tt0037017.mp4
Lifeboat (1944)
Stars
Lifeboat
Overview
An American freighter sailing from New York City to London is torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat, which in turn is bombed and destroyed in return fire. Renowned and well-appointed photojournalist Connie Porter, whose stories focus on her in the middle of whatever the subject she is covering, is alone in one of the freighter's lifeboats, she helped aboard by Joe, one of the ship's stewards, when the ship started going down. She is most concerned about the photographs she managed to take of the bombing and the accompanying story she will write first, her appearance and her material possessions second, and the rest of the world third. Before the lifeboat leaves the area of the debris field, other survivors of the bombing are able to take refuge on the lifeboat: C.J. Rittenhouse, nicknamed "Ritt", a self-made wealthy industrialist; Alice MacKenzie, an Army nurse; Mrs. Higley, a shell-shocked woman from Bristol who went to the States to recover, only to give birth there, with the baby, Johnny, dying in the process of the rescue; brusque womanizer Kovac, an engine room man; Stanley, nicknamed "Sparks", a radio man; Gus Smith, another crew member, who is sensitive to the fact that his real last name is Schmidt; and Joe, the aforementioned steward. However, it is the ninth and last passenger to board that causes the rest just a little consternation: a man named Willi, from the German U-boat, who says that he was only a crew member taking orders, and who apparently speaks only German (a language Connie speaks fluently) and no English. In their wait to be rescued, they have to work together to survive, which ends up being a difficult process at times, as they have differing views on certain fundamental things, such as who should be in charge, and thus what they should do, and just how much they should trust Willi, who may be the most knowledgeable among them in survival on the sea. But it's those fundamental differences in them as people which may be their biggest threat in surviving.
Trailer
Lifeboat Film Details
Overview: Several survivors of a torpedoed merchant ship in World War II find themselves in the same lifeboat with one of the crew members of the U-boat that sank their ship.
Tagline: Six men and three women – against the sea, and each other!
Review: Lifeboat, the Hitchcock classic, defines the essence of the American super will in 1944. It pits the American melting pot irrationality and eccentricities against the single-minded rational Teutonic mind. Unlike the typical propaganda movies of its time, Lifeboat does not march without a reverse gear across the screen like John Wayne’s boots. Lifeboat is circumspect, and asks profound questions about war, and values, and vulnerability. It second guesses itself. It wonders. A freighter is sunk by a German U-boat and the cast assembles in a solitary lifeboat on a cold gray Atlantic Ocean for a two hour emotional roller-coaster. 60 years ago, before there were true female heavyweight actresses like Brittany Spears or Meg Ryan, there was Tallulah Bankhead, a thinking man’s dame with an Alabama drawl and no underwear. Apparently she wanted to keep the attention of the camera crew during filming; mission accomplished. Playing the lead role of Constance Porter, Tallulah was in her element as the clawed feisty sharp talking journalist ripping apart at will anyone that crossed her path especially alpha male want a be, John Kovac, played by John Hodiak. Ruggedly ugly, Hodiak, played an impulsive hotheaded boiler room brute that acted first and used thought only as a last resort. His persona was that of a man raised on the wrong side of the tracks, vigilant like a stray dog with the hair up on its back most of the time. Then there was Willy. Willy, played magnificently by Walter Slezak, was a rescued German U-boat sailor, ultimately unmasked as the Captain of the U-boat that sunk the freighter. Willy spoke perfect English. He knew the sea, navigation and knew how to survive. He was superior in intellect, physical strength, and cunning. Not only was he capable of saving Gus Smith’s life by a surgical amputation of his leg, he also pushed Gus overboard when it was clear that Gus, played by William Bendix was dying and essentially wasting the survival resources of the others in the boat. Other characters providing color included a young Hume Cronyn, hard to believe he was ever young, and famous cigar chewing character actor grouch, Charles Rittenhouse who played Henry Hull, ironically, a shipping tycoon. Other players had various levels of incompetence and mental instability. What does this movie say? It says that Americans can only stand so much rational logic before they explode, even if the rational logic initially saves their lives. It frames the basis of ethical reasoning. For example who do you give a heart transplant to, a scientist or a street person who waltzes into the door two seconds before the scientist? Willy would give the heart to the scientist because he weighs the society above the individual, and the rest of the boat would give it to the street person, not because it is rational but because they base ethics on human equality, and seek to find some measure of ‘fairness’ as the basis of ethical decision making. While American society may tout the virtues of this kind of sentiment, they are not really that comfortable with it. Watching a street person with a newly transplanted heart swill down a bottle of Thunderbird wine is not particularly gratifying when at the same time the Nobel Laureate is being laid to rest, perhaps just short of a discovery that could have saved millions of lives. And this is precisely what the movie does in the end. It leaves us uncertain about our own brutality in the name of our version of ethical fairness. It also makes us question our own sense of reason and logic. What possible virtue is there in a society that shuns reasoning? This is the point that Hitchcock makes so cleverly. He leaves us with a sense of fear, from both a tough intelligent rational enemy, but also from a wild brutish killing wrought out of self-fear and ending with an uncomfortable lynch mob sense of justice. This was not a killing of self-defense; it was a killing of berserk passion and loss of control. These were after all, not soldiers, but they were us, suffering from a global war with no end in sight. Frustrated by a relentless predatory machine-like enemy, that could torpedo unarmed freighters, yet smile and tell jokes while rowing toward an enemy rescue ship. Lifeboat is a movie of huge depth. If the brain aspects of the movie don’t appeal to you, you may want to see the movie just to get a glimpse of Tallulah so you could actually see what a real woman once looked like before they became extinct in the sea of 18 year old tattooed tongue-pierced pop culture nothings and crack smoking ‘super-models’ that masquerade these days as ‘American womanhood’. And you wonder why men don’t want to marry anymore.
Country: United States
Language: English, German, French
Duration: 97 min
Genre: Drama, War
Also known as: Pelastusvene,Prigionieri dell’oceano,Das Rettungsboot,Łódź ratunkowa,Livbåt,Alfred Hitchcock’s Production of Lifeboat,Náufragos,救生艇,Lifeboat,Ston iskio tou thanatou,Um Barco e Nove Destinos,Рятувальний човен,8 a la deriva,Navagoi,Mentőcsónak,Спасителната лодка,Ghayegh-e nejat,Tahlisiye sandalı – Yaşamak istiyoruz,Canot de sauvetage,Rešilni čoln,Záchranný člun,Redningsbåden,Στον ίσκιο του θανάτου,De schipbreukelingen,救命艇,Чамац за спасавање,Les Naufragés,Спасательная шлюпка,Livbåten,Barca de salvare
