"Dying together's even more personal than living together."

Rating: 8/10 (17 June 2007)

Alfred Hitchcock will forever be known as one of cinema's most innovative directors. Many of his most fondly-remembered films are often categorised as film-making "experiments:" 'Rear Window' took place entirely in the one small apartment; 'Rope' was played out almost in real time, and was envisioned as a "one-take" movie; 'Lifeboat' takes place exclusively on a tiny lifeboat in the middle of the wide ocean. However, in my view at least, to categorise these films as mere "experiments" is to take away from the worth of the film itself. Hitchcock did not simply exploit these unusual scenarios as a mere gimmick to pique audience interest; he used them to his advantage, to maximise the emotional resonance of his films. And he did it better than anybody else could possibly envision.
After an Allied freighter is torpedoed by a German U-Boat during World War Two, a handful of survivors of differing personalities and beliefs clamber aboard an unsturdy lifeboat and await rescue. Among the survivors is the Nazi captain of the U-Boat which sunk their ship, and the men and women must decide whether this member of the enemy is trustworthy enough to remain on the boat. As the days drag on and on without a hint of rescue, and with supplies of food and water rapidly dwindling, some survivors forge lifelong bonds with each other, whilst others slowly and surely turn against one another. Meanwhile, the crafty, innocent-seeming German, Willy (Walter Slezak), imperceptibly begins to draw his plans against his rescuers.
A lesser director might have baulked under the task of making a continually-suspenseful 96-minute film set entirely in a lifeboat. Hitchcock, however, used the situation to his advantage, and the tiny set on which 'Lifeboat' was filmed (allegedly the smallest in film history), creates a constricting, claustrophobic atmosphere. The surrounding ocean landscape, presumably simulated using the director's favoured rear-projection, is surprisingly convincing throughout, with the black-and-white photography masking the obviousness of the effect which is often apparent in Hitchcock's later films. During filming, the cast members were exposed to the elements, which aided the realism of their performances, but also led to frequent illnesses such as seasickness and pneumonia.
Solid performances were crucial to the film, and, luckily, the casting here is spot-on. Tallulah Bankhead gives perhaps the stand-out performance as Connie Porter, the selfish and arrogant world-travelling author. Each biting remark is delivered with magnificent pretentious poise, and many have suggested that Bankhead's character is not too different from the actress' own persona. The roles of the other survivors are played very well by William Bendix, Mary Anderson, John Hodiak, Henry Hull, Hume Cronyn and Canada Lee, whilst Walter Slezak delivers a remarkable performance as the sly but strangely-likable German captain, whom you know isn't trustworthy, but you are tempted to trust him anyway.
Upon its release, 'Lifeboat' was interpreted by many critics to be pro-Nazi, and its box-office performance was poor. Nowadays, the film is more often seen to be quite the opposite, as a piece of American propaganda and a good one at that. Based on a story by iconic American author John Steinbeck, one of the film's main themes is how dark situations can bring out the worst in a civilised group of people. When the Nazi captain is first hauled aboard the lifeboat, wealthy factory owner Charles D. Rittenhouse (Hull) fervently calls for the man to be treated civilly, as a prisoner of war. However, after witnessing the devious exploits of the Nazi, his attitudes perceptibly change. At the end of the film, when a young German seaman clambers aboard the boat, he is among the first to demand that he is tossed overboard like a worthless animal.
The film's depiction of the enemy is quite interesting, though it is certainly not overly positive as many critics originally suggested. Willy, a fascinating character, is at first treated with some sympathy, but all this is cast aside when it is revealed that he has been hoarding food, water and a compass for his own benefit. The final line of the film, Connie's "What are we going to do about people who think like this?" in response to the young Nazi's asking whether or not they are going to kill him, carries a certain note of irony. The characters consider the Germans to be barbaric for even thinking of such a thing, and yet the American survivors had almost been all-too-willing to murder Willy from the moment he came aboard the lifeboat. Perhaps the film is saying that, when it all comes down to it, the Germans and Allies weren't really all that different. Now there's a social commentary that wouldn't have been looked upon too kindly during the early 1940s!