Lifeboat/Crime Wave

Lifeboat (1944)

Runtime: 97 minutes

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Starring: Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Walter Slezak, Mary Anderson, John Hodiak

From: 20th Century Fox

Crime Wave (1954)

Runtime: 73 minutes

Directed by: Andre De Toth

Starring: Sterling Hayden, Gene Nelson, Phyllis Kirk, Ted de Corsia, and the man best known under the name Charles Bronson

From: Warner Brothers

I know this wasn't what I had planned out but this week I saw those films would be on cable and I figured I should see the former as I hadn't watch a Hitch movie in a few months and the latter was the first film noir I had watched in a few months. I am glad I saw both and I still have time to watch the Mad Max series. It will likely be next week that I see all three in the series before checking out what I hope is an awesome Fury Road. I will be back tomorrow night. First, Lifeboat, then I will talk about Crime Wave.

Somehow, I had missed out on seeing this film until (Tuesday) night when I saw it on an Encore station. This is despite knowing of it for years and being intrigued by the idea that it is entirely set in the ocean on the title vessel. Now that I've seen it, I am finally glad I did.

The story is about how an American ship and a German U-boat sink each other during the hectic times of World War II, and various American and British men and women, along with one African-American man (he unfortunately has the nickname “Charcoal” but otherwise is treated equally compared to everyone else) end up on a giant wooden lifeboat. Suddenly a German man crawls aboard and there's natural distrust but he's allowed to stay on. The rest of the story is the characters interacting with each other in various interesting ways, how they deal with some big events that happen, and of course whether or not you can and should trust a German soldier.

This is a great movie where despite the limited setting and the space to film all those characters in said setting, it's always engrossing and you always believe they are out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and have to drift for days before possibly being rescued. All the people you see are from various strata of society, so that naturally adds conflict and of course there's always suspense and tension with the German man there. You get to see many of those characters change, especially the snooty Connie Porter-played by Tallulah Bankhead-and all the cast does a tremendous job with their roles.

The movie isn't always the easiest watch as it's blunt and some harsh things happen to the characters; Hitch's wit is not a big factor here. Yet, if you can accept that then you really should see this, especially if you love the director and his most famous films. This should be in the discussion of being among the best things he ever directed.

Now, onto Crime Wave.

No, this isn't the weird Sam Raimi film from the mid 80's. This is the 1954 film noir that was on TCM last night and I decided to watch it as I hadn't watched a noir in a few months and this sounded interesting. The plot was intriguing to me: 3 criminals breaking out of jail and hiding out at the place of their former buddy in the slammer, but he's cleaned up his act and got himself a wife, so naturally there's conflict as they force him to work with them. A cop (played by Sterling Hayden) is on the case trying to stop them. I was hoping I would enjoy it and I did.

While this isn't a must-see noir, that is OK as I still liked it. The lead Gene Nelson wasn't the most enthralling film noir lead so that's probably why this is the only one he made. However, the rest of the cast is admirable; Phyllis Kirk does a nice job as the lead's wife; she is also the focus as he wishes to protect her from any harm. The rest of the cast has some familiar faces, such as Ted de Corsia and a man known then as Charles Buchinsky, as the leather jacket wearing tough guy of the villainous trio. It was shortly after this that he changed his surname to... Bronson.

The story is also in part a police procedural, and I did find that interesting among the rest of it, which was a somewhat standard tale of a man trying to protect his wife against his bad past coming back to haunt him. What was a big asset was that director Andre De Toth filmed it rather well, the camera going all around in interesting ways and helping you understand what the characters are feeling. I suppose I should also give credit to Director of Photography Bert Glennon.

Like I said this isn't a film noir you must watch; however, it still was an entertaining-and short at not even 75 minutes-motion picture in my eyes.