Movie 130: Lifeboat

A group of people from various walks of life find themselves stuck on a lifeboat after their ship is torpedoed by a Nazi U-Boat. Things are further complicated when another survivor comes about, but this one is German.

This is Hitchcock. That’s pretty much means it a good movie before you even start watching, and Lifeboat isn’t an exception to that rule.

I’m sure many people would be surprised at how harsh some of the material in old movies really is. Generally its thought of as a simpler time when people were more innocent and you didn’t have the harsh stuff that we have in movies now. Sure there’s no swears to speak of, or tits, but there gritty material here. Hell, in the first 20 minutes there’s a dead baby, an insane mother of said baby, and that mothers suicide.

Hitch don’t make no light movies.

Which makes this sound like it’s a nightmare to watch. Not at all, there’s plenty of humour and while a few of the characters are pretty broad at times they’re generally pretty fleshed out complex people.

I do have a couple of problems with the movie. I found the lead actress, Tallulah Bankhead, quite grating in a Kate Mulgrew way. That’s one hell of a name though! And Kovac, the tough guy played by John Hodiak, was all gritted teeth and barking for a while. Aside from that its also a movie of its time. World War 2 was raging, it’s a contemporary setting for the film, so while some effort is made to show a decent side to the German character he’s still a heartless inhuman outright bastard when it comes down to it.

Now I could see that being a bit different, but its understandable for the time. While it would have been ballsy to go a different way I can’t see audiences going for it.

This is a slow burner. The characters aren’t in all that bad a situation to start with, it’s a pretty well stocked boat, and things get progressively worse. Its well constructed, well paced and for the most part very well shot although a few technical limitations creep in at one bit towards the end.

I don’t have to recommend you watch Hitchcock movies, its Hitch for christ sakes. Oh and if your wondering how he got his trademark shot in the movie, he’s in a newspaper ad that one of the characters reads. Hilarious!

Next up: The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas