By Adrian Smith
(This review pertains to the British Blu-ray release)
With a career spanning over fifty years,
from early British silent film to glossy Hollywood studio fare,Alfred Hitchcock
rarely faltered in presenting audiences with glamour, wit, excitement, scares
and thrills. To celebrate his achievements, the British Film Institute is
holding a four month long celebration in 2012 entitled The Genius of Hitchcock,
with screenings, events and major restorations of his early work. Eureka’s
release of the restored print of Lifeboat
is well timed.
One of Hitchcock’s more unusual film
experiments, Lifeboat was an attempt
to shoot an entire feature in one location, in this case a ragbag of survivors
adrift in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Their ocean liner, bound for
England, is torpedoed. Luckily, before it went down, they fired back and sank the
enemy vessel alongside their own. Newspaper reporter Connie Porter (Tallulah
Bankhead) is in the only remaining lifeboat, and is soon joined by several
other survivors, including crew members, a woman still clutching her drowned
baby, and in a shocking twist, a German, the only survivor from the Nazi U-Boat.
Tensions soon rise as they squabble over what to do with him, and how they are
going to survive as their food and water slowly runs out and they don’t know
which way to navigate to dry land.
The film is a technical triumph and deals
with Hitchcock’s familiar themes of mistrust, vengeance, betrayal and murder,
whilst still providing entertainment and moments of wry humour (including his
ingenious cameo appearance on the front of a newspaper). Bankhead is delightful as the socialite
reporter who desperately attempts to remain glamorous despite the hostile
conditions she is subjected to. At many points she is the voice of reason,
particularly as she is the only passenger able to speak to their captured Nazi
in his native tongue.
Imaginatively shot in Academy ratio 1:37:1,
Hitchcock explores every inch of the lifeboat from every conceivable angle, and
despite the close physical proximity of the passengers, he still demonstrates
the gulfs that lie between them, whether through class, politics, race or, in
the case of the Nazi, mistrust. The film features moments of humour to help
relieve the tension, something that Hitchcock was gifted at doing in all of his
films. Lifeboat is a tremendously
entertaining and exciting piece of filmmaking as it communicates the ultimate
futility of the conflict and the devastating effect it has on those who are
left behind. This new Blu-ray release includes two short films that Hitchcock
also directed, which may viewer may be unfamiliar with.. Bon Voyage and Aventure
Malgache were both shot in Elstree Studios in the UK in 1944 and deal
primarily with the French resistance. They can be seen as interesting
propaganda pieces and whilst not as timeless as Hitchcock’s more familiar work,
they are fascinating nonetheless and make terrific extras. The Blu-ray also
comes with a booklet featuring analytical essays for each of the three films.