Review of Lifeboat (1944) by Thomas B — 08 Oct 2012

An unusual entry in the Hitchock canon. It may be suspenseful but for different reasons than your usual caper or whodunit movie. Instead, we witness a fight for survival in a drifitng lifeboat filled with a colourful array of characters. Yet, as usual, the true threat comes from within, people going crazy, getting sick, following their political agendas and questionable moral compasses rather than common sense. In the end, the film offers not a lot of surprises and the characters are interesting but stale in their development and all play a mere part in this Glockenspiel of post-war drama. The film is very patriotic and that makes it kind of bland in parts (especially the ending) but I reckon those were the sign o' times and pressure from the studio to make this film easily digestable for the American audiences.

The performances are all solid and on par with what you would expect. Bankhead is a powerhouse but her character does not give her lots of room to navigate (shame that her career never took off). I think that Bendix departs the most from his usual porttfolio as a chubby and likeable fella. Hume Cronyn is as charming as ever. I would have wished for someone more menacing or darker to play Willy the German, just to make his role as (apparent) antagonist more sharp.

The rest is the usual high quality as you would expect from a Hitch. Good cinematography, an impressive sea battle towards the end, way ahead of its times and war movies. All in all, an interesting isolation drama, that lacks the finesse but not the power of other Hitchcocks.