Feb. 10, 1944: Yawn of the Week: The raging waste of words about Steinbeck’s script of “Lifeboat” being distorted (to make the Nazi look good and the rescued look weak and yappy, etc.) is a bore of an argument over at this lodge.

Suppose you change the characters to a representative group en route to survey battle zones. Suppose they were torpedoed and met in a lifeboat with a German. Do you think they wouldn’t behave almost exactly as those in “Lifeboat?” We have weaklings and whackpots in Congress, as well as legislators who have good minds and hearts. The point is this: Until they united they couldn’t combat the superior strength of a navy-trained Nazi, who (it is established) was a sea captain as well as a surgeon. I saw it again last night. Every moment of it kept me on the edge of my seat. The direction is breathless. The cast is superb except T. Bankhead, who is only very wonderful.

From the Palm Beach Daily News.