Steve D
Well done but not anything that I would want to revisit.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/25/24
Full Review
Ma'ark T
Hitchcock has the ability to make movies set in one place and keep them interesting. I was not bored by Lifeboat but I was not enthralled either. The suspense just was not there for me. The most interesting part for me was the insight into how those in 1944 thought about the war that was underway at the time.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/24/24
Full Review
Jack V
Great thriller, despite the movie seeming straight-forward and simple, the plot ends up being very interesting and unpredictable. Great dialogue and immaculate directing.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/05/24
Full Review
Alec B
Come for Tallulah Bankhead stay for the simmering tension and engaging debates around wartime morality.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
01/10/24
Full Review
Matthew B
Alfred Hitchcock received five Academy Award nominations for Best Director, but never received the Oscar. Perhaps the least well-known of those films is Lifeboat, an under-rated wartime movie about the survivors of a German U-boat attack.
This lack of renown may seem curious, as the movie has a decent cast, and even a script by a famous writer, John Steinbeck. Admittedly Steinbeck objected to changes made by Hitchcock, which he felt constituted slurs on organised labour, and which reduced the one African American character to a more stereotypical figure. Steinbeck even tried to get his name taken off the credits. Nonetheless much of his original story was retained.
Lifeboat is one of a number of Hitchcock's experiments in making a film using a limited setting. Other examples include Rope, Dial M for Murder and Rear Window. Notably most of these films are not among his most highly-regarded. Critics on the whole did not respond well to Hitchcock's attempts to explore the possibilities of making a movie where much of the action takes place in one or two settings.
There are certainly weaknesses in Lifeboat, as is often the case in films that rely too heavily on talking rather than action. Such limitations put heavy demands on the abilities of the scriptwriters and actors, and there are bound to be weaker moments. Nonetheless I think it is time to reappraise Lifeboat as being a good solid middle-range Hitchcock.
With the exception of a few establishing shots, almost the entire action of the film takes place on the titular boat which contains the survivors of a German U-bomb attack. These survivors are a mixture of passengers, crew, and a German officer who was on the U-boat that sank their ship, before being destroyed in its turn by Allied forces.
This was no film on location however. It was shot in a studio, using stage fog and four lifeboat models, one for rehearsal, one for close-ups, one for long-shots, and one for use in a giant water tank.
Lifeboat is unique in Hitchcock movies in that it has no music score after the opening credits – the only music heard in the film is that of singing, and a flute played by a couple of the survivors. There is the other difficulty for Hitchcock – how to include his cherished cameo performance, a signature of his movies. Hitchcock does not appear in person, but we see his image in the before and after photographs of an ad for weight loss.
At the time of its release, Lifeboat was controversial, because many thought that it offered a sympathetic portrayal of a U-boat captain, and one who was a fanatical Nazi. Kapitan Willi (Walter Slezak) is shown to be stronger and healthier than his enemies. This was all the more unusual because Lifeboat was made before the war was over.
Hitchcock lovers will not be too surprised, as the film director often invests his villains with charming or sympathetic characteristics (Shadow of a Doubt, Rope, Strangers on a Train, and Psycho to name a few examples). As Hitchcock said, "I always respect my villain, build him into a redoubtable character that will make my hero or thesis more admirable in defeating him or it."
Critics of the film were right to feel uncomfortable though. The upholders of democracy are comparatively weak figures. Their openness to differing opinions disintegrates into endless bickering, when they need to be working together to defeat the Nazis. Democracy risks paralysis, as its supporters are unable to agree about anything.
The most significant person on the liberal side of the discussion is the newspaper columnist, Connie Porter. Connie's role is played by Tallulah Bankhead, one of the more flamboyant celebrities of the day. She was chosen for the role on account of her incongruous personality.
Chain-smoking, openly bisexual, struggling with drug and alcohol addictions at various points in her life, Bankhead was never dull. She drew cheers from the film crew each time she climbed the ladder to the water tank, because she was not wearing underwear. While Bankhead was a prominent civil rights activist, her open-mindedness did not extend to Germans at this time, and she said hurtful things to the unfortunate Slezak.
Connie Porter was Bankhead's most striking performance, and she brought something of herself to the role. Connie is elegant, poised, with an eye for the men, and a passion for a great story. There is a strong selfish streak in her. She is first glimpsed in a mink coat, having a lifeboat to herself. When Kovac swims towards the lifeboat, she is keen to take photos of him before pulling him into the boat, and she boasts about her "priceless" pictures showing the sinking of the ship and the bombing of the U-boat.
Nonetheless she has her softer side. She shows kindness to a shell-shocked mother whose child has died, and she supports Smith when his leg is amputated. She is also one of the survivors who is most anxious to protect Willi.
While there is much of Bankhead's own personality in Connie, Hitchcock invests her with some of the characteristics that are typical of the director's leading female characters. She is cold and elegant, but she must also humble herself if she is to win her man.
In order to triumph over the Nazi enemy, the survivors are obliged to shed some of their civilised preconceptions. However they forget the lesson when another German survivor washes up on the lifeboat. They show compassion once more, and the young boy points a gun at them. In a war with an implacable enemy, there is no longer room for the softer emotions.
I wrote a longer appreciation of Lifeboat on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2021/05/27/lifeboat-1944/
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
08/28/23
Full Review
Shioka O
One of the early Hitchcock work. It begins slowly, but several minutes after, it runs quickly, the ending is almost feel unfinished. Simple setting and variety of characters.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/07/23
Full Review
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