Original and exciting, even by today's standards.

Rating: 9/10 (13 May 2009)

What a great challenge it must have been for Alfred Hitchcock to make this movie possible. Here we have a story that is stationary, no movement in terms of setting or action and yet with a fine cast and wonderful writing, Hitchcock was able to create a timeless and suspenseful drama dictating what great lengths people are willing to go to in order to survive as well as the goodness of mankind that can shine through.
As the story goes, a US ship has just been sunk and we see the remains floating along in the Atlantic and soon stumble across a lavishly dressed woman alone in a lifeboat, a reporter insisting on saving her material in order to project a good story. As more survivors resurface, we meet a whole group of them including a nurse, a radio operator, a crewman and a German who is immediately ostracized by the rest simply because he is from the boat that sunk the survivors' ship. What Hitchcock does in depicting these very different people and how they relate to one another and try to survive amidst the cold, seemingly endless Atlantic Ocean is truly fantastic. This is a set-up that would be exciting and seem original even by today's standards of unlimited special effects potential.
What Hitchcock does to maintain the narration moving forward and keep interest alive is not a stretch of realism nor is it far-fetched n its method. Here, simple and solid directing reigns and despite a somewhat anticlimactic ending, I found this to be one of Hitchcock's better movies; maybe one of his ten best. It is engaging, interesting and does a superb job of showing the true colors of people in such a situation. Here, in a boat stranded in the ocean, there are no Americans or Nazis, poor or rich. Everyone is equal and trying to strive to the same goal.