Home video and remakes
- One of the Master of Suspense’s best and most shocking British films
- There are many fine official releases doing this superb work full justice
- Beware the countless bootlegs: they’ll kill your enjoyment stone dead
- Joseph Conrad’s source novel has seen dozens of remakes in every media
- Many are now lost or unavailable; here’s a full rundown of those that aren’t
Note: this is part of an ongoing series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles; any dead links are to those not yet published. Subscribe to the email list to be notified when new ones appear.
Part 1: Production
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Oskar Homolka and Sylvia Sidney, caught between disasters
Contents
- Home video
- Screenshots
- Soundtrack releases
- On the radio
- The Secret Agent (1992)
- The Secret Agent (1996)
- The Secret Agent (2016)
- Related articles
Preserved transfer
Spanish Divisa DVD
- US: Criterion LaserDisc (1987) sleeve essay
- UK: Network DVD (2008), also in 10-DVD/11-film H: The British Years
- ITV DVD (2008) – The Times newspaper giveaway; only UK DVD w/English subtitles
- Odeon 2on1 DVD (2009) w/The 39 Steps
- Germany: Concorde 6-DVD/7-film AH: The Early Years (2003, reissued 2011)
The US was first to better Sabotage’s early VHS releases via Criterion’s barebones LaserDisc but, though excellent for the time, they had to wait over 20 years for their second physical release. The UK Network DVD has a handful of extras: a short intro by film historian Charles Barr, a slideshow and best of all, an interesting 11-minute “On Location” featurette presented by Robert Powell, star of the 1978 remake of The 39 Steps. The next best PAL option is the German DVD, which is only available as part of a box set and has no extras, save for the ubiquitous “Hitchcock: The Early Years” featurette (1999, 24min), and some image galleries elsewhere in the set. Not present is the 1978 German dub recorded for the film’s TV première.
- France: TF1 Vidéo DVD (2007, reissued 2008), also in 5-DVD H: Le maître du suspens (2005, reissued 2010, 2016) – beware: forced French subs
- Spain: Filmax DVD (2000, reissued 2003, 2004)
- Divisa DVD (2003)
The French TF1 DVD also has the “Early Years” doc and two non-subbed featurettes by Claude Chabrol and Dominik Möll (both 25min). But its forced French subtitles on the feature’s English track and “Early Years” doc render it unsuitable for most. Subs are optional on the French dub but it’s only present in an anachronistic 5.1 surround remix. After that, the other DVDs are all bare.
- Benelux: Video/Film Express DVD (2004), also in 5-DVD/6-film H Collection: The Classics, Volume 1 and 10-DVD/11-film Classic H Collection/alt
- Sweden: Atlantic Film 8-DVD/9-film H Classic Collection (2006) info
- Finland: Future Film 8-DVD/9-film H Classic Collection (2006) info
The Swedish and Finnish Hitchcock Classic Collections, with four sets of subtitles, are identical bar translated packaging. The latter initially came in a slipcased foldout Digipak but was reissued in 2008 in a thick Amaray keep case. The same discs were also released individually in Norway (Star Media Entertainment) and in a Danish 4-disc set (On Air Video).
Remastered transfer
US insert poster adapted for the sleeve of Network’s BD, the best available home video version.
The film received a digital remaster in 2008 which shows a marked improvement with deeper blacks, better greyscale and natural grain, ie detail. Those in the US can get it streaming in HD but there are only two physical HD options for Sabotage at present and both are region B; a compelling reason to own a multi-region set-up. The UK and French BDs share the same beautiful transfer as the US-restricted stream from Criterion; however, with much higher bitrates and lossless audio, they look and sound even better. Even projected on a 106″screen at a seating distance of 10 feet, they’re near flawless.
- US: MGM DVD (2009), also in 8-DVD AH Premiere Collection/warning
- Criterion Prime Video HD
- UK: Network BD (2015)
- France: Filmedia DVD (2015), also in 4-DVD AH box set
- ESC Editions BD (2020), also in 3 Films de AH
- Poland: Studio Printel Digipak DVD (2009), also in 7-DVD H: Wczesne filmy mistrza and 6-DVD set
- Brazil: Versátil 2-DVD/4-film A Arte de AH/alt (2016) info
There’s the odd bit of speckling or a momentary light scratch, but nothing more. Overall detail is incredible; now on every viewing, I can’t help but notice the specks of toothpaste on Stevie’s lapels before he has his teeth brushed. They clearly remain from previous takes and weren’t even spotted by those present during filming! Network port over the extras from their earlier DVD while ESC Editions’ only extra is a 14½-minute French-language interview with documentarian Christophe Champclaux. Both have optional subtitles in their respective languages.
Among the remastered DVDs’ extras, the superlative US MGM leads the pack with an exclusive audio commentary by film scholar Leonard J. Leff, author of Hitchcock and Selznick (1987/1999). It also has a short restoration comparison (2½min), Hitchcock/Peter Bogdanovich interview (26 min) and a gallery. Though the latest French DVD from Filmedia has two more French-language featurettes (20 and 27 min), neither are directly related to the film. But at least it has optional French subtitles. Other than that, the rest are pretty much bare but whichever you pick at least they won’t blow up in your face, unlike the countless terrible DVD rip-offs and even bootleg BD-Rs from Spain (Resen) and Germany (Colours of Entertainment/Mediacs BD/DVD Digibooks: A/B/C/D, Great Movies/WME).
Screenshots
The invaluable Hitchcock Zone has many DVD screenshots of both licensed and bootleg DVDs, and DVDClassik has the ESC Editions BD and Filmedia DVD. Network BD: Homolka/Dewhurst, Homolka, Homolka #2, Loder, Tester, Loder/Sidney, Hunt/Bevan, Homolka #3, Sidney, Tester #2, Bull, Homolka/Mather, Homolka #4, parcel, Sidney #2, Homolka #5, Loder/Sidney #2.
Soundtrack releases
Speaking of bootlegs, there are many official re-recordings of part and full scores from Hitch’s American films, but sadly not so for his British works. So far, there are only re-recorded excerpts from The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes. Nonetheless, there are various Hitchcock film music compilations featuring selections from those and several other British talkies. But they’re almost all bootlegs too, mostly lifted directly from the film soundtracks themselves. The sole fully-licensed exceptions are:
- Museum Music 23-tr CD AH: Music from His Films (1999)
- Elusive Sounds 20-tr MP3 AH: Memorable Music from His Films (2012)
They include a cue from Sabotage composed by the film’s musical director Louis Levy: “Delayed on the Bus”, along with passages from Blackmail, Steps, Young and Innocent and The Lady Vanishes.
On the radio
Though there have been many BBC Radio adaptations of the novel, none are readily available but listen out for occasional rebroadcasts on BBC Radio 4 Extra. Besides, all of them are much more faithful to the downbeat-ended original than Hitch’s version. What we do have is the only true successor to his take, Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play/alt (2000), a light-hearted three-parter also incorporating The Lodger and The 39 Steps. It’s oft-performed (Facebook/Twitter) and there are various trailers and excerpts on YouTube including the Sabotage portion above.
The Secret Agent (1992)
There were at least half a dozen TV adaptations of Conrad’s novel between 1957–1981, but sadly none are in circulation. The very survivability of most of them is in question, though at least the 1967 BBC two-parter is still with us. The current earliest available small screen representation is an hour-long 1987 documentary, “Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent“. Part of the Ten Great Writers of the Modern World series, it dramatises many of the novel’s scenes throughout, “combining dramatisation, documentary and criticism, to investigate the world of the novel and Conrad’s view of life as under constant threat of violence and moral disarray.”
The next full length attempt was a 1992 BBC miniseries. It was well received and again a much closer reading of the source text. It’s most notable for starring David Suchet, on a brief sojourn from his regular gig as Agatha Christie’s Poirot, and a future Doctor Who in the shape of Peter Capaldi. So far, it’s only been released in the UK:
- UK: Spirit DVD (2016)
The Secret Agent (1996)
The only other theatrical film version is much more widely available. A decent effort all around, a host of recognisable faces feature among its fairly international cast. Joining the likes of Bob Hoskins and Christian Bale is a strangely uncredited Robin Williams as the bomb-making Professor. It’s been issued on DVD in the US and various European countries but bizarrely, not in its native UK.
The screenplay was penned by Christopher Hampton and published in 1997, alongside his adaptation of Conrad’s epic, South America-set novel Nostromo (1904, Gutenberg/Internet Archive). The latter was to be the basis of iconic filmmaker David Lean’s final, never-realised project. Scoring duties for the 1996 film were undertaken by none other than acclaimed composer Philip Glass and his sterling efforts have been issued in the US, UK and Japan on CD and streaming.
- France: Metropolitan DVD (2013)
- Spain: Filmax DVD (2008)
- Divisa DVD (2012)
- Netherlands: Dutch FilmWorks DVD (2006, alt)
- Hungary: Jupiter Film DVD (2006)
The Secret Agent (2016)
The most recent screen adaptation, another TV miniseries, again comes courtesy of the BBC and while it takes many liberties with the novel, remains tonally dark throughout. Verloc is played by Toby Jones, who earlier portrayed Hitch himself in The Girl (2012), while Nottingham-born Vicky McClure is his suffering spouse.
These are all the official releases so far but it’s also been bootlegged on a couple of unlicensed freebie Greek newspaper DVDs in card sleeves. They’re twofers and each is paired with either Beyond the Law (1993) or Total Eclipse (1995).
Teaser | Spanish: teaser, trailer | French
Part 1: Production
Related articles
This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.
