Lifeboat poster & wallpaper

Canada Lee, Heather Angel, Henry Hull

A chic writer, a stoker and others drift with the U-boat captain who has sunk their ship.

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84% liked it

7,160 ratings

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95% liked it

20 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 36 min.

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Release Date: January 12, 1944

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DVD Release Date: October 18, 2005

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Stats: 422 reviews

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Hitch and Tallulah Bankhead
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Flixster Reviews (422)

  • flixsterman
    August 23, 2009
    flixsterman
    Strongly anti-German, specifically anti-Nazi, rendition of John Steinbeck's novel. Hitchcock's commendable contribution to the allied effort of WWII may seem a bit racist when viewed with 21st century eyes but one has to keep in mind that public sentiment was understandably less...( read more) empathetic in 1944. This one is definitely NOT politically correct so, depending on your point of view, you can either credit Hitchcock or blame Hitler.
  • KellBell184
    January 11, 2009
    KellBell184
    Oh, Hitchcock...so brilliant yet so cryptic. Honestly, I don't see what's so excellent about this film...a bunch of people end up on a lifeboat and begin to starve to death, die of thirst, and in one case, get a leg amputated. Idk, not for me.
  • kenstachnik
    January 30, 2008
    kenstachnik
    Really well done, only Hitchcock would take on the challenge of making a film that takes place completely on small life boat.
  • garyX
    December 6, 2007
    garyX
    Hitchcock made a few propaganda pieces during the course of WWII, but this is easily the best. Based on a story by American novelist, John Steinbeck, the entire film takes place within the confines of a small lifeboat which serves as a microcosm reflecting the world affected by t...( read more)he war. The story revolves around the two main characters, Tallulah Bankhead's sassy reporter, and Walter Slezak's obsequious U-Boat captain, who is rescued after his submarine is sank during the battle. Bankhead plays a particularly strong character, devoid of the usual femme fatale traits that usually associated strong female leads during this period, perhaps nodding towards the changing role of women in society necessitated by the war. She seems to represent the role of America, initially acting only as observer, unwilling to get her hands dirty (literally). As she experiences the hardships suffered by the other characters she gradually sheds her interest in material posessions, eventually becoming the driving force that unites them to escape their situation. Slezak personifies the Nazis, not demonised or shown as a monster, but rather an insidious, arrogant and self superior man, who lacks any hint of human compassion. This lack of demonisation is added to by the treatment of the young German sailor who pulls a gun on them as gratitude for his rescue, but he is shown more like the victim of indoctrination into an evil mindset, rather than an evil person himself. The final speech by Bankhead is the crux of the story, as she claims that they were only victims of "mob" thinking while subjugating themselves to Slezak's will when it seemed most convenient to them, rather than fighting for their liberty; not only a criticism of the German people for allowing Hitler's rise to power, but a warning to the rest of the world as to the price of complacency. All in all a cleverly scripted and unusually sophisticated propaganda piece directed by a master.
  • groaningbitch
    November 19, 2007
    groaningbitch
    "lifeboat" is hitchcock's commentary on wwii, and it condenses the cosmos into an atom with besieged passengers striving to survive that contains various social classes from bolshevik rags to the well-to-do capitalist...engrossingly, the existence of blacks is also included...a n...( read more)urse in dillemma of disgraceful affair with married doctor...a lonesome but kindred workingman....a lovelorn one-legged sap...a deranged mother with her dead infant..a tycoon who assumingly chews his last cigar by his mouth.....of course, mostly capitivating of all, the cynically sassy cosmopolitan female journalist connie porter played by husky tallulah bankhead who has the sexiest siren voice when she utters "darling!" as she unbashfully makes love to the hulky capitalist-loathing virile bolshevik.

    essentially, there must be a vile enemy: a german nazi captain who methodically reverse his disvantage of POW(captive) into his advantage of the captor by utilizing the shipmember's disintergration as his favors, sneering at the polarizing system of our so-called "democracy", smirking at the naievete of americanism. whether it's hitchcock's uglification of german nazi or realisticly sharp depiction of their inhumanity by interpretating nazi as the shrewd selfish kind who is too keenly with his own survival without sharing the water with his generous rescuers, pretending to be ignorant of english for self-protection, reserving the beneficiary equipment such as compass merely for himself, ruthlessly eliminating any possible member to saboteur his scheme: sending them all to concentration camp.

    talluah bankhead's connie is the only character with enough mettle(or willpower) to contend for survival since she makes a mytical class adjustment from the rags to the rich with her un-defeated stamina. she has the foresight to occupy a lifeboat beforehand then she loses every item of her personal belongings such as typewritter, minkcoat and her precious diamond bracelet in the course of helping others selflessly that symbolizes her denuniciations of egoism by the gradual loss of her possessions that are the tokens of her social level, thus graudually she's descended into more endeared humanistic affinity instead of her aloof egoistic self......maybe scarstically the breavement of her diamond bracele due to the distraction of the ship members might manifest the flawed discord of democracy...as for the tumultous reacton(casting the nazi off the boat) everyone has toward the german after she/he exposes to his sinister contrivance, it declares one thing outloud: democracy is sometimes just a mob.
  • ristrawn
    November 24, 2009
    ristrawn
    good & interesting about being stranded on open seas & dealing with the many challenges & different personalities... Not the typical type of movie by Alfred Hitchcock...
  • RThornhill
    November 4, 2009
    RThornhill
    drifted off on me, nice Hitch cameo tho' and Tallulah is quite a presence......
  • dukeakasmudge
    October 20, 2009
    dukeakasmudge
    What a great movie!!!
  • vertigoo
    August 27, 2009
    vertigoo
    ...( read more)http://www.flixster.com">Flixster - Share Movies
  • jam233
    June 21, 2009
    jam233
    Absolutely brilliant film, one of the best character studies ever, thanks to Alfred Hitchcock's expert direction. The cast is nothing short of magnificent, Tallulah Bankhead is a stand-out. Superbly written. A gem of a classic.

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Lifeboat Trivia

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