LIFEBOAT (1944) **1/2 Pretty dry. Less than you'd expect from Alfred Hitchcock doing a one-act adaptation of Steinbeck in black&white. Not without charm altogether, nor lacking in wisdom, but...Steinbeck pulled out of writing the screenplay because he felt constrained by the single set, but there's a sense of other constraints. It would be wrong to denounce it as propaganda-Nazis were guilty of things a helluva lot worse than anything depicted here, and the Americans are hardly whitewashed-but it's almost expected to be interpreted that way, one that diminishes a work that might otherwise have been more impressive, if less blatantly honest in interpreting the macro to micro. Hitch keeps himself reigned in for the most part, as in his much earlier work (perhaps involuntarily, as he wasn't there yet), which wouldn't have left a lot if not for the actors. They're all up to whatever's asked. The most is asked of Tallulah Bankhead, and she gives it everything it needs. Walter Slezak is wise and mysterious, if sinister morally decrepit, which it must be noted is a better portion than the bad guys are served in real propaganda. Mary Anderson, John Hodiak, William Bendix, there's not an unimpressive performance on the entire boat. I caught myself wondering how much influence this diversity of characters might have had on “Gilligan's Island ,” which is at least a mild indictment of either the intensity of the drama or myself.
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