The Movie: Lifeboat (1944)
What Is It?: Alfred
Hitchcock makes his first great gimmick picture by dropping the divine Tallulah
Bankhead, William Bendix, Hume Cronyn, Henry Hull, Walter Slezak, and the rest (sung to the tune of
“Gilligan’s Island”, of course) into a lifeboat for 96 minutes and seeing what
happens. There’s a definite reality-show dynamic going on here as the survivors
of a U-boat attack decide whether or not to vote Slezak off the boat. Look out
for Hitch’s requisite cameo in a diet-pill ad!
Why Today?: On
this day in 1902, Tallulah Bankhead is
born.
