Lifeboat (1944)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Alfred Hitchcock lined up a terrific cast to tell the story of a group of survivors who find themselves together on a lifeboat without much hope for survival. The American and British people end up saving a German man who was on the sub that struck their boat and must decide if he's worth trusting or not.
I've never really understood why LIFEBOAT never gets mentioned when critics or fans discuss the work of Hitchcock. It's certainly not a masterpiece like PSYCHO, VERTIGO or NORTH BY NORTHWEST but it's certainly a highly entertaining and very good movie that deserves to get more praise than it does. For some strange reason the movie is rarely mentioned whenever people discuss the famed director and that's really too bad because it shows what the director was able to do with just one set.
I really liked the fact that the movie starts off with the boat already sunk and we immediately start on the lifeboat. A lot of times movies like this will take place on a ship where we get to know the characters then the disaster will strike and we will then see them try to survive. Writer John Steinbeck did a marvelous job at starting the acting in the lifeboat and this is where we get to know the cast as the characters get to know one another.
The screenplay is quite simple as it tells a strong story and obvious there are messages scattered throughout, although we're never beaten over the head with that message. Hitchcock does a very good job at keeping the stakes extremely high and he manages to build up tension during a lot of small scenes that of course add up to something big. It certainly doesn't hurt that we've got a terrific cast of actors to bring these roles to life. Walter Slezak is wonderful as the German man plus we get John Hodiak, a terrific William Bendix, HUme Cronyn, Mary Anderson and Henry Hull. Canada Lee also deserves a lot of credit as the black man on the boat. One of the few instances where a black man was shown respect in a Hollywood film from this era.
LIFEBOAT is a nice little drama that gets better with each new viewing. Again, I'm really not sure why more people don't talk about the film but it's certainly worth rediscovering to those who haven't seen it.
