Review – Lifeboat

Anything set entirely in a single, confined location is inevitably going to scream “stage play,” and there’s nothing even a director as good as Alfred Hitchcock can do to stop it. Theatricality notwithstanding, this is a mildly intriguing production. After an Allied ship is sunk by a U-boat, a handful of survivors (including an officer from the sub, which also went down in the battle) end up stranded together in the title location. A brassy writer played by Tallulah Bankhead is clearly the star of the show, but otherwise it’s a nice ensemble piece. I was particularly impressed by the effort to give Walter Slezak some room for subtlety as the German. Although his character development is predictable enough, at least they maintain a small mystery for awhile. That’s more than many other movies from the same era would have done. Overall this is an entertaining portrait of forced egalitarianism transforming the personalities of characters from different classes. Mildly amusing