Lifeboat (Special Edition)

I'd never heard of this movie until it was mentioned in a 2003 New York Times obituary about Elizabeth Fowler, who spent 10 days in a 26' lifeboat with 35 men after their ship was sunk in the Atlantic by a German U-boat in 1942, and then wrote a book about it; the book was called "Standing Room Only." Hitchcock's movie gave me a better idea of how small such a boat would be---and there are only _8_ people in Hitchcock's lifeboat, not 36!---and it was intriguing to watch the survivors become a community, judging by concensus what was acceptable behavior and what was not, with the stronger personalities leading and the others following. One thing Fowler mentioned at the end of her book was how the survivors became strangers to each other almost immediately upon setting foot on dry land again; that sense of community was lost as soon as their lives returned to "normal." Interesting!

Alfred Hitchcock's daring wartime drama rises to the technical challenge of being confined to a small set. Based on a story by John Steinbeck, "Lifeboat" (1944) remains among the director's most humanistic works with its emotional claustrophobia and incisive characterizations. Though a bit dialogue-heavy, the Master of Suspense creates a surprising amount of tension and intrigue throughout the film's 96-minute length. Tallulah Bankhead gives her finest screen performance, yet the entire cast is excellent. A minor classic in the Hitchcock canon.

Hitch made great use of his directing skills with Lifeboat. The tension created when stuck on a boat and your life is in the hands of then enemy, twists of who to trust and where to go, all while the sun is baking you and evaporating every last drop of water out of your body. The rise and fall of the waves in this movie will keep you clinging to your life-jacket.

It is not my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie but is better than I thought that It would be. You are always trying to figure out who is good and who is bad. It keeps you guessing. I had never heard of it when I rented it but was not disappointed at all after seeing it.

Lifeboat is something of an anomaly among the films of Alfred Hitchcock. It was the only film he made for 20th Century Fox (more on that in a minute). It's not usually counted among the director's best works, possibly because many of the themes common to his more popular efforts (such as the "wrong man" thrillers like North By Northwest or The 39 Steps (Criterion Collection Spine #56)) are absent from film.

The basic premise, a group of disparate strangers is stranded on a lifeboast after their ship is torpedoed by a Nazi sub, is deceptively simple. Through some clever plotting and typical Hitchcock ingenuity behind the camera, a tense tale unfolds which confounds expectations by offering up some real suspense and more than a few surprises. I won't spoil the specifics for those who haven't seen it yet, but suffice it to say that not all is as it seems aboard the seemingly doomed vessel. And if 96 minutes of nine people on a boat seems boring, there are a handful of visually shocking scenes that stave off any complacency the viewer might feel.

In addition to the film, there are a couple of bonus features of special interest to fans of Hithcock. A brief featurette offers insight into the film's production. As with previous Hitch DVD releases, his daughter Pat offers first-hand accounts of the film's production. Hitchcock scholar and professor Drew Casper offers an expert commentary track as well. Best bit: Tempramental star Tallulah Bankhead apparently rarely wore underwear on the set, and was not the least bit shy around the other actors and crew (oddly enough, Casper fails to address this in the scene where Bankhead is clearly not wearing a bra, her right nipple visible through her wet blouse). We also learn that Hitchcock refused to make any more films at Fox after the studio got cold feet when promoting the film, due to early (and preposterous) allegations that the film might generate sympathy for the Nazis due to its treatment of the lone German character aboard the boat.

Lifeboat certainly belongs in any Hitchcock fan's collection. I would also recommended it for anyone who enjoys WWII films; while not a typical war picture, it is clearly a product of that time.