Lifeboat

Alfred Hitchcock (1944)

93min

PG Certificate

Review

Our Score

by David Parkinson

This tense Second World War drama from director Alfred Hitchcock has the distinction of being shot on what looks like the smallest ever film set - the action takes place exclusively on board a lifeboat after a liner is torpedoed by a Nazi sub. As so often in Hitchcock's films, the suspense lies not in the audience being kept in the dark about the identity of the villain, but in making us watch and wait while the characters find it out for themselves. Tallulah Bankhead is the pick of an exceptional cast, but it's all about Hitch's matchless ability to create, shatter and re-create tension until our nerves are frayed.

Summary

The survivors of a torpedoed passenger ship are set adrift in a lifeboat. As they pull out other survivors from the sea, they realise one of them is the U-boat commander responsible for the disaster. Alfred Hitchcock's Second World War drama, starring Tallulah Bankhead, Walter Slezak, William Bendix, Hume Cronyn and Henry Hull.

Cast & Crew

Connie Porter Tallulah Bankhead

Gus William Bendix

Willy, U-boat captain Walter Slezak

Alice Mary Anderson

Kovak John Hodiak

Rittenhouse Henry Hull

Mrs Higgins Heather Angel

Stanley Garrett Hume Cronyn

George "Joe" Spencer Canada Lee

Director Alfred Hitchcock

Other Information

Language: English / GermanBlack and whiteTheatrical distributor: 20th Century Fox Film Co. LtdAvailable on: video, DVD and Blu-ray

Drama

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Alfred Hitchcock (1944)

Review

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