Thursday, April 5, 2012

Lifeboat

Lifeboat
Released Date: January 28, 1944
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Actors: Tallulah Bankhead, John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, William Bendix, Mary Anderson, Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Hume Cronyn, Canada Lee, and William Yetter Jr.



     The entire movie is in a lifeboat. In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The production was rather rough having the entire cast being seasick at one time at different times during production. And some even ended up getting pneumonia because they were with cold air a lot of the production too. The actress Tallulah Bankhead had pneumonia twice. And after that Mr. Hitchcock gave Ms. Bankhead a puppy, which he named Hitchcock. Alfred Hitchcock had hired a lifeguard for the movie because Hume Cronyn almost drowned. And Mr. Hume Cronyn even ended up with cracked ribs.

     The movie is based around World War Two, and there had been a shipwreck with a German U-Boat. The two, ship and boat had been at war together. The film starts off with the knowledge of the shipwreck, followed by a very wealthy looking woman on a lifeboat. She is filming what is around her, when a man came up on the boat with her. There ended up being eight on the boat. In the beginning, a woman with a baby had been on board too, but there is a very big surprise with that. During all of the craziness of the shipwreck, a German came onto the boat too. Luckily, Ms. Bankhead's character, Connie, knew how to speak German. So she was able to find out a lot about him. The boats engineer Kovac, played by Hodiak, was against even allowing the German on the boat. But after a long talk between the rest of the crew, they decided to keep the German on board. Watch as the entire boat crew struggle through hunger and tiredness.

     Another known fact about the movie, is that Ms. Bankhead did not wear underwear, the entire film she was in a dress and on a moving boat... You get my drift, no pun intended. I love this movie, and it definitely keeps you on your toes. Alfred Hitchcock, once again, proves he is the master.

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