Lifeboat (1944)

Lifeboat
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
By John Steinbeck, Screenplay by Jo Swerling
1944/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Gus Smith: A guy can’t help being a German if he’s born a German, can he?

John Kovac: [referring to Willie] Neither can a snake help being a rattlesnake if he’s born a rattlesnake! That don’t make him a nightingale! Get him out of here![/box]

Hitchcock made other one-set movies but none as restrictive as this story of nine people floating at sea on a lifeboat.  No one could have done more to keep the action moving but this lacks enough scope to be counted among the Master’s greatest works.

After their freighter is torpedoed a motley cross-section of humanity is stranded on a lifeboat.  The people range from an industrial tycoon (Henry Hull) and a Connie, a ritzy journalist (Tallulah Bankhead) through several crew members (William Bendix, Hume Cronyn, Canada Lee, and John Hodiak) to a nurse and a young mother carrying a dead baby.  Into this volatile mix comes Willy (Walter Slezak), a German survivor of the sinking of the submarine that torpedoed the ship.  The German clearly has a more advanced knowledge of navigation and the others squabble over whether he can be trusted or should even be fed from their scant supplies.  Connie, already unpopular due to her snooty ways, is the only member of the Allied group that can communicate with Willy in his own language.  The situation goes from bad to worse as food and water begin to run out.

I like but don’t love Lifeboat.  The acting is the big plus.  Talullah Bankhead, despite her notorious picadillos on the set, is excellent.  I believe this is the only movie I have seen her in.  I like Slezak more and more each time I see him.  He makes a nasty but affable Nazi. The problem I have is that it’s impossible believe that Connie could have presented herself perfectly groomed and toting a well-stocked handbag and a typewriter into this situation.  Hitchcock had to resort to other lapses of logic to keep his story moving. There’s a bit more propaganda than might have been called for as well.

Lifeboat was nominated for Academy Awards in the following categories:  Best Director; Best Writing, Original Story; and Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Glen MacWilliams).  I’m surprised it didn’t get a nod for its special effects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XueSnvDOHRo

Clip – “The Lord is my Shepard”