Lifeboat is a 1944 World War II war film, directed by Alfred Hitchcock from a story written by John Steinbeck. The film stars Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezak, Mary Anderson, John Hodiak, Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Hume Cronyn and Canada Lee, and is set entirely on a lifeboat. The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Director, Best Original Motion Picture Story and Best Black and White Cinematography.
Plot
Several American and British civilians are stuck in a lifeboat after their ship and a U-boat sink each other in combat. Willi (Walter Slezak), a German survivor, is pulled aboard and denies being an enemy officer. During an animated debate, Kovac (John Hodiak) demands the German be thrown out and allowed to drown. Cooler heads prevail with Garrett (Hume Cronyn) asserting the German's prisoner of war status and he is allowed to stay.
Kovac takes charge, rationing the little food and water they have; but Willi gradually takes control away from him and is later revealed to be the U-boat captain. One morning, while the others are sleeping, the injured German-American Gus Smith (William Bendix) catches Willi drinking water from a hidden flask. Too delirious and weak to wake anybody up, Gus is pushed overboard by Willi and drowns while the others sleep. Upon waking, the others discover Gus missing and Willi is questioned. When they notice that the Nazi is sweating, the other passengers discover the hoarded flask in his jacket. In a spasm of anger they beat him up and throw him overboard, striking him multiple times to prevent him from reboarding. Musing on Willi's treachery, Rittenhouse (Henry Hull) asks, "What do you do with people like that?"
The survivors are subsequently spotted by the German supply ship to which Willi had been steering them. Before a launch can pick them up, both are sunk by an Allied warship. A frightened young German seaman is pulled aboard the lifeboat and the passengers argue about keeping him or throwing him overboard to drown. The rescued seaman brandishes a gun and after being disarmed asks, "Aren't you going to kill me?". Kovac repeats, "What are you going do with people like that?"
Cast
Except for a cameo appearance in Stage Door Canteen, Tallulah Bankhead had not appeared in a film since Faithless in 1932. She was paid $75,000 for her work in Lifeboat.[2]
Production
Having so many characters to present in a restricted space provided an unusual framing challenge.
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. Hitchcock was to direct two films for the studio, but the second was never made, apparently because Fox was dissatisfied with the time of production on Lifeboat.[2]
It was Hitchcock who came up with the idea for the film. He approached A.J. Cronin, James Hilton and Ernest Hemingway to help write the script, before giving the project to John Steinbeck, who had previously written the screenplay for a documentary (The Forgotten Village[3]), but had not written a fictional story for the screen. It was Steinbeck's intention to write and publish a novel and sell the rights to the studio, but the story was never published, as his literary agents considered it "inferior". Steinbeck received $50,000 for the rights to his novella. A condensed version of the film story appeared in Collier's magazine on November 13, 1942, credited to Hitchcock and writer Harry Sylvester with Steinbeck credited with the "original screen story".[2] Other writers who worked on various drafts of the script include Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville, MacKinlay Kantor, Patricia Collinge, Albert Mannheimer and Marian Spitzer.[2] Hitchcock also brought in Ben Hecht to rewrite the ending.[4]
Lifeboat was originally planned to be filmed in Technicolor, with an all-male cast, many of whom were going to be unknowns. Canada Lee, who was primarily a stage actor,[5] with only one film credit at the time[6] was the first actor cast in the film.[2]
Hitchcock pre-planned the camera angles for the film using a miniature lifeboat and figurines. Four lifeboats were utilized during shooting. Rehearsals took place in one, separate boats were used for close-ups and long shots, and another was in the studio's large-scale tank, where water shots were made. Except for background footage shot by the second unit around Miami, in the Florida Keys and on San Miguel Island in California, the film was shot entirely in the Twentieth Century-Fox studio on Pico Boulevard in what is now Century City.[2]
Illnesses were a constant part of the production from the beginning:
- Before shooting began, William Bendix replaced actor Murray Alper when Alper became ill;
- After two weeks of shooting, director of photography Arthur Miller was replaced by Glen MacWilliams because of illness;
- Tallulah Bankhead came down with pneumonia twice during shooting;
- Mary Anderson also became seriously ill during production;
- Hume Cronyn suffered two cracked ribs,[2] and also nearly drowned when he got caught under a water-activator making waves for a storm scene. He was saved by a lifeguard.[4]
Several days of production time were lost due to the illnesses of the two actresses.[2] Lifeboat was in production from August 3 through November 17 1943.[7]
Cameo
Hitchcock's inventiveness extended to the problem of how to justify a cameo appearances on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean.
Director Alfred Hitchcock made cameo appearances in most of his films. He once commented to François Truffaut that this particular cameo was one of his most difficult to achieve, due to the lack of passers-by in the film.[citation needed] While having originally considered posing as a body floating past the lifeboat, which was also considered for his cameo in Frenzy, after his success in weight loss, Hitchcock decided to pose for "before" and "after" photos for an advertisement for a weight loss drug, shown in a newspaper. Supposedly he later received hundreds of letters from people asking where they could buy the so-called "Reduco" drug,[2] which he used again in Rope.[8] The Lifeboat cameo appears 24 minutes into the film.
Response
While modern critics are apt to see the film as unsubtle wartime propaganda, Lifeboat's portrayal of a German character in what was perceived as a positive fashion caused considerable controversy at the time of its release. Influential reviewers and columnists such as Dorothy Thompson and Bosley Crowther of the New York Times saw the film as denigrating the American and British characters while glorifying the German. Crowther wrote that "that the Nazis, with some cutting here and there, could turn Lifeboat into a whiplash against the 'decadent democracies.' And it is questionable whether such a picture, with such a theme, is judicious at this time." Such commentary caused Steinbeck, who had previously been criticized because of his handling of German characters in The Moon is Down, to publicly disassociate himself from the film, to denounce Hitchcock and Swerling's treatment of his material, and to request that his name not be used by Fox in connection with the presentation of the film. Crowther responded by detailing the differences between Steinbeck's novella and the film as released, accusing the film's creators of "pre-empting" Steinbeck's "creative authority".[2]
Hitchcock responded to the criticism by explaining that the film's moral was that the Allies needed to stop bickering and work together to win the war, and he defended the portrayal of the Nazi character, saying ""I always respect my villain, build[ing] him into a redoubtable character that will make my hero or thesis more admirable in defeating him or it." Bankhead backed him up in an interview in which she said that the director "wanted to teach an important lesson. He wanted to say that you can't trust the enemy....in Lifeboat you see clearly that you can't trust a Nazi, no matter how nice he seems to be."[2]
Another criticism leveled at the film was that the portrayal of the African-American character "Joe" was too stereotypical. Actor Canada Lee testified that he had attempted to round out the character by revising dialogue and cutting some actions, but did not succeed.[2]
Generally, though, critics praised the film's acting and directing, and noted with appreciation the lack of background music once the film proper begins.[2] Still, studio executives, under pressure because of the controversies, decided to give the film a limited release instead of the wide release most of Hitchcock's films received. Advertising for the film was also reduced, which resulted in the film's poor box office showing when it was released in 1944.
Awards and honors
As well as 1944 Academy Award nominations for "Best Black and White Cinematography" for Glen MacWilliams, "Best Original Story" for John Steinbeck, and "Best Director" for Alfred Hitchcock, Lifeboat received other award consideration. Tallulah Bankhead won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for "Best Actress"[9], and the film was named one of the 10 Best Films of 1944 by Film Daily, and was nominated for Best Picture of 1944 by the National Board of Review.[10]
Adaptations
NBC broadcast a one hour radio adaptation of the film on Screen Director's Playhouse on November 16, 1950. Hitchcock directed, and Bankhead reprised her role from the film. The rest of the cast featured Jeff Chandler and Sheldon Leonard.[2]
In 1993, Lifeboat was remade as a science fiction TV movie under the title Lifepod. Moving the action from a lifeboat to a spaceship's escape capsule in the year 2169, the remake starred Ron Silver, who also directed, Robert Loggia and CCH Pounder. The film was aired on the Fox TV network. The film credited Hitchcock and Harry Sylvester for the story.[11]
References
External links
