| Actors:
| Tallulah Bankhead, John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, William Bendix, Mary Anderson | | Director:
| Alfred Hitchcock | | Format:
| Black & White, Color, DVD, Special Edition, NTSC | | Language:
| English, German | | Subtitle:
| English, Spanish | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| 20th Century Fox | | Run Time:
| 97 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| October 18, 2005 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 103 reviews |
|
Average Customer Review:
 ( 103 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
122 of 124 found the following review helpful:
 OVERLOOKED HITCHCOCK GEM GETS ROYAL TREATMENT - AT LAST!!!Aug 14, 2005
By Paulo Leite
Lifeboat is an early masterpiece from Hitchcock, whose today is better know for his colour-period other masterpieces like REAR WINDOW, VERTIGO, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, THE BIRDS, etc.
But this great film (I guess, the only one he made to Twentieth Century Fox) is one his best works from his american B&W period along with REBECCA and NOTORIOUS. And it shows....
Lifeboat was a play by John Steinback, in which, after a dramatic sea battle, a group of passengers get together on a lifeboat after the ocean liner they were travelling at gets sunk by a german U-boat (that also sunk).
This premisse is the perfect environment for Hitchcock to show his best characteristic: a director who loves to work under self imposed constrictions so he can turn these same constrictions to his own advantage. The constriction I'm talking about is his best mark: closed spaces, single settings, the challenge of making the audience unaware that they are in just one big room.
Stranded in the middle of the Atlantic we see a micro society: the rich spoiled girl in a mink coat (Talullah Bankhead in a great role), an industrialist, a sailor, a mother with her dead baby, a nurse, a engeneer, a steward... and the german captain from the U-boat that was responsible for the whole tragedy.
As the survivors try to cope with their new condition, they cannot agree on the direction their lifeboat should take in a desperate attempt to reach an allied ship. Should they trust one of theirs and risk to die adrift... or should they trust the wise experienced german captain who may or may not be leading them towards a german ship that may be somewhere close.
And then comes the question: is the german captain a prisoner of the group... or is the whole group prisoner of just one german?
Can you believe the dramatic possibilities of such an idea?
Well... being a Hitchcock movie, you'll never see a dull moment... nor the camera stuck by the fact we are in just one set. Everything in this movie is right... actors, cinematography, direction, special effects... everything in this movie is a great example of classical Hollywood... and the story has great pace... and never lets the audience for a moment feel bored. There's plenty action, suspense, tension, drama... even murder.
Talullah Bankhead's character is unforgettable as a rich, spoiled reporter whose practical spirit is always ahead of problems... she is always chicly and stylishly helping everybody. My favorite quotes: "Dying together's even more personal than living together"; "In a word: Wow!" and the best one... "Darling, some of my best friends are in jail"
Finnaly, Fox is releasing this great film in a restored edition. Full of nice extras and in a beautiful package.
Hurray!!!!
32 of 32 found the following review helpful:
 Underrated HitchcockApr 10, 2008
By Scott T. Rivers
Alfred Hitchcock's daring wartime drama rises to the technical challenge of being confined to a small set. Based on a story by John Steinbeck, "Lifeboat" (1944) remains among the director's most humanistic works with its emotional claustrophobia and incisive characterizations. Though a bit dialogue-heavy, the Master of Suspense creates a surprising amount of tension and intrigue throughout the film's 96-minute length. Tallulah Bankhead gives her finest screen performance, yet the entire cast is excellent. A minor classic in the Hitchcock canon.
78 of 87 found the following review helpful:
an answer as to the wait for the Lifeboat DVDJul 28, 2005
By Elwood Conway
"elwoodc"
I have a pal at Fox Home Video. The reason we have all been waiting for this release is due to the poor condition of the original film elements. For those of you who owned the laserdisc edition, remember that the first reel was plagued with water damage (almost fitting for this type of movie). Rumor has it that this fine grain master print was the best Fox had available at the time...that the negative was not around...not necessarily lost, just not able to be located. My buddy tells me that this is no longer the case and that restoration work has been ongoing for the better part of a year on this title. Hopefully it will be worth the wait.
17 of 19 found the following review helpful:
A Forgotten Film From The Master Of SuspenseJul 23, 2000
By Ben hayden
Lifeboat where do i begin? well for starters i guess it would have to be that this is one of my all time favorite Films from Alfred Hitchcock. But to most people they have never heard of Lifeboat. Yeah it was one of his early works but one of his best. Most people when they think of Hitchcock they think of Psycho ans The Birds and Vertigo. But this is better than the birds. It has a human story and ever increasing the tension. In a by gone era of hollywood when movies were grand in spectical not budget. Lifeboat is about a freighter that is heading to New York. But is sunk by a German U-boat and in the opening scenes there is Tallulah Bankhead in a lifeboat all by herself with all of her belongings. Then one by one they pick up more survivors the tension increasing when they pick up a crewman of the U-boat. Only Hitchcock would make his backlot movie with fake clouds seem so real and make a the ocean look vast and barren. He also manages to elict good performances from Bankhead,Walter Slezak, Canada Lee and others. I would highly reccomend that you check out this film from the master of suspense. this is not to be missed of put of. It is very suspensful i mean would you come to expect less from Hitchcock. SEE THIS MOVIE I BEG YOU.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
An eclectic cast of characters fight for survival on the high seas during wartime!Dec 11, 2005
By Daniel C. Markel
This review is for the 2005 Twentieth Century Fox DVD.
The movie doesn't waste any time assembling ten adults in a lifeboat that was launched from a sinking freighter torpedoed by a German U-Boat in the Atlantic during World War II. Nine of the crew came from the freighter, while the tenth is a survivor of the U-Boat, which was also sunk during this confrontation. The more notable characters include: a world famous news reporter, Connie Smith (Tallulah Bankhead); a U-Boat Captain (Walter Slezak); a freighter engine man, John Kovac (John Hodiak); a freighter captain Gus Smith (William Bendix); and a wealthy industrialist, 'Ritt' Rittenhouse (Henry Hull). The survivors are confronted with plenty of moral challenges among themselves as well as battling nature with very limited food, water and other life-sustaining essentials.
There's rarely a dull moment in this film as the freighter survivors are faced with many moral dilemmas including saving a person who is responsible for sinking their ship and killing hundreds of their fellow crewmen. Murphy's Law (if something can go wrong, it probably will) seems to also run amuck in this story. Since it was made and released during WWII, there's clearly a sense of Allied moral superiority. The best performance and screen presence far and away is by Tallulah Bankhead, but all of the other actors give stellar performances. Canada Lee's recitation of the 23rd Psalm is simply great! I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and it clearly has Hitchcock's artistry and personal touches throughout the film including his clever cameo appearance.
As for the DVD, Hitchcock fans like myself who have seen this on VHS have been aware that the image quality has been always been suspect and there was great hope and anticipation that the DVD would offer an immaculate presentation of the film. This wasn't the case as parts of the first 15 minutes show some of the same water-damaged image problems revealed on the VHS videos. Fortunately, this happens during scenes where its foggy, so it's not a devastating issue, but one would have hoped that Fox could have either found some secondary sources or meticulously restored these damaged segments. But in spite of these technical shortcomings, I would still strongly recommend viewing this movie. There are several worthwhile bonus features including how the film was shot in Fox's studio and commentary by film professor Drew Casper.
Movie: A-
DVD Quality: B-
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