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Movie Info
Cast & Crew
Constance "Connie" Porter
Gus Smith
Willy

Alice MacKenzie
John Kovac
Charles D. 'Ritt' Rittenhouse
Critic Reviews for Lifeboat
All Critics (27) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (25) | Rotten (2)
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Despite that it's a slow starter, the picture, from the beginning, leaves a strong impact and, before too long, develops into the type of suspenseful product with which Hitchcock has always been identified.
October 16, 2008 | Full Review… -
That old master of screen melodrama, Alfred Hitchcock, and Writer John Steinbeck have combined their distinctive talents in a tremendously provocative film.
March 25, 2006 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review… -
The characters are reasonably free of cliched personalities, so what happens between them is rarely predictable, and there are enough crises and tensions within the 96-minute running time to hold a viewer fully attentive.
December 13, 2005 -
Hitchcock's shifting sympathies guarantee our guilty involvement with the characters until he builds to a climax of intellectual and spiritual excitation.
October 24, 2005 | Rating: 4/4 | Full Review… -
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August 5, 2004 | Rating: 4/5 -
At times, the film seems on the verge of rising above its frankly propagandistic intentions, but it never really confronts the Darwinian themes built into the material.
January 1, 2000 | Full Review…
Audience Reviews for Lifeboat
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Jul 02, 2016One of my favorite Hitchcock films. The drama, all taking place on a lifeboat, is gripping from beginning to end, Hitchcock's direction is top-form and I can't recall any other Hitch film with the emotional power of this movie. The entire cast shines, especially Tallulah Bankhand as the elitist journalist opposite John Hodiak as the blue-collar worker. This is a must-see film for lovers of cinema.Aldo G Super Reviewer
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Apr 03, 2016An engaging chamber movie in which all action takes place inside a lifeboat, impressing us most with its technical achievement (if there was any doubt about Hitchcock's directing skills before it, this film certainly removed it) and Tallulah Bankhead standing out in a great cast.Carlos M Super Reviewer
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Nov 25, 2013One of the better Hitchcocks, Lifeboat gives us a nice claustrophobic feel on a small craft in the middle of the ocean full of persons with mixed motivations. It is a classic setup for psychological tension and the cast finely delivers.John B Super Reviewer
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Feb 19, 2013Another one of Hitchcock's experimental films this film shot entirely within one location fails due to the fact that most of the characters are just plain unlikeable. It also was made during World War II so is an obvious propaganda piece, no bad thing if done well but here it seems to be ladled on with a shovel! Maybe I watched it at the wrong time (just after watching 'Hitchcock') and was hoping for something more entertaining but in the end I found this, despite the merits of the experimental film-making, a bit of a slog and not a Hitchcock film that I will be revisiting in a hurry.David S Super Reviewer
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