Lifeboat (1944)

Good, but not Great

Being a compulsive Hitchcock fan, I have a difficult time not giving every one of his films 5 stars, but I have some reservations with this film.

Obviously this is a propaganda film for the Allies in WWII. With this in mind, I realized there would be melodramatic, patriotic and democratic dialogue--and there was almost instantly. But my difficulty and problems lie mostly with my confusion about what I was supposed to feel. The message is not clear. I find this troubling since Hitchcock, being the master, was always able to control his audience without them ever knowing (remember during Psycho, when suddenly the car NOT going into the lake scared you, and you may have noticed later that your allegiance shifted, without a conscious decision, from Marion to Norman?).

Regardless of that, Tallulah Bankhead was marvelous, as was Canada Lee (even in his confined role of George "Joe" Spencer).

Great for WWII propaganda, but a little lacking in the Hitchcock--still a great movie. Recommended.
July 10, 2008

Poor quality DVD not as advertised

The DVD would not work in any of my machines. When the DVD was returned I was credited a small amount of what I had paid for it. July 9, 2008

lifeboat

This is a time less classic. What a great movie! They don't make them like this any more June 21, 2008

Standing Room Only

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! June 15, 2008

Underrated Hitchcock

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. April 10, 2008

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