Lifeboat (film)

Lifeboat is a American thriller film from 1944 that was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The entire film takes place aboard a lifeboat. The main roles are played by Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezak, Mary Anderson, John Hodiak, Henry Hull, and Heather Angel.

The film was nominated for several Oscars.



Content
[hide] *1 Story  ==Story[ Edit] == Several American and British people come stuck at sea in a lifeboat, after their ship is destroyed by a German u-boat. The u-boat itself sinks also. Willi, a German survivor, is on board the lifeboat met. He denies to be a crew member of the u-boat. Kovac, one of the occupants of the boat, and proposes that they trust him Willi not put overboard and to its fate. Garrett and some others emphasize, however, that Willi as prisoner of war can be considered and so should remain.
 * 2 Cast
 * Background 3
 * 3.1 Production
 * Hitchcock's cameo 3.2
 * 3.3 Receipt
 * 4 awards and nominations
 * 5 external links

One of the passengers, a baby, dies early in the film. His mother becomes so overcome with grief that she throws overboard and drowns himself that evening.

The remaining occupants trying to hold out as long as possible in the lifeboat by the few to ration food on board. They sail in the direction of Bermuda there this the nearest country. In the beginning the characters cooperative and willing to survive this ordeal, but as time goes on more and more desperation and dehydration concerns tensions between them. Kovac takes in the lead group, but Willi undermines his authority.

Of all the characters is clearly examined, including their religion, social class and nationalities. The group must have some tricky decisions. So they are forced to amputate the leg of one of the occupants because this is suffering from gangrene. They also come in a storm.

In the end to have Willi lied; He was the captain of the u-boat. If one morning, while everyone still sleeps, Gus Smith Willi caught on secretly some extra water drinking, Willi pushes him overboard. Gus drowns before the others wake up. When the others later discover what Willi has done, they are as a group against him, beating him in each other, and throwing him overboard. He drowns.

Then it turns out that Willi outside everyone's know to the value of the lifeboat has changed. The boat sails right on a German supply ship off. Before the Germans can get them on board, the German ship by a warship sunk by the allies. A young German sailor survives the destruction and ends up in the lifeboat. This allows the other occupants for the dilemma of whether they should spare his life while they wait to pick up the Allied ship them on it. ==Division Of Roles[ Edit] == ==Background<span class="mw-editsection" len="333" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == ===Production<span class="mw-editsection" len="331" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">When Lifeboat went into production, Hitchcock was under contract to David o. Selznick. Obtained a film directing for Twentieth Century-Fox, in Exchange for services of some actors, technicians and the rights to three stories that Fox owned. Hitchcock would go directing 2 films for Fox, but the second was never made, presumably because Fox was dissatisfied about the length that the Lifeboat had taken up production.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-tcmnotes_1-0" len="176" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"> [1]
 * Tallulah Bankhead: Constance Porter
 * William Bendix: Gus Smith
 * Walter Slezak: Willi
 * Mary Anderson: Alice MacKenzie
 * John Hodiak: John Kovac
 * Henry Hull: Charles D. Rittenhouse
 * Heather Angel: Mrs Higley
 * Hume Cronyn: Stanley Garrett
 * Canada Lee: George Spencer
 * William Yetter: German sailor

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">It was Hitchcock who came up with the idea for the film. He approached A.J. Cronin, James Hilton and Ernest Hemingway to help him to write the screenplay. They had previously worked on the documentary The Forgotten Village<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" len="167" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[2]  but had never written a fictional story. Steinbeck wanted to also edit the story into a novel, but this was never published because its publisher regarded the story as "inferior". Steinbeck received $ 50,000 for the film rights to his manuscript. Other writers who have worked on the scenario are Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville, MacKinlay Kantor, Patricia Collinge, Albert Mannheimer and Marian Spitzer.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-tcmnotes_1-1" len="176" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"> [1]  Hitchcock hired Ben Hecht to rewrite the end of the scenario.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-imdb_3-0" len="172" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"> [3]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Lifeboat might actually be included in technicolor and with an exclusively male cast of pretty much just unknown actors. Canada Lee, a stage actor with only 1 film role to his name, was the first chosen for the movie.Hitchcock thought out ahead of time the camera angles that would be required for the film. The fact that the film took place in a small environment with a lot of characters, represented a new challenge for Hitchcock.Four lifeboats were used for the recordings. The film was almost entirely included in the Twentieth Century-Fox studio on Pico Boulevard on the current Century City.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-tcmnotes_1-2" len="176" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"> [1]  only for the background were what recordings made from the sea at Miami and San Miguel Island in California.

<p lang="en" len="221" style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">The recordings were plagued by diseases among the actors and crew:

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In total was Lifeboat from 3rd August to 17 november 1943 in production.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4" len="167" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"> [4] ===Hitchcock's cameo<span class="mw-editsection" len="338" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Hitchcock had a habit of in almost all his films to have a cameo . In this film, however, this seemed not possible because there is given the location of the story, a life raft that floats, not on the open sea, scenes in which take place at a place where Hitchcock somewhere in the background or among the crowd could stand. Hitchcock solved this problem by his picture in the newspaper that is read by one of the characters. ===Receipt<span class="mw-editsection" len="331" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === <p lang="en" len="92" style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">The film was received with mixed reactions, particularly as regards the characters Willi and Joe.
 * Before the recordings started William Bendix had to the role of Murray Alper accepted because this ill.
 * After two weeks, director of photography Arthur Miller ill and had to be replaced by Glen MacWilliams.
 * Tallulah Bankhead got a pneumonia twice during the shooting.
 * Mary Anderson was severely ill during production.
 * Hume Cronyn suffered two broken ribs and almost drowned when he was caught in the machine that the waves made for the storm scene. He was rescued by a mine rescue worker.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-imdb_3-1" len="172" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"> [3]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">The way in which the Germans were put down in the film was the subject of some controversy, as critics conceiving as warpropaganda. Dorothy Thompson and Bosley Crowther of the New York Times found that the movie denigrating the Germans the Americans and British. Hitchcock responded with that the morality of his film was that the allies had to stop with their mutual bickering so as to be able to win the war. About Willi he said he the villain in his stories always respects, and like him makes a character which one actually happy is that the hero defeats him.

<p lang="en" len="290" style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Of the character Joe, an African American, it was claimed that his role in the film was too stereotypical.

<p lang="en" len="73" style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Apart from these points to the film critics praised the acting and directing. ==Awards and nominations<span class="mw-editsection" len="343" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ Edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" len="1" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p lang="en" len="334" style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">Tallulah Bankhead in 1944 received a New York Film Critics Circle Awards for her role in Lifeboat.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:22.3999996185303px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;">In 1945, Lifeboat nominated for three Academy Awards:


 * Best cinematography, black and white
 * Best Director
 * Best original screenplay