OK, YES, this IS one of the greatest chamber-pieces of all time, set on the open ocean no- less, but also... This is a great one for given it to you both as a straight-ahead melodrama, And as a kind-of symbolic deal for where the nation (and the world) was at the time. You know, where people are people, but they represent Kinds of people, or Groups of people. And their actions can be taken for this or that, literal or representative or whatnot. The people in the boat, like the people in the world watching the movie, Were At War.<br /><br />It's the natural thought-train watching this action to wonder what we'd do in these peoples' positions. How would we treat the German? Each Other?<br /><br />And if this was bein' made Today, not as a re-make, but as its original Patriotic allegory, who would be in the boat? And what would the characters all represent from today's world- stage? And what would be the message for the American (and world-wide) movie-going public? hmmm.<br /><br />Great Flick. And Tallulah Bankhead was One Bad-Ass Lady, it looks like. They sure Don't make 'em like they used to.