Alfred Hitchcock Collectors Guide: Lifeboat (1944), Part 2

by Brent Reid

Shorts and controversies

  • Salient warning of fascists’ capabilities angered critics
  • They roundly rejected earnest plea to hit enemies harder
  • Racist controversy shown onscreen spilled over into real life
  • Author Steinbeck and Black actor condemned latter’s portrayal
  • Director worked on various propaganda shorts and documentaries

Note: this is part of an ongoing series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles; any dead links are to those not yet published. Subscribe to the email list to be notified when new ones appear.

Lifeboat: Writing on a Classic; Collectors Guide, Pt 2: Shorts and controversies, Pt 3: Home video, Pt 4: Soundtrack and remakes

Lifeboat aka I Prigionieri dell'oceano (1944, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) 1948 Italian poster by Alfredo Capitani

“The Prisoners of the Ocean”: 1948 Italian poster by Alfredo Capitani, who also created two beauties for Under Capricorn. This dates from the first post-war release and emphasises the survivors’ desolation and helplessness. Conversely, this 1948 photobusta’s composite image plays up the conflict angle, while a 1963 re-release poster shows the action from the submarine’s point of view, making it seem more appropriate for Das Boot (1981).


Contents


Not superior

Walter Slezak in Lifeboat (1944, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

Staring into the abyss: Walter Slezak as Willi the submarine captain

For its time, Lifeboat had two particularly controversial characters: Willi, a German U-boat captain; and Joe Spencer, a Black man. Willi was a multi-layered, occasionally sympathetic Nazi who was very nearly more competent and resourceful than the rest of the cast combined, and may even have had a direct hand in the death of one them. Though this was widely criticised as being an unpatriotic depiction, the point was that the Germans were a determined, resourceful enemy who were not to be underestimated and could only be defeated by the Allies pulling together, as happened in The Lady Vanishes.

As Hitch reiterated in his interviews with Truffaut and Bogdanovich, there was method in his (ultimately box office-killing) madness, a point elucidated repeatedly by author Stephen Whitty:

“He sort of does the same thing again in Lifeboat. The German character, a Nazi captain taken aboard the lifeboat is ruthless and competent and strong and a very formidable adversary and the other people on the boat who are either Americans, Canadians or British, they are all arguing amongst themselves they are not really working together and it’s also interesting the way the characters in Lifeboat divide very much along class lines. You look at Lifeboat again and you notice it is the richest characters in that film who are the most sympathetic to the Nazi. It is the working class people or the politically radical characters who are the most suspicious of him from the beginning.” – Pan and Slam

“But you know, I also think Hitchcock is political. You examine his films, from at least The 39 Steps on, and you’ll see that the villain is almost always a wealthy, powerful authority figure; the heroes are usually ex-soldiers, teachers, reporters, middle-class professionals. The top spies and traitors in Saboteur are American millionaires who’ve embraced fascism; the hero is a factory worker. In Lifeboat, who are the survivors who are first taken in by the Nazi? The rich. Who are the ones who are suspicious of him? The working class. Who alone refuses to participate in their eventual mob justice? The Black man.” – Hitchcock Master

“When it was released… it ran into further troubles, as it was heavily criticized for portraying the German as more capable, calmer and stronger than the British and Americans who’d hauled him aboard. (He was actually taking drugs  but censorship of the time dictated their description as “vitamins”.) This was, of course, Hitchcock’s point. Like The Lady Vanishes, Lifeboat was a metaphor for global politics; if the first film criticized English prewar appeasement, then this one suggested that the Allies needed to be resolute, even a little ruthless, if they were going to prevail against the Third Reich. Besides, the Nazi had to be a sort of superman; as the director always said, the stronger the villain, the stronger the picture.” – The Alfred Hitchcock Encyclopedia (2016)

“As you know, there were other things that bothered me—technical things. I know that one man can’t row a boat of that size and in my story, no one touched an oar except to steer.” – Source story author John Steinbeck complaining to his agent, reprinted in Steinbeck: A Life in Letters (1975)

Motley crew with a cuckoo in the nest (B&W, another)

The ensuing criticism, especially from right wing columnists, forced Fox into scaling back on advertising and bookings, causing the film to ultimately make a loss; a rarity at this point in Hitch’s career. It might have helped if Hitch had defended the film more robustly at the time, with greater emphasis in the fact that as a submarine commander, Willi was naturally more qualified and resourceful than his fellow survivors. Further, Hitch could have flagged up that the “vitamins” he was secreting and using to give him superhuman energy and strength were actually drugs, most likely cocaine. Of course, the Production Code’s censorship ensured that couldn’t be made explicit on screen. Consequently, Lifeboat became one of his least seen or revived American films for decades and to this day, it’s tended to fall through the cracks of Hitch’s American filmography somewhat.

The reason for this has little to do with historical precedent; after all, Vertigo has been comprehensively rehabilitated following its original underwhelming reception. Nor is it due to its overall quality or the fact it’s a very dark, often shocking and brutal film – that’s Hitch’s stock-in-trade! Rather, as Lifeboat was the only film he directed for 20th Century Fox, it’s not as frequently theatrically revived nor ever packaged with other Hitchcocks on home video, as happens with the majority of his other American films owned or distributed by Universal and Warner Bros. For the same reason, Foreign Correspondent (albeit to a lesser degree) and Under Capricorn have suffered a similar fate, though in terms of what the Master’s fans often expect, the latter is a tougher sell.

Hitch’s remaining four American films, directed while under contract to Selznick – Rebecca, Spellbound, Notorious and The Paradine Case – have similarly always been licensed and packaged together. Selznick actually sold Notorious to RKO but subsequent changes in ownership have seen it rejoin the other three. The unending quest of the Big Six for global entertainment domination is scary stuff but every cloud… as the House of Mouse, already owner of the Selznick Hitches, now owns Lifeboat due to its 2019 acquisition of Fox. Though the company’s since often nicknamed “20th Century Foxney”, it just might mean in future Hitch’s five films are more closely aligned with regard to their licensing and marketing.

Like its spiritual siblings Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache, Lifeboat was met with controversy on multiple levels, and received only a limited box office run. It took many years, but all three films have finally found their audience and are being favourably viewed by fans and critics as noteworthy entries in the Master’s canon.

Walter Slezak, John Hodiak, Heather Angel, Tallulah Bankhead and Mary Anderson in Lifeboat (1944, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

Wicked Willi, watching and scheming while Walter Slezak, John Hodiak, Heather Angel, Tallulah Bankhead and Mary Anderson pull back from the brink. For now.


Nor inferior

In direct contrast to the fascistic Willi, Joe, played by Canada Lee, was a sympathetic Black man who wasn’t as stereotyped as the screen norm although overall he was still given much less to do than most of the other characters. Joe is also subjected to casual racism early in the film, when Bankhead’s character twice refers to him as “Charcoal”. And note the tense exchange between Joe and Rittenhouse (Henry Hull), who repeatedly calls him “George” even after Joe insists on being called by his proper name. George was at that time a racist term based on the fact that stewards on luxury Pullman trains were almost exclusively Black and as wealthy white travellers deemed them to be indistinguishable, they were all referred to as “Boy” or by the name of the company’s founder, George Pullman.

Lifeboat (1944, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

Although Lifeboat was pitched to Lee as providing a role supportive of the wartime Double V campaign, with its strong implications of anti-racism, despite his best efforts at amelioration Lee was still extremely unhappy with his onscreen portrayal. He was certainly treated as separate from the group, perhaps even more so than Willi; and excluded from policy discussions, which naturally veered towards the latter’s informed suggestions. Steinbeck too claimed (cntd; more) both the Nazi and Joe had been drastically altered from that which he had written and in his disgusted ignorance the author unsuccessfully attempted to have his name removed from the film entirely. But the studio weren’t willing to relinquish the opportunity to splash his name all over its publicity.

To add further insult, Lee was rendered all but invisible in the film’s publicity campaign which featured John Hodiak front and centre, despite Lee apparently helping him land his role. Even Heather Angel, who (spoiler alert) exits the film early on, figures more prominently. In the end, Joe’s most significant scene consisted of his memorable, moving recitation of Psalm 23. But he is consistently characterised throughout as the most selfless and compassionate among the survivors, and is the only one not to take part in the (spoiler alert) ‘lynching’ of the enemy within, which we witness from his point of view. Ultimately, I may love Hitch’s films but, to put it mildly, they’re not exactly replete with ethnic minorities – sympathetic or otherwise – especially considering where many of them are set.


The Fighting Generation (1944)

Hitch worked on at least seven wartime propaganda shorts and documentaries, most notably directing Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache, for which he travelled to England following the January 1944 release of Lifeboat. After completing those and back in the states, he was the uncredited director of this fundraising propaganda short for the US Treasury shot on October 9, 1944. It features Jennifer Jones, future wife of powerful producer David O. Selznick, who had brought Hitch over to the States five years earlier for Rebecca. At the time of making the short, she was also fresh off another wartime flag-waver, the vastly bigger-budgeted Since You Went Away.

Alfred Hitchcock and The Fighting Generation – Alain Kerzoncuf


Watchtower Over Tomorrow (1945)

This is a British documentary short reporting on the Dumbarton Oaks plan and the proposed formation of the United Nations, with an uncredited Hitch as one of several directors including John Cromwell (Since You Went Away). It’s been included on the Cromwell-directed Dead Reckoning (1947) disc from a film noir box set spotlighting the talents of Humphrey Bogart.

Lifeboat: Writing on a Classic; Collectors Guide, Pt 2: Shorts and controversies, Pt 3: Home video, Pt 4: Soundtrack and remakes


This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.

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