All Aboard!

Rating: 9/10 (26 September 2017)

LIFEBOAT impressed me so much more the second time around, considering I was a kid the first time. Back then I thought Bankhead's kiss of Hodiak was the sexist thing I ever saw on screen.
All the performers were superb. Character development couldn't have been better in every case. Much has been said about everyone except maybe Henry Hull. Here was a "bend over backwards to be fair", millionaire industrialist in a splendid performance, who changes his tune at the end.
Oh, I wondered why Tallulah was immaculately alone in the boat, and how they miraculously avoided the shelling and collision, and how Nazi captain Walter Slezak was so deft removing a limb as a non-surgeon using merely a pocket knife, and other trifling incidents, but it didn't change my opinion one iota of this terrific film. For Hitchcock's extraordinary direction, splendid close up photography, and great story telling, it is hard to beat LIFEBOAT.