - Clinging
For Life
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- the film's ending images were of Kane climbing back
up and embracing Patricia
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In the Aircraft Plant (l to r): Barry Kane, Frank Fry,
and Ken Mason
Fry's Dropped Letters and $100 Dollar Bills - Clues
Ominous Black Smoke - Evidence of Sabotage at the Aircraft
Works plant in Glendale, CA
Kane Hitching a Ride Out of Town in a Truck - Sitting Next to a Fire Extinguisher
Kane's Double-Exposure: Remembering Fry's Letter, Addressed
to Deep Springs Ranch
Kane's Meeting with Tobin at Deep Springs Ranch in Springville,
CA
Western Union Telegram to Tobin: Fry's Next Destination
Was Soda City to Meet Up With Neilson
Kane's Confrontation with Tobin After Seeing the Telegram
With Fry's Name
Kane Handcuffed by Local Police
Kane's Escape: High-Dive Off Bridge
Kane's Refuge with Clairvoyant Blind Man Philip
Martin (Vaughan Glaser)
Blonde Billboard Model Patricia "Pat" Martin
(Priscilla Lane)
The Group of Circus "Freaks"
Soda City Sign (With Bullet Marks)
Kane with Freeman on Drive to the East
Hitchcock's Cameo - In Front of NYC Drug Store
Mrs. Sutton - Benefactress of the Saboteurs
Tobin's Sarcastic Speech About Kane's Character
Patricia and Kane on the Dance Floor
Elitist Tobin's Allegiance to Terrorism
Kane's Reluctance To Bow to Saboteurs ("We'll
win, no matter what you guys do")
Brooklyn Naval Yard's Launch of Battleship
Plans to Detonate the Battleship During Launch
Announcement of the Battleship's Launch
Patricia's SOS Note Thrown From a Skyscraper Window
At Shipyard, Kane Wrestling with Fry in a Fake News Truck, To
Prevent a Push-button Blast Detonation
Delayed Blast Blew Up the Brooklyn Navy Yard Dock, But Avoided
Destroying the Ship
Radio City Music Hall (On-Screen and Off-Screen Murders)
Fry - on the Ferry to the Statue of Liberty Island
Patricia Inside the Statue's Crown with Fry
Ending: Fade to Black - Kane Embracing Patricia
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