BEFORE: Yep, I'm doubling down on Hitchcock today, because it's a holiday weekend, because that last film was so short, and because both films deal with World War 2, they sort of work together as a double-feature. Linking back to "Shadow of a Doubt", Hume Cronyn carries over. I'm just going to skip the linking where "Bon Voyage" is concerned.
THE PLOT: Several survivors of a torpedoed ship find themselves in the same boat with one of the men who sunk it.
AFTER: I feel like I may have been remiss in pointing out the authors who wrote some of the stories that Hitchcock based his movies on. I mentioned Daphne du Maurier, who wrote "Rebecca" and "Jamaica Inn", but I forgot to mention that Thornton Wilder worked on the screenplay for "Shadow of a Doubt" and that Dorothy Parker co-wrote the screenplay for "Saboteur". "Lifeboat" is based on a story by John Steinbeck, so Hitch really knew to adapt stories from the best writers.
This one is SO iconic - it's almost like a variant of a "locked-room" murder mystery, only the room is really a lifeboat. And it's not really a murder mystery, the people are survivors of a U-boat attack. But you know what I mean - people from different walks of life, thrown together by circumstance, having to work together to survive in close proximity without driving each other crazy.
This was no doubt released at the height of World War II paranoia, where Germans had to be portrayed as the enemy in films, and an underhanded, sneaky, untrustworthy enemy at that. Can the Americans trust the German, who has the most sailing experience, to guide their lifeboat to Bermuda instead of toward a Nazi supply ship? Well, that's the question, isn't it?
In the meantime the 7 Americans have to deal with rationing the food, protecting themselves from the sun and storms, dissension in their own ranks, medical emergencies, and not going crazy from thirst. It's a nail-biter of a film, waiting to see if they can survive long enough to be rescued - and even if they get rescued, will it be a rescue by an American ship or a German one? Which presents a dilemma in itself - is it better to die on a lifeboat floating at sea, or in a German prison camp?
Also starring Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix (last seen in "Woman of the Year"), John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, Henry Hull (last seen in "High Sierra"), Mary Anderson, Canada Lee, Heather Angel.
RATING: 6 out of 10 playing cards
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