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Lifeboat (1944)
In director Alfred Hitchcock's tense ensemble adventure
thriller-drama - it told about eight American and German civilians
who were survivors of a U-Boat submarine attack on a merchant ship
during WWII, and confined together on a lifeboat. The very unique,
innovative, and original film, based in part upon John Steinbeck's
unpublished novel (and adapted by screenwriter Jo Swerling) was
the first of Hitchcock's restricted or limited-setting films. [Note:
The others were Rope (1948), Dial
M for Murder (1954) and Rear
Window (1954).] Hitchcock's sole film for 20th Century Fox
was filmed in black-and-white and lacked any musical score except
for its opening and closing credit sequences. Its three Academy Awards
nominations (with no wins) included Best Director, Best Original
Story, and Best B/W Cinematography.
Many reviewers read the film as polemical
and propagandistic due to Hitchcock's seeming urge to the varied
Allied forces to unite together to defeat the perceived enemy, although
some pointed out that controversially, at the time of the film's
release, it was unfortunate that the sole Nazi in the lifeboat appeared
more intelligent and competent than the others who were confused
and argumentative amongst each other. One of the lifeboat survivors
voiced these concerns: "Now, now, now, we're all sort of fellow
travelers in a mighty small boat, on a mighty big ocean. And the
more we quarrel and criticize and misunderstand each other, the bigger
the ocean gets and the smaller the boat." However, others felt
that Hitchcock's approach was correct in portraying the Nazi as a
superior, who was representative of the powerful German enemy that
had shrewdly taken over the democracies of the world and fooled so
many of its unprepared and gullible opponents. The lifeboat represented
a microcosm of the democracies of the world that were adrift.
- the opening scene presented the aftermath of the
sinking of an Allied passenger freighter (sailing from New York
to London in the Atlantic) by a Nazi U-boat's torpedo; the enemy's
U-boat was also sunk; there
was a view of the smokestack of the sinking freighter, swirling
waters and views of the debris-strewn surface of the water; a slow
pan from left to right revealed a box of American Red Cross supplies
for Great Britain, a broken crate of fruit, a large duffel bag,
a New
Yorker magazine cover, some playing cards, sheet music of composer
Stephen Foster's 1854 song (Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair),
some large wooden spoons or paddles and a chessboard, and a corpse
face-down in the water with a German lifebelt on its back
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After The Sinking of an Allied Passenger
Ship - A View of The Debris-Strewn Surface of the Water
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- the first view of the titular lifeboat revealed
only a single occupant wearing a mink coat, gold-diamond
bracelet, and smoking a cigarette; she was clearly annoyed after
noticing a rip in one of her nylons; she had been able to save her
suitcase, her cigarette case and lighter, a blanket and her deluxe
16 mm movie camera -- she was a rich, elegant, well-dressed, spoiled
and cynical fashion photo-journalist named Constance "Connie" Porter
(Tallulah Bankhead)
- she was soon joined by a second survivor - a virulent,
hot-headed, grease-covered, anti-Nazi Czech-American Kovac (John
Hodiak); he reacted to Connie: "Lady,
you certainly don't look like somebody that's just been shipwrecked!";
he explained that he was off-duty and not in the freighter's
engine-room when the torpedo hit, enabling him to escape injury; he said
the attack reminded him of "a slaughterhouse I once worked at in
Chicago";
he also expressed his anti-Nazi bias: "Those Nazi buzzards -
a tin fish ain't enough. They've got to shell us too!"
- Connie was proud to have witnessed
the sinking of the German U-boat, and that she had been able to
film the entire battle and its wreckage, and the shelling of other
lifeboats (footage that she excitedly described:
"And what pictures! Priceless!"); as Kovac
stood up to help and save the next survivor, English radio operator
Stanley "Sparks" Garrett
(Hume Cronyn), he clumsily knocked Constance's movie camera
overboard, and she reacted angrily: "Absolutely irreplaceable
stuff. Priceless. The best film I ever took! Goes to the bottom
of the sea....I wouldn't have parted with that film for a million
dollars. When will I ever get stuff like that again?"
- three others were found floating on wreckage: Army
nurse Alice MacKenzie (Mary Anderson), seriously-wounded German-American
Gus Smith/Schmidt (William Bendix), and self-made wealthy
industrialist C.J. "Ritt" Rittenhouse (Henry Hull);
Connie was pleased to see Rittenhouse, a friend of hers, although he
quipped as he was helped into the lifeboat: "Connie! Did you come
from the freighter or the Stork Club?"; he added: "I never
expected to see you alive," and she affirmed: "You know I'm
practically immortal, Ritt"; when Alice asked to look at Gus' bloody
leg, he slyly replied: ("Oh, well, OK babe. Maybe you'll let
me return the compliment someday"); worried about his injured leg
affecting his dancing prowess, Gus bragged: "I can out-jive the rest
of those hepcats even with a bum gam"
- the next individual who appeared, black steward "Joe" Spencer
(Canada Lee), who Connie initially called "Charcoal" and claimed that
he had assisted her into the lifeboat, was also seen helping to rescue
a young shell-shocked Britisher mother Mrs. Higley (Heather Angel)
from Bristol with her infant baby; Joe claimed that she was trying
to drown the baby and herself with it; although the mother was assured
that her baby was safe, the baby was dead
- the final person to join the lifeboat was German
Willi (Walter Slezak) who spoke only German ("Danke
schoen"); Sparks
immediately suspected he was the German U-boat commander himself;
Connie translated for Willi, who claimed he was only a crew member;
he apologized for the shelling of the lifeboats due to commands to
follow orders; Kovac (who revealed he was from Czechoslovakia and
zealously anti-Nazi) was unhappy with Willi's presence, called him
a "rattlesnake" ("Get
him out of here") and threatened to throw him overboard
Eight Lifeboat Survivors of Sunken American Freighter
- Plus One Additional Individual
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"Connie" Porter (Tallulah Bankhead) - Photo-Journalist
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Kovac (John Hodiak) - Czech-American Freighter Engine Room Worker
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Stanley "Sparks" Garrett (Hume Cronyn) - English Radio Operator
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Alice MacKenzie (Mary Anderson) - US Army Nurse
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Gus Smith (William Bendix) - German-American Seaman
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C.J. "Ritt" Rittenhouse (Henry Hull) - Self-Made
Wealthy Industrialist
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"Joe" Spencer (Canada Lee) - Black Steward
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Mrs. Higley (Heather Angel) - Britisher, a Recent Mother
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Willi (Walter Slezak) - Revealed Later to be the Nazi U-Boat Captain
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- the group quarreled amongst each other, as Ritt tried
to calm everyone's nerves: "Now, now, now, we're all sort of
fellow travelers in a mighty small boat, on a mighty big ocean. And
the more we quarrel and criticize and misunderstand each other, the
bigger the ocean gets and the smaller the boat"; Kovac was adamant
about throwing Willi overboard: ("I say let's throw him overboard
and watch him drown. When he goes down, I'll dance a jig like Hitler
did when France went down"), and Gus agreed with Kovac: ("I
say throw him to the sharks") although they were overruled by
Connie, Sparks, Alice and Rittenhouse; when the lifeboat members were voting
whether or not to spare Willi, "Joe" was
shocked that his opinion was valued: ("Do I get to vote too?")
and decided to stay out of the quarreling; the
voting was interrupted by Mrs. Higley who declared: "My baby's dead!",
and she began beating Willi
- the first night in the lifeboat, in a back-lit sequence,
while Mrs. Higley slept (under Connie's loaned mink coat), a funeral
ceremony was held to bury her baby at sea; Ritt started a prayer
that the religiously-Christian "Joe" finished,
with a moving, memorized recitation of the 23rd Psalm: ("....He
leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness, for His name's sake. Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil. For thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen")
- Mrs. Higley awakened to find her baby Johnny missing and became hysterical;
the group was forced to tie her down with a rope to a chair to prevent
her from hurting herself; however, by morning, the group discovered
that Mrs. Higley (wearing Connie's mink coat) had committed suicide
by jumping out of the boat with the rope still attached to her; the
rope was cut to set her adrift
- there were very few supplies on the lifeboat to sustain
the large group of survivors - only one beaker of water and some dry
biscuits, and a compass that was smashed to pieces; the group was
unaware that Willi had a concealed compass that he was secretly using
to steer their course; the boat's mast was
damaged although there were efforts to create a sail, and Ritt assigned
responsibilities to each person: (Sparks - navigation, Joe - Head
of Commissary, Connie - Ship's Log, Alice - Sick Bay, Ritt: Skipper)
- about 25 minutes into the film, there was a surprise
cameo appearance of director Hitchcock in a newspaper ad for a waist-slimming
product (Reduco Obesity Slayer), being read by Gus
- during the midst of a discussion about who was qualified
enough to 'captain' or skipper the lifeboat and steer its course
ESE toward the British territory of Bermuda, Connie spoke in German to
Willi asking for his opinion, and the German disagreed with Sparks'
proposed course; a heated debate arose when Ritt urged following Willi's
advice to set their course and Kovac disagreed: ("I wouldn't trust
anything he says"); Kovac dismissed Ritt's
qualification of owning a shipyard as insufficient to lead the group's
decision-making: ("Who elected you skipper?")
- the film's major turning
point was revealed when Connie uncovered the German's true position
and rank as the U-boat Kapitan when he
responded to her use of his title; he had lied to them; the
last survivor of the lifeboat's passengers was the treacherous and
sinister Nazi U-boat Captain Willi; Kovac was against turning over the
navigation of the boat to the Kapitan: ("You want to turn the
boat over to the man who sunk our ship and shelled our lifeboats?"),
and insisted on taking charge: "As of now, I'm skipper. Anybody who
don't like it can get out and swim to Bermuda"; Sparks was assigned
to take the tiller and proceed in his preferred ESE direction; as
Sparks steered the lifeboat with a guide rope, he accidentally knocked
Connie's typewriter into the ocean and she groused: "Little by little,
I'm being stripped of all my earthly possessions"
- Willi suggested in German (translated by Connie) that
the gangrene-infected leg of German-American Gus needed immediate
treatment (and volunteered to be the surgeon due to his civilian
life background) - "The leg has to come off", although Gus resisted
and claimed he would lose his flighty dance partner Rosie: "If
I lose my leg, I lose Rosie....What
good's a hep-cat with one gam missin'?"; Connie was able to
persuade Gus to agree to the surgery, arguing that Rosie would understand
and was probably worrying about him right then "not knowing whether you're dead or alive"
- in
an almost-wordless scene, as Gus drank brandy provided by Connie,
his leg was gruesomely amputated after Willie heated up the blade
of a knife with a cigarette lighter (protected from the wind by the
hands of the survivors); Sparks struggled to keep the boat steady as
the waves surged and rocked the lifeboat; Gus' right boot was tossed
onto the deck by Kovac to end the scene with a fade to black
- Willi convinced Connie that they were on the "wrong
course" and should change their direction
in order to sail toward Bermuda; although Kovac disagreed: ("I don't
trust that Nazi. There must be other submarines around and he knows
where they are, or maybe a supply ship"), the whole group decided
to follow the Kapitan's advice to take a new course
- that evening, Alice admitted to Connie that she was
having personal relationship issues with a man in England, and then
also told Sparks that she was enmeshed in a "hopeless" affair with
a married family man (a doctor in her same hospital named Stephen),
after she had facetiously said she was glad that their trip had been
delayed to London; while they talked, Sparks
realized by the stars in the night sky that they were proceeding
East, and that the resourceful Willi had been steering them not
toward Bermuda as he had promised: ("We're heading to miss Bermuda");
when the other crew members were informed, Kovac reacted: "He made
suckers out of all of us"
- as the crew debated whether to accuse Willi of guilt,
Kovac ordered ex-pickpocket Joe see what the German had in his pocket
- and it was revealed to be not a watch but a compass; the
enraged Kovac threatened to stab the German ("dirty double-crossing
rat") and told the more tolerant others to have a backbone: ("What
are you so squeamish about? We're at war!"); a huge storm intervened
and Gus was washed overboard and had to be rescued, as Willi took
the tiller - and yelled at the crew - in English! ("You fools! Stop
thinking of yourselves! Think of the boat!")
- Willi took command and was able to
steer the lifeboat safely through the storm, although the group was
now off-course, and had lost all their food, water, the boat's mast,
and Connie's suitcase; once the storm calmed, Willi attempted to
single-handedly row the lifeboat forward - filmed at a low angle
to emphasize his dominance in the scene; Kovac sarcastically noted:
"Our enemy, our prisoner of war. Now, we're his prisoners, and
he's gauleiter of the boat, singin' German lullabies to us while
he rows us to his supply ship. and a concentration camp"
- Gus became delirious, began hallucinating and talking
about major league ballgames he was going to attend (Sparks: "He's
off of the beam again"), and was caught by Alice trying to scoop
up a cup of salty seawater
- the indomitable and snobbish Connie and oiler Kovac
were becoming romantic partners; she remarked about largest tattooed
initials B.M.: ("Her initials are larger than the others. Was
she the last or the first? What was her name?"), and mentioned
how "dying together is even more personal than living together";
Connie and Kovac also entered into a discussion about her diamond
bracelet, when she noted that they both came from the same South
Side of Chicago ("the same gutter"): ("You're a
low person, darling, obviously out of the gutter. Maybe that's why
I'm attracted to you")
- Connie claimed that the bracelet
had brought her out of poverty: ("And I lived there until I got this.
It worked miracles for me. It took me from the, uh South Side to
the North Side. It was my passport from the stockyards to the
Gold Coast. It got me everything I wanted, up to now"); she
put her initials C.P. on Kovac's chest with her lipstick
tube and then they kissed, but
he pulled away when he glanced down at her bracelet ("Quit slumming!");
the German observed and told Connie: "He
likes you, but he hates the bracelet"; reflecting her own starving
situation, Connie observed how the German seemed to be from a superior race: "He's
made of iron! The rest of us are just flesh and blood, hungry flesh
and blood, and thirsty"
Connie Putting Her Initials on Anti-Nazi Freighter Worker Kovac's Chest
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Connie and Kovac Kissing But He Detested Her Diamond
Bracelet
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Ritt's and Kovac's Contentious Card Game
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Gus Hallucinating After Drinking Seawater
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- during a game of cards between Kovac and Ritt, Kovac
proposed upping the ante to $100 and then to $1,000, and he hoped
to win: "Think I'll go for one of your airplane plants";
the game became contentious when Ritt accused Kovac of marking the
cards and cheating; a gust of wind blew away proof of Ritt's winning
hand, and he was faced with a debt of $13,500 owed to Kovac; their
game was interrupted by the approach of rain - a welcome opportunity
to collect rain water, but it was only transitory
- the despairing Gus
again reached for his cup to collect sea water to drink and soon
after became delusional, but he wasn't seeing things when he observed
the German drinking water from a hoarded flask - and he told Sparks:
"Willi's got some water" who ignored him; when Gus questioned the
German about his hidden flask: "Where'd you
get the water? You've been holdin' out on us...Why didn't you share
it with the rest of us?" Willi pushed him overboard to keep him quiet; Gus
drowned (his weak cries for help were unheard by the rest of the
sleeping crew)
- when confronted by the rest of the crew, the German
cold-heartedly admitted: "The best way to help him was to let him
go. I had no right to stop him, even if I wanted to. A poor cripple
dying of hunger and thirst, what good could life be to a man like
that?"; sweat on Willi's brow, and the revelation by Joe that he had
a water flask hidden under his shirt confirmed that the German had
murdered Gus; the German even went further, admitting by bragging
that he had maintained his strength and was better prepared than
the others with a supply of food tablets and
energy pills (from the U-boat): "You should be grateful to me for
having the foresight to think ahead. To survive, one must have a plan"
- five members of the group (Joe did not participate
- he had presumably seen enough of lynch mobs) violently attacked
and beat Willi - they were pushed to the limit to turn against their
Nazi enemy; he was beaten, kicked and struck in the forehead before
he was thrown overboard to his death; to ensure the German's death, Ritt
smashed Willi twice with the shoe from Gus' amputated leg; afterwards,
Ritt expressed his dismay about Willi's ungrateful
behavior and treachery: "To my dying day, I'll never understand
Willi or what he did....What do you do with people like that?"
- while thinking about their doomed future, radio
operator Sparks told Alice: "Whatever happens, I'd like you to marry
me" and she accepted his proposal; bolstering their confidence with a
stern lecture, Connie encouraged everyone to not beat themselves
up over killing the German, because he was guiding them to their
deaths: "We're all going to fold up and die just because that ersatz
superman is gone... Good grief, look at you...What's the matter with us? We not only let the
Nazi do our rowing for us, but our thinking!"; the
indomitable Connie, who refused to be defeated and give up, used
her diamond-gold bracelet as a fish bait-lure ("Sure, we have bait,
by Cartier"), symbolic of her moral decision to discard her material
possessions and strive for survival (she had already lost her typewriter,
her camera, her mink coat, and her suitcase)
- after there was a strike on the line, Joe noticed an
approaching German war vessel that Willi had been attempting to guide
them toward; during the frenzied sighting of the ship on the horizon, unfortunately,
the fishing line and Connie's bracelet were lost (she reacted with
hysterical laughter); as a smaller German launch was released toward
them, it was then suddenly retracted with the approach of an Allied warship
that attacked, bombarded, and sank the German launch and then bombed
the ship; as the ship was hit and sinking, it almost collided with the
lifeboat and swamped it; after it sank, Kovac reacted: "Well, that settles the score"
A Small Launch From a German Supply Ship
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Destruction of the Small German Launch
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Bombing and Sinking of the German Supply Ship
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- as they awaited rescue in the next 20 minutes, Connie
again began to worry about her physical appearance (her hair, nails,
and face); Alice asked about Sparks' last name, and Ritt promised
to pay the $50 grand owed to Kovac
- in the ambiguous ending at the last moment, the lifeboat
passengers were forced to decide what to do with a young injured
and frightened German sailor/survivor (William Yetter Jr.) who had
climbed onboard their lifeboat with a gun from the sunken German
warship: (Kovac: "The baby has a toy!"); Ritt immediately urged killing him: "You
can't treat them as human beings. You've got to exterminate them";
Joe disarmed the young sailor and Connie threw the gun into the ocean
Ending: The Wounded But Armed Young German Pulled Onto the Boat
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The Six Survivors Confronting the Disarmed German Sailor
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The Film's Last Line of Dialogue: (Connie: "Well, maybe they can
answer that")
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- the young German asked - in German: "Aren't
you going to kill me?"; Connie translated what he had said: ("Aren't
you going to kill me?"); Kovac repeated his words: "Aren't you going to kill me?" and
then added his own reaction (similar to Ritt's assertion earlier): "What
are you gonna do with people like that?"; Sparks thought about
the answer that might have been given by some of the deceased: ("I
don't know. I was thinking of Mrs. Higley and her baby, and Gus"),
and Connie (in close-up with the last spoken line of dialogue) wondered
that maybe Mrs. Higley and Gus could answer him: ("Well,
maybe they can answer that")
- the film abruptly ended, and presumably the group was rescued
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The Lifeboat's First Occupant: Photo-Journalist "Connie" Porter
(Tallulah Bankhead) - Filming the Approach of a 2nd Survivor
Steward Joe Spencer's Memorized Recitation of the 23rd Psalm
During a Burial at Sea Service for Mrs. Higley's Dead Infant
Mrs. Higley Realizing That Her Baby Was Missing - She Went Hysterical,
and Soon After Committed Suicide
Willi's Concealed Compass
Hitchcock's Cameo in a Weight-Loss Ad in a Newspaper
Kovac Declaring Himself the Skipper (or Captain) of the Lifeboat
Connie Commenting on Kovac's Tattoos: ("Never could understand this
quaint habit of making a billboard out of one's torso")
Gus: "I don't want no operation"
Gus' Gangrene Infected Leg Amputation Sequence -
Shielding a Flame to Sterilize a Knife
Gus' Discarded Right Boot From His Amputated Leg
Army Nurse Alice Explaining Her Personal Problems to Connie and
to Sparks
The Discovery of a Hidden Compass in the German's Pocket by Ex-Pickpocket
Joe
The German Took Command of the Tiller During a Storm
Willi Rowing The Lifeboat Without a Mast After the Storm Subsided
Kovac's Sarcasm About Willi: "Now, we're his prisoners..."
Willi's Secret Hoarding of Water From a Flask
Gus Pushed Overboard by the German to Drown - To Keep Him Quiet
The Shocked Crew Hearing That the German Let Gus Die
The Discovery of the German's Hidden Water Flask
The German Beaten to Death and Thrown Overboard by the Angered Crew
Ritt: "What do you do with people like that?"
Sparks' Marriage Proposal to Alice
Baiting a Fish Line With Connie's Diamond Bracelet
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