Notable cast/crew: Tallulah Bankhead as Constance "Connie" Porter. William Bendix as Gus Smith. Walter Slezak as Willy. Mary Anderson as Alice MacKenzie. John Hodiak as John Kovac. Henry Hull as Charles J Rittenhouse. Heather Angel as Mrs Higley. Hume Cronyn as Stanley "Sparks" Garrett. Canada Lee as George "Joe" Spencer. Written by John Steinbeck.
Running time: 96 minutesDirector: Alfred Hitchcock
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| Hitchcock's best cameo |
Willy, speaking only German with Connie, says the U-boat was under Captain's orders to sink the ship, but he denies being the Captain or even an officer, just a crewman. A debate ensues on whether to toss him overboard or let him live. As they debate, Mrs Higley realizes her child is dead. She lets the body fall, and it lands in Willy's arms. Mrs Higley has to be restrained from beating Willy, clearly blaming him. They bury the child at sea, and Willy is allowed to stay in the boat. They have to tie Mrs Higley down to prevent her from jumping into the sea after her baby, but through it all Willy appears completely unconcerned if not bored. When they awake the next morning, Mrs Higley is gone. The rope she was bound with is still tied to the chair, but it leads down into the water. The rope is cut, and she is now rejoined with her dead child.
Willy secretly has a compass. The rest of the survivors begin to organize and assign duties. They craft a makeshift sail. Willy gives them a different heading than they think will point them to Bermuda, and Connie tricks him into revealing that he was actually the captain of the U-boat. Kovac and Sparks refuse to listen to him and set course for a different direction. After some time has passed, Gus' leg becomes gangrenous. Willy claims to have been a surgeon in civilian life and offers to do the amputation. Kovac is suspicious since Willy is not in the Medical Corps, but there's no one else to do it. They give Gus an entire bottle of brandy and amputate his leg.
Willy claims to lose his confidence in the heading he has been trying to get them to use and says one can't know without a compass, which he has been secretly checking. The urgency of needing to get Gus to a hospital makes them change to follow Willy's course. As night falls, Sparks uses the stars to figure out Willy's course is wrong. The others begin to mistrust him again. They have Joe lift Willy's watch to discover it's his compass. As they argue, they are hit by a storm. Sparks is flung over the side, and they scramble to rescue him. At this point, Willy begins shouting instructions in English directing them in how to save the boat. In fact, he speaks several languages. They lose their rations and water, as well as the mast.
As days pass, Gus begins drinking seawater surreptitiously. He falls into delirium, and when he sees Willy secretly has a flask of water, Sparks doesn't believe him and goes back to sleep. Willy takes advantage of it. As the others sleep, he pushes Gus overboard into the ocean. Willy lies to the others and claims Gus threw himself over the side. They don't trust him, and Sparks remembers Gus saying something about Willy having water. The sweat on his brow gives him away. Joe searches Willy, but the flask is dropped and breaks. Willy reveals he has been rowing them towards a German supply ship. In a rage, the rest of them, save Joe, beat Willy to death and cast him over the side.
The German supply ship comes into view, but before the landing party can reach them, they turn back and see their ship under fire from Allied forces. The German launch is destroyed, and the ship takes off, barely missing the lifeboat. The German ship is hit and explodes. A young German sailor climbs aboard and pulls a gun on them. Joe disarms him, and they decide not to kill him despite his expectation of it. The Allied ship will soon arrive to rescue them all.
MacGuffin: None
Hitchcock cameo: In the newspaper ad for "Reduco"
Hitchcock themes:
- Identity
Verdict: This an absolute masterpiece. Hitchcock used the construct of a war-time sea disaster to explore morality, rules of civilization, class, and race. It is the first in Hitchcock's "limited-setting" films, the others being Rope, Dial M for Murder, and Rear Window. The film is unique among Hitchcock's American films for having no musical score during the narrative; the Fox studio orchestra was only utilized for the opening and closing credits. It received Academy Award nominations for Best Director, Best Original Story and Best Cinematography - Black and White. Tallulah Bankhead won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. It was named one of the 10 Best Films of 1944 by Film Daily and was nominated for Best Picture of 1944 by the National Board of Review.
Illnesses were a constant part of the production from the beginning. Before shooting began, William Bendix replaced actor Murray Alper when Alper became ill, and after two weeks of shooting, director of photography Arthur Miller was replaced by Glen MacWilliams because of illness. Tallulah Bankhead came down with pneumonia twice during shooting, and Mary Anderson became seriously ill during production, causing several days of production time to be lost. Hume Cronyn suffered two cracked ribs and nearly drowned when he was caught under a water-activator making waves for a storm scene. He was saved by a lifeguard.
This contains my favorite Hitchcock cameo, and easily the most original one in his films. The problem arose of how do you have a cameo in a film where all of the movie takes place within a lifeboat cast adrift on the sea? Hitchcock originally considered posing as a body floating past the lifeboat, which he later considered again for his cameo in Frenzy, but after his success with weight loss, Hitchcock decided to pose for "before" and "after" photos for an advertisement for a fictional weight-loss drug, "Reduco", shown in a newspaper which was in the boat. Supposedly, he later received hundreds of letters from people asking where they could buy "Reduco", which he used again in Rope, where Hitchcock's profile and "Reduco" appear on a red neon sign.
It is supposedly still the smallest ever Hollywood film set with most of the shooting having been done in a boat in a water tank. Hitchcock insisted that the boat never remain stationary and that there always be an added touch of ocean mist and fog compounded of oil forced through dry ice. During filming, several crew members noted that Tallulah Bankhead was not wearing underwear. When advised of this situation, Hitchcock observed, "I don't know if this is a matter for the costume department, makeup, or hairdressing." During the beginning of filming, Mary Anderson asked Hitchcock what he thought, "is my best side." He dryly responded, "You're sitting on it, my dear." Canada Lee (Joe) was allowed to write his own lines.
There is a subtle jab at the Nazi mythos in that Willy, while rescuing everyone, gives off the "Superman" image of being able to row for days unfatigued without food or water. In reality, he has a hidden water supply and energy pills. His "superiority" lies not in any genetic or physical advantage; rather, it resides in his preparedness and single-mindedness of purpose. Once the others stop squabbling and band together, they are able to overpower him with ease despite having had no food or water. It is telling that the weakest among them, Alice, leads the charge to kill him conveying the ultimate humiliation for the "Master Race".
Class, race, and the trappings of civilization quickly fall away on the boat as survival takes preeminence. Rittenhouse and Joe are contrasted as Ritt, stripped of his wealth and possessions, falls into pessimism and despair while Joe is strengthened by his faith in God and remains above the fighting. There is some question in my mind as to whether they regained their civilized attitudes toward the young sailor only because they knew rescue was imminent. Had there not been a ship in sight, would they have killed the sailor after the trouble Willy caused when they allowed him to live initially? That question hangs over the end of the film, and the question of what to do with a people who behaves that way is left up to the dead to judge.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
Illnesses were a constant part of the production from the beginning. Before shooting began, William Bendix replaced actor Murray Alper when Alper became ill, and after two weeks of shooting, director of photography Arthur Miller was replaced by Glen MacWilliams because of illness. Tallulah Bankhead came down with pneumonia twice during shooting, and Mary Anderson became seriously ill during production, causing several days of production time to be lost. Hume Cronyn suffered two cracked ribs and nearly drowned when he was caught under a water-activator making waves for a storm scene. He was saved by a lifeguard.
This contains my favorite Hitchcock cameo, and easily the most original one in his films. The problem arose of how do you have a cameo in a film where all of the movie takes place within a lifeboat cast adrift on the sea? Hitchcock originally considered posing as a body floating past the lifeboat, which he later considered again for his cameo in Frenzy, but after his success with weight loss, Hitchcock decided to pose for "before" and "after" photos for an advertisement for a fictional weight-loss drug, "Reduco", shown in a newspaper which was in the boat. Supposedly, he later received hundreds of letters from people asking where they could buy "Reduco", which he used again in Rope, where Hitchcock's profile and "Reduco" appear on a red neon sign.
It is supposedly still the smallest ever Hollywood film set with most of the shooting having been done in a boat in a water tank. Hitchcock insisted that the boat never remain stationary and that there always be an added touch of ocean mist and fog compounded of oil forced through dry ice. During filming, several crew members noted that Tallulah Bankhead was not wearing underwear. When advised of this situation, Hitchcock observed, "I don't know if this is a matter for the costume department, makeup, or hairdressing." During the beginning of filming, Mary Anderson asked Hitchcock what he thought, "is my best side." He dryly responded, "You're sitting on it, my dear." Canada Lee (Joe) was allowed to write his own lines.
There is a subtle jab at the Nazi mythos in that Willy, while rescuing everyone, gives off the "Superman" image of being able to row for days unfatigued without food or water. In reality, he has a hidden water supply and energy pills. His "superiority" lies not in any genetic or physical advantage; rather, it resides in his preparedness and single-mindedness of purpose. Once the others stop squabbling and band together, they are able to overpower him with ease despite having had no food or water. It is telling that the weakest among them, Alice, leads the charge to kill him conveying the ultimate humiliation for the "Master Race".
Class, race, and the trappings of civilization quickly fall away on the boat as survival takes preeminence. Rittenhouse and Joe are contrasted as Ritt, stripped of his wealth and possessions, falls into pessimism and despair while Joe is strengthened by his faith in God and remains above the fighting. There is some question in my mind as to whether they regained their civilized attitudes toward the young sailor only because they knew rescue was imminent. Had there not been a ship in sight, would they have killed the sailor after the trouble Willy caused when they allowed him to live initially? That question hangs over the end of the film, and the question of what to do with a people who behaves that way is left up to the dead to judge.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
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