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Lifeboat (1944)
Below is an interesting correspondence from John Steinbeck to the producers at 20th Century Fox regarding his displeasure with some aspects of Hitchcock's Lifeboat, for which he received screenplay writing credit:
New York
January 10, 1944
Dear Sirs:
I have just seen the film Lifeboat, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and billed as written by me. While in many ways the film is excellent there are one or two complaints I would like to make. While it is certainly true that I wrote a script for Lifeboat, it is not true that in that script as in the film there were any slurs against organized labor nor was there a stock comedy Negro. On the contrary there was an intelligent and thoughtful seaman who knew realistically what he was about. And instead of the usual colored travesty of the half comic and half pathetic Negro there was a Negro of dignity, purpose and personality. Since this film occurs over my name, it is painful to me that these strange, sly obliquities should be ascribed to me.
John Steinbeck
Later he sent this wire to his agent:
MEXICO CITY
FEBRUARY 19, 1944
PLEASE CONVEY THE FOLLOWING TO 20TH CENTURY FOX IN VIEW OF THE FACT THAT MY SCRIPT FOR THE PICTURE LIFE BOAT WAS DISTORTED IN PRODUCTION SO THAT ITS LINE AND INTENTION HAS BEEN CHANGED AND BECAUSE THE PICTURE SEEMS TO ME TO BE DANGEROUS TO THE AMERICAN WAR EFFORT I REQUEST MY NAME BE REMOVED FROM ANY CONNECTION WITH ANY SHOWING OF THIS FILM
Fox did not honor his request and used Steinbeck's name liberally in their promotions. Steinbeck and Hitch were nominated for Oscars. I now have to watch this movie again because I didn't remember much about the character "Joe" except it wasn't a very big part, or even that Steinbeck was associated with this project. He and Hitchcock don't seem an ideal match.
Hitch's own words describing the intent behind the picture:
“We wanted to show that at that moment there were two world forces confronting each other, the democracies and the Nazis, and while the democracies were completely disorganized, all of the Germans were clearly headed in the same direction.”
Correspondence is from the book Steinbeck: A Life in Letters.
If you care to see it on YouTube, Lifeboat can be viewed here:
[youtube][/youtube]