Lifeboat (1944) on Netflix
After a German U-boat sinks their freighter, survivors crowd into one lifeboat. Journalist Connie Porter, crewman Kovac and the others pull a German sailor aboard. Kovac wants him thrown back.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb7.6/1034,159 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
Trailer
Plot summary
An Allied freighter crossing from New York to London is torpedoed by a German U-boat, and both vessels go down. In the water, the survivors collect in one lifeboat: Connie Porter, a columnist who has been filming the attack; Kovac, an engine room crewman; Stanley Garrett, a radio operator known as Sparks; Alice MacKenzie, an army nurse; Gus Smith, a wounded seaman; the industrialist C. J. Rittenhouse; and Joe Spencer, the ship's steward, who arrives with Mrs. Higley and her baby. A last man swims up, a German crewman named Willi, and Kovac wants him cast out to drown. The others argue for keeping him, and Rittenhouse proposes that the majority decide. The boat has no compass, and its mast and water stores are damaged.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Lifeboat (1944)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In the 1940s, African-American actor and playwright Sidney Easton sued 20th Century Fox for using his play Lifeboat #13 as the basis for Lifeboat. He settled out of court four years later for a few thousand dollars and gave up the copyright to the play.
- John Steinbeck was unhappy with Lifeboat because he felt it contained "slurs against organized labor" and a "stock comedy Negro" instead of his "Negro of dignity, purpose and personality". He unsuccessfully asked that his name be removed from the credits.
- Actor Canada Lee testified that he revised dialogue for the African-American character Joe, removing repeated "yessir"s and "nossir"s that sounded subservient. The Office of War Information's overseas section recommended that Lifeboat not be distributed overseas due to racial characterizations.
- Hume Cronyn cracked two ribs and nearly drowned while filming a storm scene when a water-activator caught him under water. A lifeguard saved him.
- For his cameo, Hitchcock considered posing as a body floating past the lifeboat, but instead posed for "before" and "after" photos in a newspaper ad for the fictional weight-loss drug "Reduco". He was later besieged by letters asking about Reduco.
- Lifeboat has no musical score during the story; the Fox studio orchestra plays only over the opening and closing credits. Hitchcock rejected music at sea by asking, "Where would the orchestra come from?"
- Hitchcock planned camera angles using a miniature lifeboat and figurines. Four lifeboats were used in shooting: one for rehearsals, separate boats for close-ups and long shots, and another in the studio tank for water shots.
- Lifeboat was the first of Hitchcock's "limited-setting" films, followed by Rope, Dial M for Murder and Rear Window, and it is the only film he made for 20th Century Fox.
