History Film / Lifeboat

* BreakTheHaughty: Connie's character arc, in a nutshell, and most of it PlayedForLaughs. By the last scene, she's equally haggard and shell-shocked with everybody else and lost everything of value on her person that she didn't lost when the ship sank. On the bright side, she may have an interesting story to tell... but it would also include her having to keep secret the parts about murdering Willy.

* DeathOfAChild: The baby Mrs. Higgins brings aboard the boat is revealed to be dead.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Mrs. Higgins throws herself overboard after realizing her baby has died.]]

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Any possibility that Willy might be a good guy is eliminated when, upon the reveal that Mrs. Higgins' baby is dead, he gives a bored yawn and lies down to take a nap.

* CreatorCameo: Hitchcock always did these, but here it proved a challenge. After considering the possibility of playing a corpse floating in the water, he inserted himself into a newspaper read by one of the characters. He's shown in a pair of BeforeAndAfterPictures for a weight-loss advertisement. There's even a FreezeFrameBonus testimonial in the ad.

The film opens with the sinking of a passenger ship, depicted in the opening credits with a closeup of a smokestack as it descends and slips beneath the water. Shortly thereafter a lifeboat appears occupied by one passenger, an elegant, snooty newspaper columnist named Connie Porter (Creator/TallulahBankhead). Other survivors soon make their way onto the boat: Kovac (John Hodiak), Stanley (Creator/HumeCronyn), Joe (Canada Lee), and Gus (William Bendix), four of the ship's crew; C.J. Rittenhouse (Henry Hull), a wealthy industrialist; Alice (Mary Anderson), a U.S. Army nurse; and Mrs. Higley (Heather Angel), a British war refugee. Finally, they pick up Willy (Walter Slezak), a German sailor from the U-boat that sank their ship--the U-boat, it turns out, also sank. Kovac wants to throw Willy back into the ocean, but the others prevail on him to do the honorable thing and keep the German aboard as a prisoner. The passengers aboard the lifeboat have to struggle to survive on the open ocean, while Willy plays them off each other in an effort to gain control.

* BookEnds: The film begins and ends with a sinking ship (courtesy of a naval battle that ended on a MutualKill). Also the movie starts and ends with a German sailor (one FauxAffablyEvil, one that does not even try) arriving to the boat.

* DrivenToSuicide: Mrs. Higgins throws herself overboard after realizing her baby has died.

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The film opens with the sinking of a passenger ship, depicted in the opening credits with a closeup of a smokestack as it descends and slips beneath the water. Shortly a lifeboat appears occupied by one passenger, an elegant, snooty newspaper columnist named Connie Porter (Creator/TallulahBankhead). Other survivors make their way onto the boat: Kovac (John Hodiak), Stanley (Creator/HumeCronyn), Joe (Canada Lee), and Gus (William Bendix), four of the ship's crew; C.J. Rittenhouse (Henry Hull), a wealthy industrialist; Alice (Mary Anderson), a U.S. Army nurse; and Mrs. Higley (Heather Angel), a war refugee. Finally, they pick up Willy (Walter Slezak), a German who was on the U-boat that sank their ship--the U-boat, it turns out, also sank. Kovac wants to throw Willy back into the ocean, but the others prevail on him to do the honorable thing and keep Willy aboard as a prisoner. The passengers aboard the lifeboat then have to struggle to survive on the open ocean, while Willy plays them off each other in an effort to gain control.