Review #979: Lifeboat (1944)

Title: Lifeboat
Year: 1944
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Country: US
Language: English

At the time that Lifeboat went into production, Alfred Hitchcock was under contract to David O. Selznick. Twentieth Century-Fox obtained the director's services in exchange for that of several actors and technicians, as well as the rights to three stories that Fox owned. The "Master of Suspense" was to make two pictures, but due to Zelznick being unimpressed by the length of time it took for him to make Lifeboat they only made one. Hitch himself didn't care, as he would receive the same salary regardless of how many pictures he made. 

In Lifeboat, several survivors of a torpedoed ship find themselves in the same boat with one of the men who sunk it.

Hitchcock came up with the idea of this film, but commissioned John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men) to write the script. His original intention was to publish the work, but his literary agents thought of it as "inferior" to his other works. Steinbeck himself  was unhappy with the overall film, as he thought it was racist and against unionized labor. I must admit that the lone black character (played by Canada Lee) is not ideal in terms of eliminating stereotypes, though Hitch is a lot more insightful regarding race relations that most directors would have been at the time. 

There is no doubt that Lifeboat is pro-allied propaganda, but it's far smarter than your average newsreel at the time. Lifeboat asks profound questions about war, and values, and vulnerability.It asks us to review our morality and ethics, letting us wonder what the "right" thing to do would be in a survival scenario. Made during a time in America when anti-German sentiments were at an all time high, this film ponders if Germans are worth trusting in our "melting pot" of a democracy. 

With Lifeboat, Hitchcock has made a rather curious picture that exceeds on every technical level even though at times it can be morally dubious. Without a soundtrack (because as Hitch says "Where would the music come from!?") the Director still manages to grip us in his suspenseful claws and take us on a tense ride.