Description
Director: | Alfred Hitchcock |
Colour: | Black & White |
Aspect Ratio: | 1.37:1 |
Languages: | English |
Subtitles: | English |
Synopsis: | based on an unpublished novella by john steinbeck (written on commission expressly to provide treatment material for hitchcock’s screen scenario), lifeboat found the master of suspense navigating a course of maximal tension – in the most minimal of settings – with a consistently inventive, beautifully paced drama that would foreshadow the single-set experiments of rope and dial m for murder. after a nazi torpedo reduces an ocean liner to wooden splinters and scorched personal effects, the survivors of the attack pull themselves aboard a drifting lifeboat in the hope of eventual rescue. but the motivations of the german submarine captain (played by walter slezak) on the eponymous craft might extend beyond mere survival… with a cast including shadow of a doubt veteran hume cronyn and the extraordinary, irrepressible tallulah bankhead, this “picture of characters”, as françois truffaut aptly termed the film, oscillates dazzlingly between comic repartée and white-knuckle suspense – a perfect example of “the hitchcock touch”. |