The Lifeboat 1944

     This film is based on a story by John Steinbeck.  The setting is the Atlantic Ocean during WWII.  A passenger ship and a German U-boat are involved in a battle.  Both of the ships are sunk and the survivors gather in a lifeboat.  There are a variety of backgrounds among these people.  Connie Porter is a magazine writer, photographer and international journalist.  Charles J. Rittenhouse is a rich businessman and capitalist.  Alice MacKenzie is a U.S. Army nurse.  Mrs. Higley is a young British woman and she is very dazed, confused and she has a baby with her.  Stanley “Sparks” Garrett is a radioman.  Joe Spencer is a steward.  John Kovac is an engine room crewman and a communist.  Gus Smith is a stoker from Brooklyn and German-American.  He was wounded on the ship and he has bullet in his leg.  The last person aboard is a survivor from the U-Boat, Captain Willy.  Everyone suspects Willy is the U-Boat Captain but he denies this accusation.

     I had never heard of this film and it is nothing like I expected??  It is also different from the usual Hitchcock films.  The only person with seagoing navigational experience is Captain Willy.  The survivors want to travel to Bermuda and Willy sets their course but is it really in the right direction?  They are running out of water, food and Smith’s leg has gangrene.  Radio-operator Stan relates that he was in a lifeboat previously for 43 days.  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)  

     

97 min, Drama directed by Alfred Hitchcock with Tallulah Bankhead, John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, Mary Anderson, Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Hume Cronyn, Canada Lee.

Note:  Imdb 7.8 out of 10, 91% critic 87% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic 78 out of 100 with 13 critics, Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 433 reviews, Letterboxd 3.7* out of 5*, TCM Leonard Maltin 3.5* out of 4* average user rating 4.15* out of 4*, Slant Magazine 4*, Empire 4*.

Special Note:  Filmed in the Florida Keys, Florida; San Miguel Island, Channel Islands, California; Chicago Lake, Century City, Los Angeles, California.  Filming took a toll on the actors, they were soaked with water and oil and this led to two cases of pneumonia for Bankhead, an illness for Anderson, two cracked ribs for Cronyn and he almost drowned.  The entire cast also suffered from motion sickness.  Production was temporarily halted twice to allow for the recovery of the cast.  This film did good business in New York City and other big cities.  It failed to attract audiences in smaller theaters and rural areas.  It was a rare Hitchcock movie that lost money at the box-office.  There is another film with the same title from 2015.