MovieChat Forums > Seven Waves Away (1957) Discussion > ABANDON SHIP VS LIFEBOAT

ABANDON SHIP VS LIFEBOAT

posted 15 years ago by shamanursecal
6 replies | jump to latest

I found this film with Tyrone Power fascinating and it keeps one on the edge of their seat/sofa/ect.

Maybe I am missing something from the movie, but what happened to the survivors and the first dog on the large wooden piece where Tyrone Power first showed up swimming towards them?
I suppose they did not have room on the boat so they never went back to get the other 3 survivors.

I read on the web that many people thought this was a "lifeboat" copy.
This is an interesting movie and there are similarities.
I like "LIFEBOAT" by Hitchcock. It was very well done.
This movie however goes into more drama and detail.
I believe that both movies were based on true stories.
LIFEBOAT was based on a true WW2 incident involving war survivors of an axis torpedo hit. I love the part where Hitchock puts his image on a newspaper in the LIfeboat instead of showing up for a cameo. How else could he be explained in the film with only survivors in a boat?
ABANDON SHIP was also based on a true story but much further apart in history then the film portrays.
I like both films very much. They are both classics. I have not seen the Tyrone Power film since I was a child until last night on TCM. It was nice to see it as an adult and appreciate it's storyline.

Rhobert Tachamet

[–] ryn3254 13 years ago

Boy did you read my mind??? After watching Lifeboat last night I couldn't help but think of Abandon Ship, although I haven't seen it since I was a child.
I am hoping that TCM will show it again very soon. If I had to choose between : Abandon Ship / Tyrone
OR
Life Boat / Talula ---
I'd just have to have 2 T.V.'s going at the same time

K Clark

[–] shamanursecal 13 years ago

Talu gets my vote!
But you are right so hard to make a decision!
Abandon ship was very good and a very well directed piece of work.

Hitchcock was the master of suspense. Lifeboat was really unique!
Too bad war time audiences did not appreciate it.
good thing we have TCM!
Cheers,

Rhobert Tachamet

[–] fnj2002 11 years ago

The premises of the two are completely different, but in terms of authenticity, daring and thoughtfulness Abandon Ship is a Lifeboat for adults. Lifeboat is full to the gills of stereotypes, most especially the demonization of the Germans. The only reason it could possibly get a pass is because it is wartime propaganda. Abandon Ship gets right to the cold realities and stays there grimly to the end. It is not trying to force-feed a message.

[–] Chez004 11 years ago

Very well said fnj2002!
Both films (Lifeboat; Abandon Ship) were shown consecutively last night on TCM and I was glued to watching them. Afterwards, I was trying to think how the 2 films could be comparatively described... your stated comment, fnj2002, makes perfect sense to me insofar as my viewing of the 2 films. Thanks.

[–] oldmotem 9 years ago

It always impresses me to see how well versed those TCM programmers are. They seem to find these similarities in films that were years apart and play them back to back. They also seem to have theme nights where a number of films are based on the same story. Some great and knowledgeable people work over there.

[–] debbie_lough 8 years ago

I found Abandon Ship a much more interesting film than Lifeboat.

People may well want to shoot me for this, but I found Lifeboat to be fairly formulaic and predictable. Which surprised me, as normally I don't react like that to anything by Hitchcock.

But Abandon Ship has a much more interesting premise - if you're in a predicament where some have to go to save who you can, what do you do if there just *are* no bad guys?

The question in Lifeboat is much more about 'what do you do with the bad guy', and being that it was in part a propaganda film, the answer may as well be held up on cards by the characters. It's obvious that he's gonna be the black hat, and that the others will turn on him.

With Abandon Ship, the questions are a lot harder, and so are the answers. There really aren't any bad guys - there are people, some cowardly, some not, some who can't deal with their situation, some who can, but they're all very human, and much less stereotypical than in Lifeboat.