Review of Lifeboat (1944) by Sarah F — 10 Nov 2006

This movie features the most famous Hitchcock cameo of all time. The setup of the film, of course, is that it's nine peole on a boat. How do you manage a cameo?

Why, have a newspaper there with his picture on it, of course. And since the man was dieting at the time, a diet ad is perfect. Apparently, he thought of floating past as a corpse, but he didn't want to get in the water.

The great debate of this film at the time it was released was the portrayal of the Nazi. At times, he does come across as a very sympathetic character, and apparently, the film was called pro-Nazi by some critics. (Tallulah Bankhead called them morons.) However, a serious look at the full film proves that he's not intended to be a positive character.

In fact, the whole strong point of the film is the moral dilemma suffered by the various characters at various times. Not just in their interaction with the Nazi, either. There's the black guy, for one, and the various people who never interacted socially--would never have interacted socially. I think that, if one must define the essential Hitchcock plot, it is "take someone--for preference several someones--and put them into a new experience that they can't control.".

And, hey, Tallulah Bankhead. And very young Hume Cronyn. And the girl who played Maybelle Merriwether in [i]GWTW[/i].

As a warning, I've got a whole slew of Hitchcock out from the library now. This will be the subject of probably most of the reviews for the weekend.