Aventure Malgache. Alfred Hitchcock. 1944. ⚀

This is another French-language propaganda short that Hitchcock did after completing Lifeboat.

The first one was … really bad. I had kinda hoped that this would show more scope (it’s ten minutes longer and allegedly set in Madagascar), but…

It’s basically the same thing: There’s an abundance of script pages to get through, and Hitchcock basically points the camera toward the actors and have them go through all the lines as fast as possible.

Again, it looks superficially professional: The lighting is good, and… well… that’s it.

If this was created to help keep the spirit of the non-Vichy French up, then… I’m not really convinced this helped much?

Wouldn’t something a bit more entertaining have been better?

Oh, that Hitchcock.

Bon Voyage. Alfred Hitchcock. 1944. ⚀

This is a French-language propaganda short by Hitchcock made just after Lifeboat (and included on the Eureka blu-ray edition).

Even as propaganda movies go, this isn’t very good. It’s super-static and filmed as if they had a certain number of script pages to get through (way too many pages) and Hitch just planted the camera there and made them go through it as fast as possible.

Well, OK, that’s not totally fair — the lighting is good, and there’s some camera movement, and… OK, that’s as far as the positives go.

There’s really no reason to watch this, even if you’re a Hitchcock fan and you’re very, very bored one day and have absolutely nothing else to do.

Lifeboat. Alfred Hitchcock. 1944. ⚅

[an hour passes]

This is magnificent! It’s all set in a lifeboat, but… there’s so much going on! Tallulah Bankhead is awesome as the snooty journalist! The tension! Is the Nazi a bad Nazi or a good Nazi! I’m in 100%!

I’ve never seen this movie before — it’s not one that’s usually included whenever people are doing Hitchcock collections and stuff, and I wonder why. It perhaps… demands a bit more audience concentration than, say, The Birds, but it’s so… there…

[the end]

Man, that’s a good movie. It’s a bit sloppy in the start of the last third, but the ending more than makes up for it. *sniffle*

Anyway, Bankhead’s movie career kinda ended the year after:

She went to TV apparently…