Lifeboat (Blu-ray SteelBook) [UK]

Oct 20, 2011
3,325
Kiev, Ukraine
Release date: April 23, 2012.
Price: £17.99
Amazon.co.uk

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• First-ever Blu-ray release anywhere in the world of Lifeboat and Hitchcock's two rarely seen French-language 1944 war-time films, Bon voyage and Aventure malgache
• Based on a script by author John Steinbeck (The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden)
• Nominated for Oscars for best director, cinematography, and original story
• Starring a first-rate ensemble headed by Tallulah Bankhead, whose performance in the film won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best actress


SYNOPSIS:
Based on an unpublished novella by John Steinbeck (written on commission expressly to provide treatment material for Hitchcock's screen scenario), Lifeboat found the Master of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 extraordinary, irrepressible Tallulah Bankhead, this "picture of characters", as François Truffaut aptly termed the film, oscillates dazzlingly between comic repartée and white-knuckle suspense – a perfect example of "the Hitchcock touch".

Eureka Entertainment’s MASTERS OF CINEMA Series is proud to present the Oscar-nominated Lifeboat in a Dual Format (Blu-ray and DVD) standard edition & limited edition Dual Format steelbook , accompanied by Hitchcock's two French-language wartime shorts, Bon voyage and Aventure malgache. Released in the UK on 23 April 2012.


SPECIAL DUAL FORMAT EDITION FEATURES:
• 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
• PLUS: A 36-page booklet featuring archival imagery alongside new writing by critics Bill Krohn, Arthur Mas, and Martial Pisani


REVIEWS:
“Absorbing...brilliantly executed” The Hollywood Reporter

" That old master of screen melodrama, Alfred Hitchcock, and Writer John Steinbeck have combined their distinctive talents in a tremendously provocative film” — Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

"He realises that peculiar Hitchcock manner with the player, in which the actor seems to be concentrating mentally on what he is about to do but never quite does it; so that his pantomime takes on a kind of sinister spontaneity." —Manny Farber, The New Republic
 
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I've been considering this. Since I havent seen a lot of Hitchcock, which I'm gonna fix, whats the movie like?
 
It's a fantastic movie ALK, one with a great pace to it that captures that time in history and all the foibles people had perfectly IMO. The Steel is a work of art, so glad to have it in my burgeoning collection :)
 
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Just watched it for the first time after blind buying the Steel over a year ago. Don't usually buy Steels of movies I haven't seen yet but I absolutely adore the front artwork and was pleasantly surprised by the movie itself! Tense till the end! Time to get me some more Hitchcock classics!
 
A good film, and the steelbook looks really good. Warner could really learn a thing or two from Eureka! about using poster artwork on a steel. Love the black back and spine next to my orange Touch of Evil steel.
 
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A good film, and the steelbook looks really good. Warner could really learn a thing or two from Eureka! about using poster artwork on a steel. Love the black back and spine next to my orange Touch of Evil steel.

I totally agree. Just watched this the other night - great video and sound on this one. beautiful SB too!
 
Really good prices at Entertainment Store on the Masters Of Cinema and Arrow range

All £9.99 - List includes:

The Beyond
Foxy Brown
The Passion Joan Of Arc
Two-Lane Blacktop
Das Testament Des Dr. Mabuse
Cleopatra
Island Of Lost Souls
The Human Centipede: First Sequence / The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence
Lifeboat
The Lost Weekend
Repo Man
Rumble Fish
Demons & Demons 2
Blow Out

:)
 
In sale here:
Good Friday, Great Offers! Eureka & Masters of Cinema Steelbooks from just £3.99! Best Media Group are hosting a massive Easter sale of Eureka products on Amazon. Here is the first selection of titles available:

Giorgio Moroder presents Metropolis SteelBook – Link
Two Lane Blacktop SteelBook – Link
Island of Lost Souls SteelBook – Link
The Lost Weekend SteelBook – Link
Lifeboat SteelBook – Link
Rumble Fish SteelBook – Link
Cleopatra SteelBook – Link
Das Testament Des Dr Mabuse SteelBook – Link
The Passion of Joan of Arc SteelBook – Link
Dr Mabuse Der Spieler SteelBook –Link
Serpico SteelBook – Link

Offer must end at midnight on 6 April 2015 or whilst stocks last
 
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Great film as are the only other two Hitchcock films in steelbook form ("Psycho" and "North by Northwest").
Come on Universal . . . how about steels for some other golden oldies (from Hitch's middle period) such as my personal favourite "Shadow of a Doubt" (1943) ?
Others would be very welcome including "Strangers on a Train" (1951) "Dial M for murder" (1954), "Rear Window" (1954), "Vertigo" (1958), "The Birds" 1963) - all with lovely poster art like this stunna :)

EDIT 27/1/16 (6pm)
This steelbook and THE LOST WEEKEND steelbook at a super excellent price of GBP 6.99 at the time of writing.
("Fulfilled by Amazon - brand new, sealed and fully guaranteed - direct from the manufacturer")

Other Eureka steelbooks @GBP 6.99 (and cheaper than the Amaray editions to boot) are:-
CLEOPATRA (1934)
DR. MABUSE, THE GAMBLER (1922)
ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932)
RUMBLE FISH (1983)
REPO MAN (1984)
 
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