Barnes & Noble

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. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

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. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 086162139338
• Source: 20TH CENTURY FOX

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection