STEVE HAYES: Tired Old Queen at the Movies – #29
LIFEBOAT (1944) In typical fashion, director Alfred Hitchcock fashioned an a-typical war story about a group of survivors of a German U boat sinking in his 1944 masterpiece, LIFEBOAT starring the remarkable Tallulah Bankhead. Shot in one location, aboard a lifeboat stranded in the mid-Atlantic and working from an original screenplay by John Steinbeck, Hitchcock assembled an international cast which included veteran character actors Walter Slezak, Henry Hull, William Bendix, Hume Cronyn, Heather Angel and Canada Lee. As the leading man to Miss Bankhead, Hitchcock cast rugged and handsome John Hodiak. Dousing them all with endless gallons of water, Hitchcock set about making a suspense filled saga of survival, where the weak are shown to be the strongest and the strong give way to their weaknesses. Never one to take the easy road, Hitchcock drew severe criticism from the press for having Slezak, as the Nazi officer, who’s rescued by the castaways, be the smartest one in the boat as well as showing the human side of the enemy and the sinister side of the allies. The direction is taut, the performances by everyone are first rate and Bankhead, is outstanding in a role that would earn her The New York Film Critics Award as Best Actress. A role that makes one wish she’d been cast in films more often. LIFEBOAT is unusual for Hitchcock and as with all his films, the art of movie making at its very best.
Lovely…Lovely…Lovely!!!
hi steve, once again thanks so much for this, i found ‘lifeboat’ just yesterday at barnes and noble for 9 bucks and i have to say, its so great, John Hodiak is really good in this, hes hot in a ugly bastard kinda way. I have a question, why did Tallulah stay away from film for so long after this? did she spend the remainder of the 40’s and the whole 50’s on stage in plays?
BTW – I love you – DREW
I saw this movie on TV as a young kid and loved it. Before I thought about such things I thought it was just great that they were all trapped in boat. It was like a big rocking stage.
Maybe you will grace us with a review of the classic “Rain”.
Dish that dirt…
@chael37
I do too! It’s like a throwback to the fifties, what with it’s gorgeous cinematography, that haunting Bernard Herrmann score and Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery at their most beautiful. It’s the last romantic Hitchcock and it has Louise Latham with that wild accent and Diane Baker being beautiful and bitchy. Love it!
Thanks for watching!
OCOXOX
Steve, love your reviews and what you said about your affection for Hitch’s second stringers. I love Marnie, with all its psychobabble flaws and jolting rear projection.
Steve i love that movie All About Eve which Im sure you know Marilyn Monroe
is in for about 3 seconds. Bette Davis always reminded me of Tallulah and
you confirmed it for me. That was so interesting.
The story about climbing up the ladder into the lifeboat is a gem.
I actually enjoyed Lifeboat very much and no i did not se it when
it was originally released
@novabreeze1
No, but my apartment is! Yes, I love the British Hitch’s. I’m a big Nova Pilbeam fan. I’m also a fan of what I refer to as the second strinngers, those Hitchcock’s that have never been particularly popular. Stage Fright, Rope, I Confess and I LOVE The Paradine Case. It’s so glamourous, Selznick style and it has Laughton, Joan Tetzel, Anne Todd and lovely Alida Valli!
Thanks for watching!
OXOXOX
TOQ
@dnewberger
Of course you would! I would also have had them put in the lining of my dress, because, as I learned from TITANIC, no dress, no room in the LIFEBOAT for the men!
Thanks for watching!
OXOX
TOQ
@hcostastar
That made me LOL!
Thanks for the wonderful anecdote!
OXOX
TOQ
Hi Steve,
I’d love to watch your “take” on THE OPPOSITE SEX (1956) starring June Allyson, Joan Collins, and Ann Sheridan. The musical version of THE WOMEN.
The first time I saw this movie on TV I was 5-yr. old, and I fell in love with Tallulah Bankhead, even though at the time I didn’t know her name. I also loved the fact she wore a mink coat (in a lifeboat). I look back on this picture and I’m sure she also had all her “good” jewels stuffed in the coat pockets. If I were on a sinking ship I would also make sure I grabbed the mink and the “good” jewelry. (LOL)
My favorite Tallulah Bankhead quote (to the Catholic Cardinal after Mass): “Dahling, your drag is divine, but your purse is on fire!”
Steve . . . you just keep topping yourself in one review after the next . . . wonderful, thank you! When I was 8, I saw Tallulah on TV and immediately started calling everyone Daahhhling . . . that was in a small city in Massachusetts in the early ’50s . . . I love this film — and this review!
Your Hitchcock was spot on! I expected to hear Dick Cavett giggling in the background. In our family the word Hitchcock has become an adjective. Things are either ‘Vintage Hitch’ or ‘Hollywood Hitch’. Love the Hollywood Hitchcock movies that you have spotlighted. Are you familiar with some of his earlier films, Young and Innocent, The 39 Steps or The Lady Vanishes?
Is your building really called Thornfield Manor?
The first time I’ve heard of this movie so thanks Steve. You are so talented.
Thanks for this!
awsome as usual…when is LOGO gonna pick u pup?
Hahahahaha “could be HAAAAIRdressing”! That was so fabulous, I shrieked!
All your reviews are great. Could you please review one of the Josef von Sternberg/Marlene Dietrich movies, preferably ALL of them? Many thanks.
Another fantastic review Steve! Keepthem coming, I adore them!
Your Hitchcock imitation is phenomenal!
Speaking of Tallulah Bankhead – this is apocryphal, but it’s a great story anyway –
Seems Loretta Young and Tallulah were going to be on stage together. Loretta always insisted on a clean-cut set, and brought along a “swear jar” … any time one of the stagehands swore, they had to pay a fine of a dollar and put it in the swear jar … Tallulah looked at the jar – put in $5 and said “F**K you, Loretta!”
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL doing my best Tallulah laugh after that story about the panties…….you are too much!!! I ADORE YOU DAHLING!
One of my favorite Hitchcock movies! My all time fav is Rebecca.
Steve, I would LOVE to see you review Rear Window just for Thelma Ritter alone!