Review of Lifeboat (1944) by Alex B — 04 Jan 2011

It's a classic version of the old Hollywood standby of disparate types thrown together by unusual circumstance, that could have done a better job comparing Nazi Social Darwinism with American (self-made, domestically racist) and British (class-based, internationally racist) ideologies (not to mention international communism).

The characterizations are rough, though the performances are excellent. Some of the plot points are too artificial, but the action is terrific. And, as always with Hitchcock, while the film-making is interesting, the moralism and sentimentality (of course with ironic and erotic touches) are middlebrow.