Lifeboat

John Steinbeck had penned a fascinating short story detailing a microcosm of society, set adrift in a lifeboat after an Allied ship and German U-boat took each other out in the North Atlantic during WW II.  Jo Swerling adapted and Alfred Hitchcock directed the filmization, LIFEBOAT, in 1944.  To my eyes, this is one of Hitch's best, and long undervalued.  The limits of physical scope of course work in its favor, creating a tension among its social strata that ranks as High Drama. Sociologic, political, spiritual, and humanistic themes are well explored and developed in this film that admirably feels cinematic rather than theatrical.

The lifeboat consists of, among others, the upper crust newspaper columnist Connie Porter (Talulah Bankhead, quite alluring) and industrialist Charles Rittenhouse (Henry Hull), engine room crewman John Kovac (John Hodiak), radioman Stanley Garrett (Hume Cronyn), and boatmate Gus Smith (William Bendix).  A U-boat survivor named Willi (Walter Slezak) also makes his way aboard and is cast under immediate suspicion.  He may well have been the Captain of that sunken vessel, and reveals himself to be the best seafarer among the group and was even once a surgeon, which will come in handy as this story progresses.  Material luxuries will be cast at sea, and a nasty storm will also up the ante on desperation when food and water go likewise.

LIFEBOAT most interestingly considers life during wartime attitudes, and whether human life trumps nationalism and patriotism.  In such a desperate situation, perhaps all societal bets are off.  Or maybe one's nationality will put them before a jury of their peers. And who is to be trusted?  Some critics found the film to be sympathetic toward the Germans, quite a heinous notion during the War.  Perhaps quite daring for Hitchcock and company, too.  One can view this movie through modern and wartime sensibilities, coming away with more food for thought each time.  Are these folks less human under one such microscope? Dispensibles in a time of war?

There are lines of dialogue, cliches in this film that are used repeatedly for effect. "What do you do with people like that?" forms the most interesting statement on human behavior.  By film's end, it may well form LIFEBOAT's very thesis.