Lifeboat (1944)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

John Steinbeck (story)
Jo Swerling (screenplay)

Release Date:

12 January 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller | War

Tagline:

Who goes Primitive first...A man...Or a woman...adrift in an open boat ?

Plot:

Several survivors of a torpedoed ship find themselves in the same boat with one of the men who sunk it.

Plot Keywords:

German | U Boat | Survivor | Nurse | Radio Operator

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 1 win

Cast

Tallulah Bankhead	...	Constance 'Connie' Porter
William Bendix	...	Gus Smith
Walter Slezak	...	Willy
Mary Anderson	...	Alice MacKenzie
John Hodiak	...	John Kovac
Henry Hull	...	Charles D. 'Ritt' Rittenhouse
Heather Angel	...	Mrs.Higley
Hume Cronyn	...	Stanley 'Sparks' Garrett
Canada Lee	...	George 'Joe' Spencer

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (re-rating) (1989) | Australia:PG | Canada:PG (Ontario) | USA:Approved (certificate #9598) | Brazil:12 | Argentina:16 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | Peru:18

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

After she caught pneumonia, Tallulah Bankhead was given a puppy by Alfred Hitchcock for being such a good sport during the film. He had already named the dog Hitchcock.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The fish that is seen underwater going after Connie's gem bait is obviously being pulled to it by a line attached to its mouth, and never opens its mouth to take the object when it makes its "strike".

Quotes:

Connie Porter: In a word: Wow!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Bloodlust! (#7.7)" (1994)

Single-set thriller of the kind that only Hitchcock could make.

Lifeboat was Alfred Hitchcock's only film for 20th Century Fox. It is not widely remembered nowadays - certainly not in the way that Psycho, North By Northwest and Rebecca are remembered - but it still ranks very highly in the director's canon. In the film Hitchcock demonstrates a fascination with restricting the action to a single set. He would return later in his career to the concept of single set stories, for movies such as Rope, Dial M For Murder and Rear Window. It is an approach that would bring most directors to their knees, but Hitch rises to the challenge admirably, finding ingenious ways to maintain audience interest and providing a ceaseless undercurrent of excitement.

A passenger ship torpedoed by a German U-Boat sinks in the Atlantic Ocean. Well-groomed society lady Constance Porter (Tallulah Bankhead, in an absolutely outstanding performance) successfully mans one of the sunken ship's lifeboats and steers it around the debris in search of survivors. She picks up various types from the sea, including injured sailor Gus Smith (William Bendix), crewman John Kovac (John Hodiak) and the German U-Boat captain (Walter Slezak) whose own submarine was critically damaged in the attack. The dynamic of the group is severely strained by the German's presence, as the other survivors contemplate and argue over whether to toss him to the sharks, or put their trust in him to steer their lifeboat to safety.

Slezak is very good as the tricky German, deviously keeping a stash of water to himself while the others struggle against chronic thirst, and at one point murdering a fellow survivor to keep his water supply a secret. Hitchcock and his script-writer Jo Swerling wisely let us in on the German's true nature, while the characters surrounding him are unaware of his treachery. This keeps tension on a knife-edge throughout the film, and holds the viewer in suspense for the whole story. Similarly, Bankhead's casting is so unorthodox, her character so intentionally ill-fitting to the oceanic setting, that her role in the proceedings casts a strange fascination. The film has a lot of political and propagandist subtext, and many people have viewed it as an allegory of the Nazi rise in Europe (Slezak is the metaphor for Nazi Germany; the others metaphors for surrounding nations duped into believing that the Nazi neighbour in their midst is helpful and trustworthy). Whatever else Lifeboat can and can't be interpreted as, one thing is certain - it's a mighty fine movie!