Popular reviews

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  Review by theriverjordan ★★★★ 39

  There has never been an actor so confidently, outrageously and iconically out of place as Tallulah Bankhead in “Lifeboat.” 

  The actress, as a society writer cast out to sea, has such a pull over “Lifeboat’s” rudder that she transforms the film around her essence. And what an essence it is. 

  “Lifeboat” is something of a seabound chamber play. An ensemble of American survivors from a u boot bombing attempt to carry on (without quite keeping calm) until they reach rescue. 

  Alfred Hitchcock, working from a script initially penned by John Steinbeck, executes a shrewd cleverness over who or what is the villain of the piece. The narrative and characters are compelling enough even if they are working only against the…

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  Review by phoebe 💫 ★★★★ 5

  This is simply some of the most watchable shit. I’m so completely fascinated by this movie that I can’t even put its wack, sexy energy into words. People DIE on this boat. People discuss RACISM and ANTI-SEMITISM on this boat. People FALL IN LOVE on this boat. People BETRAY EACH OTHER on this boat. Twenty minutes in everybody starts to look really rugged and wind-swept and attractive. Also the energy between Connie and Kovac? Nuts. He’s a communist sailor who’s shirtless the entire movie, has tattoos all over his chest, and bears a striking resemblance to Billy Zane. She’s Tallulah Fucking Bankhead, playing essentially herself or maybe Dorothy Parker. At one point she draws her initials on his bare chest with her lipstick. It’s amazing. Inglourious Basterds WHO I only know the lifeboat gang.

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  Review by Nakul ★★★★ 1

  LIFEBOAT is a masterfully composed wartime thriller, often under-discussed in Hitchcock's filmography. Set entirely on… a lifeboat carrying the survivors of a sinking ship– from both sides of the war with Tullulah Bankhead heading solid ensemble cast. Another great example of how brilliantly Hitchock uses of claustrophobic spaces.

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  Review by CinemaCl🎃wn ★★★★ 6

  Shot entirely on a single location, Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat is his first film to employ the minimal settings environment which he used to greater effect in his later career & despite the many constraints of framing so many characters within such limited space, this master director triumphs in creating an effective thriller that even today remains one of his most underrated works.

  With its entire plot unfolding on a lifeboat during World War II, Lifeboat concerns a group of survivors left stranded in the middle of the ocean after their ship & a German U-boat sunk each other in combat. Trouble starts brewing when they pull a man from the water who turns out to be from the U-boat. And so begins…

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  Review by PUNQ ★★★★½ 1

  If you ever gonna do a full movie in a claustrophobic little boat, then do it like Alfred Hitchcock and Lifeboat (1944). I totally LOVE this movie! Never a dull moment. Ton of personality, mystery and moral dilemmas. Not to mention the absolute rawness about it. Might not be the Hitchcock movie fans name first, but it's up there with his absolute best!

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  Review by Channing Pomeroy ★★★★

  The film at first seems like a technical experiment, how to make a compelling film set within the confines of a lifeboat, but as plays out we see that it’s more of a moral experiment. The boatfull of diverse passengers like the atomic particles of a volatile isotope, colliding and grouping and decaying.

  This floating metaphor carries a Communist, an Ayn Rand industrialist, a pacifist, a Brit merchant marine, a racy Algonquin Round Table member wearing future Cartier fish bait, a gangrenous big galoot, the German kapitan, and Hitchcock in a newspaper ad for Reduco. It’s the Group-in-Jeopardy genre. Hitchcock called it “a microcosm of the war.”

  The movie struggles to balance a theme of “judge not lest you be…

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  Review by vincent price was 6′4″ ★★★★ 1

  The most un-Hitchcock Hitchcock film, but still just as suspenseful and gripping as any of his more famous, signature efforts. There’s a lot of humanity to be seen through these 90 minutes— one claustrophobic location is the perfect set-up for human conflict, and it all plays out quite well.

  (... I may have to start stanning Tallulah Bankhead.)

  3.75/5

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  Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★ 5

  Decades Project: 2/4 of the 40's

  "Dying together's even more personal than living together."

  Lifeboat is Alfred Hitchcock's 12 Angry Men.

  The premise is as simple as it gets: a ship is destroyed in the middle of the ocean, and six men and three women survive by climbing aboard a small lifeboat. The entire film takes place exclusively on the boat. This type of simple concept can be difficult to execute (no room for plot contrivances), but with good writing it can work wonders. If the characters are well defined then they can play off each other and the audience will feel the conflict brewing beneath the surface. And thanks to the talented writing, acting, and directing, that's exactly what…

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  Review by Quintin 📽 Philipson ★★★

  I was so excited to watch a Hitchcock film that only takes place in a lifeboat.

  I was expecting some classic Hitchcock deception among the crew but the only person who was decieved was me because this felt very tame compared to other Hitchcock works.

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  Review by theironcupcake ★★★★½ 11

  "We're all sort of fellow travelers in a mighty small boat, in a mighty big ocean. And the more we quarrel, criticize and misunderstand each other, the bigger the ocean gets and the smaller the boat."

  Six things I paid attention to this time:
  1. Hume Cronyn's attempt at doing an English accent... adorable. Also, how is it possible that no one ever thought to cast him and Rick Moranis as relatives while they were working in the 80s/90s? They look so similar! They're even the same height and they're both Canadian! Missed opportunity.
  2. John Hodiak as the resident eye candy; Tallulah Bankhead scrawling her initials in lipstick on his bare chest; the two of them playing footsie during…

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  Review by Z ★★★★½ 2

  Another proof that Alfred Hitchcock is the most genius director ever

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  Review by Steve G 🇵🇸 🇾🇪 ★★★★ 5

  Part of the Alfred Hitchcock Sound Era Films In Chronological Order project.

  Tallulah, you WERE wonderful, darling!

  Like when I reviewed Sunset Boulevard, and ended up spending most of that review talking about Gloria Swanson, it's going to be hard not to spend much of this review talking about the wonderful Tallulah Bankhead.

  On the basis of this one magnificent performance, the only film of hers that I have seen to date, it has to be said that she can only be seen to have wasted most of her career. So entrancing, entertaining, charismatic, beautiful and brilliant is she here that on this one viewing alone it could be one of my film performances of its decade - or perhaps…