Lifeboat [Blu-ray]

Director: Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock

Overview

Seeking a creative challenge after several years' worth of fairly elaborate melodramas, director Alfred Hitchcock stages all of the action in Lifeboat in one tiny boat, adrift in the North Atlantic. The boat holds eight survivors of a Nazi torpedo attack: sophisticated magazine writer/photographer Constance Porter (Tallulah Bankhead), Communist seaman John Kovac (John Hodiak), nurse Alice MacKenzie (Mary Anderson), mild-mannered radio-operator Stan (Hume Cronyn), seriously wounded Brooklynese stoker Gus Smith (William Bendix), insufferable-capitalist Charles Rittenhouse (Henry Hull), black-steward George Spencer (Canada Lee) and half-mad passenger Mrs. Higgins (Heather Angel), who carries the body of her dead baby. This adroitly calculated cross-section of humanity is reduced by one when Mrs. Higgins kills herself. After a day or so of floating aimlessly about, the castaways pick up another passenger, Willy (Walter Slezak), who is a survivor from the German U-boat. At first everyone assumes that Willy cannot speak English, but when the necessity arises he reveals himself to be conversant in several languages and highly intelligent; in fact, he was the U-boat's captain. As the only one on board with any sense of seamanship, Willy steers a course to his mother ship, while the others resign themselves to being prisoners of war. After it becomes necessary to amputate Gus's leg, Willy decides that the burly stoker is excess weight; while the others sleep, he tosses Gus overboard, watching dispassionately as the poor man drowns. When the rest of the passengers discover what he's done, all of them (with one significant exception) violently gang up on Gus, and once more, the lifeboat drifts about sans navigation.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/21/2017
UPC:	0738329207427
Original Release:	1944
Rating:	NR
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Language:	English
Time:	1:37:00

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Tallulah Bankhead	Connie Porter,Actor
John Hodiak	Kovac
Walter Slezak	Willy
William Bendix	Gus
Mary Anderson	Alice
Henry Hull	Rittenhouse
Heather Angel	Mrs. Higgins
Hume Cronyn	Stanley
William Yetter Jr.	German Sailor
Canada Lee	Joe
Alfred Hitchcock	Man in `Before and After' Ad
Hugo Friedhofer	Composer

Technical Credits

Jo Swerling

John Steinbeck

Alfred Hitchcock	Director
Jo Swerling	Screenwriter
Kenneth MacGowan	Producer
Fred Sersen	Special Effects
John Steinbeck	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Although Lifeboat is seldom mentioned when the subject of Alfred Hitchcock’s best films comes up, this 1944 drama deserves more recognition than it’s gotten from aficionados who blather on about Psycho or North by Northwest. Few filmmakers would have been willing to undertake the challenge of building an entire film around a small lifeboat bobbing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean; the “action,” such as it is, is confined to a tiny space. The actors have no mobility, and there are no picturesque interiors or lavish sets to lend production value. Truly, a film like this is a daunting challenge for any director. And here’s the interesting part: Hitchcock himself came up with the idea. He entrusted the concept to novelist John Steinbeck, who fleshed out the story before turning it over to scriptwriter Jo Swerling. Hitch then selected a cast headed by Tallulah Bankhead, a brittle actress well known for her frosty characterizations. She was well suited to play the pampered journalist who finds herself among the few survivors in a lifeboat following the torpedoing of their ocean liner by a German U-boat during World War II. Character actor William Bendix, an unlikely choice to play opposite Bankhead, portrays a sailor who loses his leg in the attack, and John Hodiak impresses with his turn as a hard-boiled Nazi hater who regards with understandable suspicion the lone German survivor, played by Walter Slezak. Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Hume Cronyn, and Mary Anderson also contribute similarly memorable performances. Although the story is a little slow getting underway -- it takes a little while to get everybody in the boat and establish their characters -- the director maintains a steady pace and even manages to build suspense. Lifeboat may lack the bravura sequences that distinguish the typical Hitchcock thriller, but it’s an intense, gripping drama in its own right and essential viewing for fans of the master.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

Lifeboat shows what the disaster films of the '70s and beyond might have been like if they were shorn of their special effects and forced to concentrate on character rather than activity -- and if they were directed by a true master, of course. Today's audiences, weaned on The Poseidon Adventure et al, might find the basic setup (toss in a handful of characters from every walk of life and force them to work together for their mutual survival) a little trite, but director Alfred Hitchcock and his (credited and uncredited) screenwriters take this premise and create a gripping, taut, suspenseful, and thoroughly captivating piece of cinema. Hitchcock, of course, deserves praise for keeping visually interesting a story with such a limited setting, but he deserves even greater credit for the marvelous work he pulls forth from his cast. In what is arguably the only film role that takes advantage of her unique talents, Tallulah Bankhead delivers a tour de force performance that is simply mesmerizing. Bankhead establishes the character clearly and precisely within the first few seconds -- a cynical, ironic, self-centered woman; she should be rather repulsive, but Bankhead makes her playful and appealing. She anchors the film but does not overshadow it, allowing the likes of John Hodiak, Hume Cronyn, and William Bendix to shine as well. There are moments in the film that don't quite work (usually when it crosses the line from war drama to war propaganda), but overall, Lifeboat is an engrossing, often thrilling and sometimes unsettling cinematic experience.

All Movie Guide - Craig Butler