Lifeboat

The setting is confined to a lifeboat in the Atlantic occupied by survivors from a torpedoed passenger-carrying freighter and the commander of the U-Boat responsible (Slezak). The idea was to contrast the singleminded Nazi against democracy's comparatively feeble representatives, but the script, started by Steinbeck and finished by Hitchcock, appears too calculated. It's worth seeing, though, for Hitchcock's handling of actors in a confined setting, which incidentally introduces an elusive sense of size, a perspective that is heightened by much of the film being shot in close or semi-close-up. Half the time you'd swear the lifeboat is enormous.