Natey & Katy: At the Movies
Natey & Katy are two friends who love movies and love talking about them. Join them on their cinematic journey!
Natey & Katy: At the Movies
Adrift in Suspense: Our Review of Hitchcock’s Lifeboat
Picture this: Natey's dad recommends a Hitchcock film, and we're off on an unexpected cinematic journey exploring "Lifeboat." This Surprise Saturday episode is our chance to bring you inside the tight quarters of Hitchcock's lesser-known masterpiece, where nine survivors navigate more than just the open sea. We’ll walk you through the high-stakes drama and moral quandaries that make "Lifeboat" a psychological thriller with wartime allegory woven through its seams. With insights from Cinema Cities on YouTube and our own candid reflections, we weigh the film's experimental flair against its polarizing reception, landing on a personal two-star verdict that speaks to its daring – if divisive – essence.
Switching gears, we can't wait for you to meet our special guest who joins us for an enthusiastic chat about another timeless classic: "Casablanca." From Rick’s Café to the foggy tarmac, we'll explore why this film's charm endures across generations. Our conversation is packed with personal anecdotes and observations that capture the magic of its unforgettable characters and iconic scenes. Whether you're a lifelong fan or new to the film, this discussion promises to illuminate why "Casablanca" remains a cinematic treasure. Join us in this celebration of movie magic that transcends time and captivates hearts anew.
Hey everybody, this is a Surprise Saturday episode of Nate and Katie at the Movies. I'm your host, nathan aka Natey, of course, and if you've been following us on our social media, you'll know that this is a very special surprise saturday episode because this movie was recommended by one of our listeners. They sent this recommendation through our fan mail. So if you want to give us a recommendation of a movie, click that, send us a text link in the show notes and send us that recommendation.
Speaker 1:So I was trying to figure out a way to justify or do justice to this movie that was recommended by my father. Actually, he sent us some fan mail and recommended this movie that is about to be reviewed and this is going to be very unique because I myself will not be reviewing this movie, because I was trying to wrap my head around how to be very detailed and I didn't want this to be a super short episode, like they usually are when I'm not really sure how I felt about a movie. So I looked up a review on YouTube and there's a YouTube channel called Cinema Cities and I'm going to give them a plug because I am going to be using their review of this film. So I'll be back after this review, so take a listen and I'll see you on the other side.
Speaker 2:Good evening, good evening, good evening.
Speaker 3:So I conducted a totally non-scientific survey just to get an idea of which Hitchcock films my channel viewers considered masterpieces. Besides the usual suspects, quite a few mentioned Notorious and Rebecca. One film, however, wasn't mentioned at all Lifeboat. And that's not all that surprising. It's one of Hitchcock's early 1940 films, made in the years between Rebecca and Notorious, that, with the exception of Shadow of a Doubt, gets overlooked.
Speaker 3:Released in 1944, in the midst of World War II, lifeboat tells the story of a group of men and women who find themselves battling for survival in a lifeboat after their ship is torpedoed by a German submarine. The action of the film takes place on a single set, a 26-foot lifeboat stranded in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. There are no flashbacks, there is no music outside of the opening and closing credits. The drama and suspense come from the survivors and their interactions in the space, without privacy or concealment. Hitchcock described it as the story of a goldfish bowl. So the story of this film begins with the sinking of a merchant marine ship. One by one, nine survivors climb into an empty lifeboat. Eight are American or British passengers and crew, and the ninth well, the ninth is.
Speaker 4:Where do you come from? Secret amendment I never saw him before. Not a problem. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 3:Holy cow, with a story by John Steinbeck and a screenplay by Joe Swirling. Lifeboat is the first of Hitchcock's experiments in using limited setting. Later would come Rope Dial M for Murder and Rear Window. The film was a 20th Century Fox production. Hitchcock, who was under exclusive contract with Furnamy of the channel, david O Selznick, was loaned to the studio for a planned two-picture deal. Like Selznick, fox studio boss Daryl F Zanuck liked to meddle with his producers and directors. But, as luck would have it, as Lifeboat headed into production, zanuck was off to war, leaving Hitchcock alone to build his mock-up lifeboats, drench his actors in gallons of water and to craft the most unique American war film of the era. Like I said, lifeboat is a story of a group of nine survivors adrift in the Atlantic Ocean. So let's meet our survivors. There's the acclaimed journalist Constance Porter.
Speaker 4:You're Constance Porter, I heard you were aboard.
Speaker 3:She's the only one on the boat who can speak German.
Speaker 5:Sind Sie der Kapitän des U-Boats.
Speaker 4:Nein.
Speaker 3:America's richest man, cj Rittenhouse, crewman John Kovach, stanley Garrett, joe Spencer and Gus Smith, a nurse, allison McKenzie, and a shell-shocked mother, mrs Higley and her baby.
Speaker 4:She's bombed out in Bristol. One of them shell-shock cases sent to America.
Speaker 3:And, of course, the German, as these nine people try to figure out how to survive. Tensions and conflicts emerge and the layers of wartime moral complexity grow. The film deals with themes of isolation, morality, human nature, power and the layers of wartime moral complexity grow. The film deals with themes of isolation, morality, human nature, power and survival.
Speaker 4:I say, let's throw him overboard and then stick around and watch him drown. When he goes down I'll dance a jig like Hitler did when France went down.
Speaker 3:Hitchcock readily admitted this was a morality tale, one he conceived of after reading headline after headline about American and British merchant ships sunk by German submarines and some survivors spending months at sea, adrift in lifeboats.
Speaker 5:You've been talking to me before. That's right Twice how long before you were picked up? Last time it was 43 days.
Speaker 3:And the limitations of the setting called for creative camera work and direction to keep the audience engaged, and Hitchcock composed beautiful shots, using the challenge of the space as a jumping-off point. He said the technical problems were enormous. I never let the camera get outside the boat. Lifeboat is both a psychological thriller and an allegory, a film about the war and allied fight against the Nazis, distilled down to an individual level, and it's hard to divorce that from the political context in which this film was created. Hitchcock said in his classic Truffaut interview we wanted to show that at the moment there were two world forces confronting each other, the democracies and the Nazis, and while the democracies were completely disorganized, all of the Germans were clearly headed in the same direction. So here was a statement telling the democracies to put their differences aside temporarily and to gather their forces to concentrate on the common enemy, whose strength was precisely derived from a spirit of unity and of determination strength was precisely derived from a spirit of unity and of determination, really a microcosm of the war.
Speaker 2:The democracies were all sixes and sevens and only the Germans knew where they were going, and it took a great unity to cut away all their differences, concentrate on the one enemy.
Speaker 4:Quit sl slamming.
Speaker 3:The infighting and bickering amongst the survivors keep them distracted from the real threat. Willie, he's careful, he's got a plan, he's prepared and he's ruthless. No, no, the man has no he's prepared and he's ruthless.
Speaker 2:No, no.
Speaker 3:The man has no idea. Bermuda is in this direction and eventually the other survivors start to realize who they're dealing with.
Speaker 5:He wasn't the captain wasn't he the captain yeah?
Speaker 2:You speak English? Of course I speak English.
Speaker 4:We're not heading for Bermuda. We're not heading for Bermuda, we're heading to Miss.
Speaker 3:Bermuda. The reveal insanely shifts the power dynamic and the other survivors allow Willie who, I mean, I guess for them seemed like a nice guy Nazi to take charge Within the life-or-death scenario of surviving in a lifeboat in the middle of the Atlantic with dwindling fresh water and food. The others decide, hey, he's different, he's not like all the other Nazis, he's special. All of them except Kovac, because he never falls for it.
Speaker 4:Our enemy, our prisoner of war. Now we're his prisoner, singing German lullabies to us while he roars us to his supply ship and a concentration camp. Tell him, Willie, tell him how funny it is.
Speaker 3:The film hinges on the intense focus and cohesive performances of the cast, william Bendix.
Speaker 4:A piece in here about some people that were adrift in a lifeboat for 80 days.
Speaker 3:Say maybe we can beat that record. John Hodiak and Mary Anderson were all contract players. Walter Slazak and Canada Lee were both actors who worked on Broadway. Later, criticism would be directed at Lifeboat's script for its portrayal of Lee's character, Joe. Critics would call Joe too stereotypical. It's important to note, though, that during filming, Lee worked to round out the character by revising dialogue, primarily eliminating the yes-sirs and no-sirs that sounded subservient and asking for some action that could be considered degrading cut. Because of Lee, Joe is more of a fleshed-out character than he otherwise would have been. Hume Cronin and Heather Angel were both previous Hitchcock collaborators Cronin as the nosy neighbor in Shadow of a Doubt and Angel as the maid Edith in Suspicion Henry Hall had made his first screen appearance in 1917. And then there's Miss Tallulah Bankhead, one of the great ladies of the American stage. Within popular culture, Bankhead was an outrageous and outspoken personality, but for Lifeboat she didn't want her character infused with the mannerisms or characteristics of her public persona.
Speaker 5:Hello darling.
Speaker 3:She told Hitchcock Don't make me say darling, All the time. They'll think I'm playing myself Hitchcock, though. However, he did want Tall lula bankhead to be to bankhead, because he knew the audience wanted to lula bankhead. What part of the ship are?
Speaker 5:you from darling. How do you feel? Darling, darling. I know, yes, darling. Yes, because one of my best friends is in the navy.
Speaker 3:he said, and I'm paraphrasing, who would be the most outrageous person you could ever find in a life boat in the middle of the at my name is Tallulah. The first person we see is Bankhead's world-renowned reporter Constance Porter, perched atop a suitcase wrapped in a mink coat.
Speaker 4:diamond bracelet on her arm Did you come from the freighter or the stock club?
Speaker 3:Connie, we later learn, like Kovac, is from Chicago's back of the yards, the rough Southside meatpacking district.
Speaker 5:Remember when you first got on the boat, you said you used to work in the packing house section in Chicago. Well, I came from there too.
Speaker 4:Southside.
Speaker 5:Ashton Avenue Back of the Yards, and I lived there until I got this.
Speaker 3:And with Kovac, even though they have distinct political differences, there is a mutual attraction that grows throughout the course of the film. But Kovac also reads Connie and sees her frivolity and her sense of self-importance.
Speaker 4:You think this whole war is a show put on for you to cover like a Broadway play. If enough people die before the last act, maybe you might give it four stars.
Speaker 3:As the film goes on, Connie loses all of her worldly possessions stars.
Speaker 5:As the film goes on, Connie loses all of her worldly possessions.
Speaker 3:And by the end she, like all the others, is disheveled, sunburned, dirty, desperate and hungry. So I need to talk about what happens to Willie, because this is really Hitchcock's statement on how to deal with evil, and it's brutal. Willie has lied, he's manipulated, he's responsible for the deaths of at least one, maybe two of the survivors. He's manipulated. He's responsible for the deaths of at least one, maybe two of the survivors and in a moment of clarity, the others see who and what they're dealing with.
Speaker 2:The best way to help him was to let him go. A poor cripple dying of hunger and thirst. What good could life be to a man like that?
Speaker 3:And finally they react. Truffaut likened them to a pack of wild dogs, and if the film is an allegory for the Allies needing to overcome their differences to defeat the Germans, then this is the way that that evil is to be dealt with. It's collective, it's brutal and it's fun.
Speaker 3:When the film premiered it was met with universal critical acclaim, with the performances of Bankhead, slazak Lee and Bendix all cited as outstanding. For her role in Lifeboat, tallulah Bankhead won the New York Critics Award for Best Actress. But after the initial praise, some critics and I'm looking at you, bosley Crowther began to take offense with the portrayal of the German. Many missed the point of the film and declared it pro-German in its characterization of Willie, critic Dorothy Thompson, along with Bosley Crowther, saw the film as denigrating the American and British characters while glorifying the Germans, something Hitchcock resented. He said I always respect my villain, building him into a redoubtable character that will make my hero or thesis more admirable in defeating him or it. Bankhead backed up Hitchcock in an interview in which he said the director wanted to teach an important lesson. He wanted to say that you can't trust the enemy In Lifeboat. You see clearly that you can't trust. After all the hoopla and the mischaracterization of being pro-German, Zanuck was pressured to kill the film's advertising and cut its wide release. So although it was a huge hit in New York, its impact did not extend beyond that. Hitchcock never made another film for Fox. If we're just looking at Lifeboat in the context of films produced during the war years, it stands out as being singularly experimental and explicitly brutal. Look out Stanley. Stands out as being singularly experimental and explicitly brutal. Hitchcock took on the technical challenge of the one-set film and created an overlooked masterpiece. Instead of feeling like a dated wartime relic lifeboat, compared to the overt propaganda films and technicolor escapist fare of the era, it is thought-provoking, sophisticated filmmaking and storytelling. Through its direction, acting and cinematography and its creative and technical daring Lifeboat feels alive, modern and, most importantly, relevant.
Speaker 1:So that is Lifeboat, directed by alfred hitchcock, the famous director of movies like psycho, rear window, all those classic films. And I really enjoyed that review of this movie because, like I said at the beginning of this episode, it went into depth, which is something I would not have been able to do, because this movie really was an enigma for me. I didn't know how I felt about it, I didn't know what I was going to say about it, and so I wanted to say something because it was recommended to us and so I thought I would play this review for you guys. So I would actually give lifeboat a two out of six stars, and I know that seems low, it's just it wasn't my, it wasn't my favorite alfred hitchcock movie, um, but one thing I will say is that, like the review you listened to said, they were just in a lifeboat literally the entire time and they had water dumped on them and some little behind the scenes you know thing a little behind the scenes tidbit is that the harsh conditions of the shoot took its toll on the actors, and the actors and actresses were soaked with water and oil, which led to two cases of pneumonia for Tallulah Bankhead, an illness for Mary Anderson and two cracked ribs for hume cronin, and this is according to his autobiography. Production was temporarily halted twice to allow for recovery of the cast, which is crazy what people put themselves through and what people still put themselves through. So so that is lifeboat and, like I said, I would give it two out of six stars. That is our surprise.
Speaker 1:Saturday episode of Nadine Katie at the movies. You can listen to me, katie and our special guest Talk about Casablanca. On Tuesday on Nad and Katie at the movies.
