Lifeboat [DVD]

This, one of Hitch's most unusual films, was filmed in a watertank on the backlot at Paramount studios. The lead was the glamorous actress Talulah Bankhead, better known for her stage-work, in her only film for Hitch. The point of the film is to show how a heterogeneous band of strangers meld together, making and breaking alliances as the need arises, and finding the inner resources that reside within us all. Gradually, Ms Bankhead's character loses all that makes her what she was, until she is faced with her true self, learning about others on the way.

Rumour has it that Ms Bankhead wore no underwear when climbing into the tank; when this was brought to Hitch's attention, he said that he wasn't sure whether this was a matter for wardrobe, make-up, or hairdressing. Also, during the making of the film, Hitch went on a diet and lost 100 lbs.; when the miracle product shows up in the film, he was inundated with requests for the product.

The film is excellent, and really different from the mainstream, and the presentation of this two-disc set is really excellent. It comes in a nice-looking and solid metal case, and includes a leaflet giving background to the film. The extras include an hour-long talk with Hitch, which includes some truly fascinating snippets: what a change from modern interview technique! The interviewer, rather than fawning over the master, asks pertinent questions about his work and his modus operendi. The only downside is the truly tedious commentary from a Hitch expert - banal and repetitive and telling us nothing we didn't already know. This apart, however, the package is excellent and great value.

Lifeboat was an experimental film for Hitchcock; he reportedly wanted to make "order out of all the chaos of movie making," to see if he could really make a compelling movie with the action taking place in one location and the drama developed without recourse to flashbacks or cutaways. The end result is a film that is done cleverly and stylishly.

Lifeboat is pretty much an exercise in allied propaganda with entire picture taking place in a small boat, as the survivors of a torpedoed luxury liner find themselves cast adrift with the captain of the U-boat that sank them.

Lifeboat begins as we see the funnel of a ship slinking and various objects floating away: a copy of the New Yorker, playing cards, wooden spoons, a chessboard, and finally a corpse. With this sobering sight, we cut to the film's glamorous Tallulah Bankhead sitting alone in a lifeboat. Her Constance Porter is a journalist, and a bit of a rough diamond; as she lights up one of her cigarettes, we get the impression that she seems remarkably unfazed by what has just happened.

She whips out a camera to film the survivors as they climb into the boat. This enrages Kovac (John Hodiak), the resident socialist, and he throws her camera overboard. Soon other survivors are climbing aboard: There's low-class Brit Stanley (Hume Cronyn), natty capitalist C. D. Rittenhouse (Henry Hull), dopey Gus (William Bendix), reformed pickpocket Joe (Canada Lee), pretty nurse Miss MacKenzie (Mary Anderson), Mrs. Higgins (Heather Angel), a mad woman with a dead baby, and Willy (Walter Slezak), a corpulent Nazi.

The fact that they have a German on board infuriates Kovac, who thinks they should toss him overboard. But the others, especially Connie feels that he should be allowed to stay, citing the laws of democracy. Connie also speaks German and discovers that the man was Captain of the U-Boat and that he may be able to help them survive.

The group faces many obstacles, in their efforts to stay alive, battling the stormy elements, lack of food and fresh water, the scorn and suspicion for each other that society has ingrained into them, and, chiefly, their collective mistrust for a Nazi U-boat sailor, whom, despite his villainous credentials, they must invest their faith.

When Gus' leg becomes gangrenous, the group must decide whether it should be amputated, but it is soon discovered that only the Nazi has the necessary surgical skills. Meanwhile, a gentle romance simmers between Alice and Stanley. George, who has a penchant for the Gospels, stands as the group's moral pillar; he is apolitical and totally good-hearted.

But the center of the film, and by far the best reason to see it is Tallulah, which Hitchcock eventually brings into focus as the film's emblem. We get to like her character more as she is stripped of her material accoutrements as the film goes on.

At first we are unsympathetic to Connie but, we soon change our minds, as she has sympathy for the nurse's troubles, she kisses Gus before his leg is cut off - a lusty, open-mouthed Tallulah kiss - kisses Kovac when they think they're going to die, and gives a definitive answer to Joe's prayer: "How about giving Him a hand?" she asks.

The rest of the cast is uniformly good and the movie boasts the filmmaker's trademark technical polish: His command over editing, framing, and optical effects are spot on, and his ability to create a convincing storm is startling, considering the limitations of the period in which the film was made.

Hitchcock intended Lifeboat to be a microcosm of the Allied war effort, and to a certain extent it is. But the film also shows ordinary people under pressure; it never softens their edges and is able to boldly trace their war-weary dynamic. Lifeboat is all about the breaking down of the social veneers, that of class, education, and nationality, and it charts a group of people's descent into the vengeful darkness where none of them imagined they could ever go. Mike Leonard October 05.