Lifeboat (1944 movie)

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Released: 1944
Country: United States

Cast: Hume Cronyn, Tallulah Bankhead, Mary Anderson, William Bendix, Henry Hull, John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, Heather Angel, Canada Lee, William Yetter Jr.

Genres: Drama, War

Rating: 4 out of 5

Review

How emotionally intense Hitchcock's ''Lifeboat'' is! It's the most emotional Hitchcock movie I have seen. So powerful, so strong, it can bring tears at the eyes because it is so intense.

The natural Hitchcock thrills (that are so very impressive) are present in this wonderful picture as well, but they are very subtle and less in number. What the movie focuses on is the emotions, and on human nature. It's exploration of human nature is so very powerful. It can be said as among the best movies Hitchcock ever made. Maybe not as excellent as ''Psycho'', ''Vertigo'' or ''Strangers on a Train'', yet excellent enough to be mentioned on a list of the 10 best movies directed by Hitchcock.

Anyways, more of that later. ''Lifeboat'' is set during the World War II. After their ship has been sunk by the Germans, several British and American civilian passengers find themselves in a lifeboat.

Another hand can be seen, rising from the water. The passengers help the person to get on the lifeboat. The person was not with them at the ship. Who is he? Then he speaks. He speaks German. He is from the same U-boat that had made their ship sink, and the U-boat had sunk too. Most want to kill him, but a few of them decide that it would be inhuman to kill him. Rather, they should take him as a prisoner-of-war.

A journey starts, a journey that examines human nature, that explores kindness and betrayal. There's more, much more, including a twist about the real nature of Will, who is not the innocent person as he first seems, and makes the others fall in his traps.

There is no protagonist in this film. Everybody is important, everybody has great importance in this film. Tallulah Bankhead's performance remains the most memorable. Her role is that of Connie Porter. She is a writer who writes about many cultures in her books but in fact writes only about herself, none about the people of the cultures she writes about. She may seem haughty at first, but her soft heart that is revealed in course of the film, and the amusement and emotions that she delivers makes her character unforgettable.

There are more people in this film, Hume Cronyn (who had played a role in Hitchcock's 1943 film Shadow of a Doubt), Mary Anderson playing a nurse, William Bendix as Gus who has got a serious injury in his leg, John Hodiak, Henry Hull, and Canada Lee as the calm steward Joe, and Heather Angel as a woman whose baby has died. Walter Slezak give a noteworthy performance as the antagonist. At the end of the film, William Yetter Jr. plays a role. Alfred Hitchcock, like most of his films, has a cameo appearance, this time in pictures of a newspaper.

That said, these are the people who appear in the film. I noticed no extras.

How brilliantly written and how talented the filming is... The emotionally intense film was made so powerful by the screenplay, the dialogues. For example, the woman whose son his dead cries out for her baby. Plus,  The scenes where they struggle to survive. The performance and dialogues enrich the emotional intensity of the movie. The camera works are brilliant.

Overall, a brilliant film from Hitchcock; a Hitchcock film that concentrates more on the emotional aspects than the general thrills and suspense that is found in Hitchcock movies. This is a great Hitchcock film; it shouldn't be missed.

4 out of 5