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Lifeboat [Masters of Cinema] (Dual Format) [Blu-ray]
 
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Lifeboat [Masters of Cinema] (Dual Format) [Blu-ray]

Alfred HITCHCOCK    Parental Guidance   Blu-ray
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
Price: £12.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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This title will be released on April 23, 2012.
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Frequently Bought Together

Lifeboat [Masters of Cinema] (Dual Format) [Blu-ray] + Double Indemnity [Masters of Cinema] (Ltd Edition Blu-ray Steelbook) + The Lost Weekend [Masters of Cinema] (Ltd Edition Blu-ray Steelbook)
Price For All Three: £48.97

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Product details

  • Directors: Alfred HITCHCOCK
  • Format: Widescreen
  • Number of discs: 2
  • Classification: PG
  • Studio: Eureka Entertainment Ltd
  • DVD Release Date: 23 April 2012
  • Run Time: 98 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00719FVP2
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 20,931 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)

Reviews

Product Description

SYNOPSIS: Based on an unpublished novella by John Steinbeck (written on commission expressly to provide treatment material for Hitchcock's screen scenario), Lifeboat found the Master of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".

The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present the Oscar-nominated Lifeboat in a Dual Format (Blu-ray and DVD) standard edition & limited edition Dual Format steelbook , accompanied by Hitchcock's two French-language wartime shorts, Bon voyage and Aventure malgache.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
  • New high-definition master, officially licensed from Twentieth Century Fox
  • New high-definition transfers of Hitchcock's little-seen French-language 1944 wartime films, Bon voyage (26 minutes) and Aventure malgache (31 minutes) officially licensed from the British Film Institute
  • Optional English subtitles on all three films
  • 20-minute documentary on the making of Lifeboat
  • 12-minute excerpt from the legendary 1962 audio interviews between Hitchcock and François Truffaut, discussing Lifeboat and the wartime shorts
  • PLUS: A 36-page booklet featuring archival imagery alongside new writing by critics Bill Krohn, Arthur Mas, and Martial Pisani


REVIEWS: "A tremendously provocative film." Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

"He realises that peculiar Hitchcock manner with the player, in which the actor seems to be concentrating mentally on what he is about to do but never quite does it; so that his pantomime takes on a kind of sinister spontaneity." Manny Farber, The New Republic

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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Tense and Unusual Hitch, 4 April 2006
By 
Paul D "Paul" (Darwen, Lancashire) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lifeboat [DVD] (DVD)
The first image is that of a ship sinking beneath the waves. Then, the camera shows us the flotsam and jetsam of the aftermath of the sinking. Gradually, into view comes a lifeboat carrying a glamorous, well-dressed woman. One by one, more survivors pull themselves aboard, until we have a small band of disparate people, including a member of the crew of the ship which sunk the vessel.

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.

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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "You're not thinking of the boat", 28 Oct 2005
By 
M. J Leonard "MikeonAlpha" (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
While Alfred Hitchcock's 1944 film Lifeboat is not my favorite of his film, it certainly has a lot going for it, not the least of which is a bejeweled and glamorous Tallulah Bankhead playing a feisty war reporter, stranded on a life boat with a mismatched group of survivors.

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.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Anyone got a compass?, 28 Dec 2008
By 
This review is from: Lifeboat [DVD] (DVD)
At the beginning we see a sinking ship and debris floating in the water before the camera settles on the lifeboat where the immaculate Connie (Tallulah Bankhead) is alone. The lifeboat soon fills up with characters, including Willy (Walter Slezak) the German captain of the submarine responsible for the sinking of the ship. The film follows the quest to safety in Bermuda. However, only Willy knows the way.....

The story provides suspense as we watch Willy gradually take over control of the lifeboat. He is assured and possesses all the necessary skills that are called upon including surgery, seamanship, strength and a peculiar navigational awareness.... Do we, the audience, trust him just as the other members in the lifeboat have to? He seems nice enough.

The cast are good with Tallulah Bankhead and Walter Slezak winning the acting honours. Hume Cronym as "Sparks" has a peculiar voice and John Hodiak as "Kovac" has an unfortunate array of teeth in his mouth - he reminded me of 'Bingo' from the "Banana Splits" whenever he smiled. It's quite off-putting.

It's an entertaining film, if a little long, but it's worth seeing again. I won't go into the finer details of German Expressionism versus Soviet Expressive Realism which Hitchcock manages to combine, but I will say that he makes his usual appearance.
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