Lifeboat

Being classified as Alfred Hitchcock’s most underestimated film, that means something. LIFEBOAT was the first in a series of ‘limited setting’ films, that are set in a limited space like the apartments in ROPE and REAR WINDOW. For LIFEBOAT the setting is a rescue boat, in which eight British and American passengers from different backgrounds end up and set course for Bermuda after their merchant ship and a German U-boat sank each other in battle. After a heated discussion, a German survivor from the enemy submarine is let aboard. The roles on board of the lifeboat are quickly divided: the leaders, the usurper and the followers. While the crew hopes to be rescued, time runs out, intrigues grow and the food and water supply shrinks.

Hitchcock approached several writers with the idea for LIFEBOAT, but it was John Steinbeck (EAST OF EDEN, THE GRAPES OF WRATH) who would eventually write the story on which the screenplay would be based. Supposedly, Steinbeck was not happy with the script and the film, because they took liberties with the original stories in which the characters were much less stereotypically developed. As it often goes with water shoots, the production of LIFEBOAT was also plagued by misfortune. Actresses Tallulah Bankhead and Mary Anderson got pneumonia, and the crew wasn’t spared either. Cinematographer Artur Miller had to be replaced due to illness and actor Hume Cronyn was narrowly saved from drowning.

Like in all of his films, Hitchcock wanted to make a cameo appearance in LIFEBOAT. Although it wasn’t that easy for this movie, since there are not a lot of passers-by on a boat. Let this be a challenge for viewers with a sharp eye to catch the Master of Suspense’s cameo anyway!