A Forgotten Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (30 December 2011)

When one talks about Hitchcock, one usually uses the words Notorious, Psycho, Rebecca, Vertigo, Rear Window, North By Northwest, and The Birds. It's a shame no one almost never uses the word Lifeboat, it is one of Hitchcock's best films.
Being a rather large Hitchcock fan, I had wanted to see Lifeboat for quite sometime. I hadn't heard much about it, but the premise intrigued me. Nine people stuck on a lifeboat in the middle of the Atlantic, waiting for a rescue that may never come. The setting alone was enough for me to start looking. It is a very hard film to find, and after a while I didn't think I would find it. However, by fluke, I found it one day inside a collection that also includes The Lodger, Rebecca, Spellbound and Notorious.
Having been disappointed by Spellbound, I put off watching Lifeboat for a while, until one day my curiosity overcame me. I must say Lifeboat is one of Hitchcock's very best. It's suspenseful, romantic and action-packed. Not what you would expect from a bunch of people stuck on a lifeboat. The best in the cast is Tallulah Bankhead. It is one of her very best performances. The cast is flawless. William Bendix, Walter Slezak, Mary Anderson, John Hodiak, Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Canada Lee and Hume Cronyn are all excellent.
The film has been unfairly forgotten, despite being a wonderful film. The technical aspects of this film are overwhelming. Hitchcock shot the entire thing on a 40 foot lifeboat in a water tank at Twentieth Century Fox. Bankhead got Pneumonia twice, Anderson got sick, and Cronyn broke a few ribs and almost drowned. Yet in the end Hitchcock triumphed. Unfortunately the film was doomed to the start, due to the fact that it shows a Nazi as being smarter than everyone else.
The critics called it unpatriotic. The audience didn't go for it. Yet it was nominated for a couple Oscars. Bankhead said it best when she said to the press: "It's about time people realized the enemy is tough- that we can't beat him if we don't pull together." That is the film in a nutshell. Unfortunately, people still didn't get it. However, today people do.
If you like Hitchcock this is a must-see. If you like suspense movies, this is a must-see. If you like good movies at all, this is a must see.