The Worst Film Ever

Good concept, poorly executed.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

LIFEBOAT impressed me so much more the second time around, considering I was a kid the first time. Back then I thought Bankhead's kiss of Hodiak was the sexist thing I ever saw on screen.All the performers were superb. Character development couldn't have been better in every case. Much has been said about everyone except maybe Henry Hull. Here was a "bend over backwards to be fair", millionaire industrialist in a splendid performance, who changes his tune at the end.Oh, I wondered why Tallulah was immaculately alone in the boat, and how they miraculously avoided the shelling and collision, and how Nazi captain Walter Slezak was so deft removing a limb as a non-surgeon using merely a pocket knife, and other trifling incidents, but it didn't change my opinion one iota of this terrific film. For Hitchcock's extraordinary direction, splendid close up photography, and great story telling, it is hard to beat LIFEBOAT.

Everyone remembers this as a Hitchcock film, and all of the reviews focus on how the great director shaped the material and gave every scene and frame his distinctive style. I saw this movie at the age of 12 and I loved it, but more than forty years later I'm really struck by the literary themes and the presence of great novelist John Steinbeck.There's a reason why they call this "John Steinbeck's Lifeboat."First I want to point out that this is a study of a group. Just the way THE GRAPES OF WRATH is about the Joads, and the Okies in flight, much more than about individuals like Tom or Casy, so in this story the lifeboat survivors are only meant to matter to the extent that they work together for common goals and uphold common values. In fact the one way the villain sticks out is that he's self- sufficient, able to keep his own counsel and do everything on his own. Steinbeck is always suspicious of individualism and even of individual strengths. The collective is everything to him, the survival of the group and not the triumph of the individual. At the same time, when you look at the terrible murder in the middle of the movie, it bears an uncanny resemblance to the end of OF MICE AND MEN. Willi the U-Boat Captain and Gus the doomed cripple have a very personal scene in which they sound a lot like George and Lennie! Of course the viewer can decide if Willi really felt any compassion at all for Lennie or if he's an evil Nazi through and through. But the arguments he makes for getting rid of Gus are those George makes about Lennie in similar circumstances. This movie reflects the great strengths of John Steinbeck's humanity and concern for the survival of the human community. It also reflects some of his weaknesses, particularly where the female characters are concerned. Tallulah Bankhead does wonders as Connie, the tough, hard-edged journalist, but it's fair to say that Steinbeck had a tendency to see women as either hard, vicious, and predatory, or weak, soft, and helpless. The young mother with the dead baby is presented as a pitiable victim but at the same time there's a sense of Steinbeck's vague distaste for the maternal instinct, since it reduces women to an animal-like state or to a state of total hysteria. It's no accident that the mother gets killed off early and that the hard, aggressive woman is not allowed much in the way of affection or friendship. Of course there is a romance between the British sailor and the nurse, but they are probably more Hitchcock's invention than Steinbeck's. Both are good comrades who keep a stiff upper lip, more English than American. To sum up, this movie is a Hitchcock classic, but it's also a fascinating look at the world view of a Nobel prize winning author who was then at the height of his powers.

Stranded on a lifeboat after their ship is torpedoed by a German U- boat, a group of survivors find themselves torn between what to do after rescuing one of the Germans who sank their ship in this wartime thriller from Alfred Hitchcock. With lots of talk and a single location, 'Lifeboat' moves rather slow at first with some very obvious moral dilemmas; "we're on our own; we can make our own laws," one of them claims. Things become more twisted and intense in the second half though, beginning with a surprise revelation regarding the mysterious German, played perfectly by Walter Slezak. In fact, the entire second half of the film is rather riveting once the intriguing Slezak becomes a point of focus (none of the other characters are particularly remarkable) and the film ends on a strong note. The final scene is a little on the didactic side, but it is relatively brief and for a film with a clear anti-Nazi agenda, 'Lifeboat' offers a near balanced portrayal of the Germans at its best. The basic story (by John Steinback) has a refreshingly timeless quality to it too, with ideas in terms of trusting 'the enemy' and the uncertainty posed by wartime conditions coming across as fairly universal themes (see also George Seaton's 'The Hook' and 'The Long and the Short and the Tall'). Beneath the surface of Allied vs Axis tensions, there lies here a human tale here of trust, mistrust and desperation in adverse conditions.

Dear Neeraj Pandey, there was a better propaganda filmmaker than you back in the 40s. His name was Alfred Hitchcock. Lifeboat is a pretty gripping and desolate propaganda film. A group of people from various strata of American society are trapped in a boat after their ship is attacked by a German boat. One of the survivors from the German boat also enters the boat of survivors. The Americans disagree on what to do with the German. Soon, the good guys win and they decide to use the German who is a navigator to take their boat to Bermuda.For a while, the focus shifts to the bickering between the working class and upper class Americans. Before the German becomes the focus again. Because while everyone is thirsty and weak, the abnormally strong German goes on rowing the boat to who knows where. The German character gets the best close up in the whole film.It is a really interesting setting with people having to get along with each other because there is nowhere to go. Apparently the whole film was shot inside a tank with a boat in it.Talluah Bankhead has some great one liners. She really stole the show. The whole cast was very impressive. Hitchcock always chooses great actors in supporting roles.There is a pretty terrible scene of mob violence in the film.But please do not remake this with Akshay Kumar in it.Best Regards, Pimpin.(7/10)