Lifeboat (1944) - film review

During WWII, a freighter crossing the Atlantic Ocean is struck by a German U-boat.  As the ship goes down, a handful of survivors reach the safety of a small lifeboat.  The diverse group is made up of socialite reporter Connie Porter, socialist engineer John Kovac, industrialist Charles Rittenhouse, stoker Gus Smith, black Steward Joe, radio operator Stanley Garett and nurse Alice Mackenzie.  The U-boat is also destroyed in the exchange of fire and the occupants of the lifeboat come to the rescue of its sole survivor, Willy.  The latter gains the confidence of the others by performing a life-saving operation on Gus but it soon becomes apparent that he is working to his own agenda...

Throughout his career, Alfred Hitchcock delighted in setting himself seemingly impossible problems which he could solve, and in so doing expand the bounds of what was possible with cinema.   Lifeboat is the result of one of these self-challenges and is possibly the director’s most daring work, since the entire film takes place within the confined setting of a lifeboat adrift in the Atlantic Ocean.  As Hitchcock hated working on location, the whole film was shot on a ludicrously small studio set, which comprised a water tank and a mock-up of a lifeboat.  That the film stands up so well, even today, is testament to Hitchcock’s technical skill and inventiveness.

Based on a short story by the Nobel Prize winning American author John Steinbeck, Lifeboat was intended as an anti-Nazi, pro-democracy propaganda piece.  The essence of the story is an appeal for the democratic peoples of the world to join forces and take an active stance against fascism, instead of allowing the Nazis, through their cunning and ruthlessness, to assume supremacy over mankind.  Bizarrely, when the film was released, this anti-Nazi subtext was lost on some critics and the fact that it featured a sympathetic German made it appear pro-Nazi, earning it some poor reviews.  As a s result of this bad press, producer Darryl F. Zanuck cut back on the film’s publicity and distribution and Lifeboat quickly fell into obscurity.  Today, it may be less well-known than Hitchcock’s other great films but it is unquestionably one of his true master works, and a must-see film for anyone who intends persuing a career in filmmaking.

Thanks to its taut screenplay, engaging performances and imaginative direction, Lifeboat is a wonderfully compelling character piece that transcends the era in which it was set and its propaganda purpose.  What it shows us is a fascinating, slightly disturbing microcosm of human society, where alliances are formed and enmities grown, where fear, love and hate flourish, and where the outcome is far from certain.  What it also shows is the banality of evil, another familiar Hitchcockian theme.  The charming German sailor is revealed to be a dangerously calculating villain who can kill a human being as nonchalantly as he might squash a fly.  But when the tables are turned, he suffers at the hands of the very people who saved him, and the brutal way in which they treat him is just as chilling...

© James Travers 2008

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