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MovieMail's Review
Pairing one of Hitchcock's most underrated films with his two French language wartime films, Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache, make this one of the DVDs of 2012, says James Oliver.
Although Alfred Hitchcock wasn't the most gung-ho of directors, he was keen to do his bit for the war effort. This valuable set gathers together those films where he addressed the conflict most directly.
The main feature is Lifeboat. A technical masterpiece (the action is confined to the titular vessel, into which are crammed the survivors of a U-Boat attack, struggling to survive on the high seas), it's also a striking drama and one of Hitch's most sombre films. As scripted, in part, by John Steinbeck it's very nearly an allegory for the wartime situation, albeit leavened by its director's characteristic wit.
After Lifeboat, the great man returned home to Britain, where he made the two short French language films also included herein. The first, Bon Voyage, is a thrilling tale of an RAF officer escaping occupied France while Aventure Malgache concerns itself with a resistance cell on Madagascar. Rarely seen, they're efficient, well crafted little films that bristle with Hitchcock touches. Topped off with generous extras, this is one of best releases of 2012 so far.
New high-definition master, officially licensed from Twentieth Century Fox
New high-definition transfers of Hitchcock's little-seen French-language 1944 wartime films, Bon voyage (26 minutes) and Aventure malgache (31 minutes) officially licensed from the British Film Institute
Optional English subtitles on all three films
20-minute documentary on the making of Lifeboat
12-minute excerpt from the legendary 1962 audio interviews between Hitchcock and François Truffaut, discussing Lifeboat and the wartime shorts
36-page booklet.
Film Description
Set almost entirely on a lifeboat full of survivors of a submarine attack, Lifeboat is one of Hitchcock's most underrated films. Tallulah Bankhead excels as a spoilt journalist who presides over the group of disparate characters, whose situation is intensified when one of the German U-Boat attackers is rescued by the lifeboat.
Based on an unpublished novella by John Steinbeck (written on commission expressly to provide treatment material for Hitchcock's screen scenario), Lifeboat found the Master of Suspense navigating a course of maximal tension - in the most minimal of settings - with a consistently inventive, beautifully paced drama that would foreshadow the single-set experiments of Rope and Dial M for Murder.
After a Nazi torpedo reduces an ocean liner to wooden splinters and scorched personal effects, the survivors of the attack pull themselves aboard a drifting lifeboat in the hope of eventual rescue. But the motivations of the German submarine captain (played by Walter Slezak) on the eponymous craft might extend beyond mere survival...
With a cast including Shadow of a Doubt veteran Hume Cronyn and the irrepressible Tallulah Bankhead, this 'picture of characters', as François Truffaut aptly termed the film, oscillates between comic repartee and white-knuckle suspense – a perfect example of 'the Hitchcock touch'.
