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Lifeboat (1944)
Lifeboat is a 1944 American survival film directed by Alfred Hitchcock from a story by John Steinbeck. It stars Tallulah Bankhead and William Bendix, alongside Walter Slezak, Mary Anderson, John Hodiak, Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Hume Cronyn and Canada Lee. The film is set entirely on a lifeboat launched from a freighter torpedoed and sunk by a Nazi U-boat.
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock · Shot by Glen MacWilliams · Cut by Dorothy Spencer · Music by Hugo Friedhofer · 96 min
How it was made
- Hitchcock approached A.J. Cronin, James Hilton and Ernest Hemingway before giving the project to John Steinbeck, who was paid $50,000 for the story; Steinbeck was unhappy with changes made to his script and unsuccessfully asked for his name to be removed from the credits.
- Hitchcock planned the film's camera angles in advance using a miniature lifeboat and figurines; four full-size lifeboats were used during shooting, for rehearsals, close-ups, long shots and water work in the studio's large tank.
- Production ran from August to November 1943 and was plagued by illness: cinematographer Arthur Miller was replaced by Glen MacWilliams after two weeks, Tallulah Bankhead had pneumonia twice, and Hume Cronyn cracked two ribs and nearly drowned after being caught under a wave machine.
- With no orchestra plausible on a lifeboat at sea, Hitchcock cut the musical score from the body of the film entirely, reportedly asking musical director Hugo Friedhofer, "Where would the orchestra come from?"
- Unable to appear as a passer-by since the film has no such scenes, Hitchcock instead placed his traditional cameo as "before" and "after" photos in a newspaper advertisement for a fictional weight-loss drug called Reduco.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Alfred Hitchcock
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