Lifeboat (film)

Independent Films, Film Profiles

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.The film holds the world record for smallest set ever used on a film. It has never been beaten. (The closest any other film has come was the 1948 novelty film Bill and Coo, which featured an all-bird cast and was filmed on a miniature village built onto a 15×30-foot {4.57×9.14-m} tabletop, which was inside a larger studio.)Several Americans and Britons are stuck in a lifeboat after their ship and a U-boat sink each other in combat. Willi (Walter Slezak), a German survivor, is allowed aboard (after some debate), but is later revealed to be the U-boat captain.Kovac (John Hodiak) takes charge, rationing the little food and water they have; but Willi gradually takes control away from him. One morning, while the others are sleeping, the injured German-American Gus Smith (William Bendix) catches Willi drinking from a hidden water supply. Too weak to wake anybody up, Gus is pushed overboard to drown. However, when they notice that the Nazi is sweating, the other passengers realize that he must have been hoarding water, so they beat him up and throw him out of the boat.Later, the survivors are spotted by the German supply ship Willi had been steering them to; but, before it can pick them up, it is sunk by an Allied warship. A frightened young German seaman boards the lifeboat, brandishing a gun. After he is disarmed, one of the survivors asks, "What do you do with people like that?"