Lifeboat_Review

Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat is a film that is heavily dependent on it’s characters because of it’s limited set. Answers.com’s lifeboat review, mentions that Tallulah Bankhead’s performance as Constance “Connie” Porter is “a tour de force performance that is simply mesmerizing.” Dennis Schwartz goes along with this stating “[Bankead] gives the film's most compelling performance of a witty parasite brought down a few pegs during the course of this adventure.” and goes on to say “The ensemble cast all respond in a fine fashion to Hitchcock's handling of them in such close quarters.” The Directing in the movie show’s great cohesion in the small lifeboat, without boring the audience with the same camera angles. Jeffrey M. Anderson claimed in his review that “Hitchcock also manages Lifeboat as a visual, cinematic exercise; he avoids repeating the same shots, and though it must have been a nightmare to cut together, the continuity is flawless,” Steven Painter also thinks that “Lifeboat is a good study for cinematographers and directors.” The Lifeboat felt slow-paced at first but grabbed my attention as the story progressed. Tallulah Bankhead was great, and immediately showed what type of character she was playing and she held the whole story together but never steals the spotlights from the other actors. The cast as a whole was great and everyone seemed to shine in their roles. The directing in the movie was also spectacular. Hitchcock took this simplistic story and many cliched characters and made an amazing movie keeping the interest of the audience the whole way through.