Sea Wife (1957)

Plot:  After being torpedoed by Japanese sub, four survivors ( a Nun, Army Officer, bigoted businessman, Black purser) try to survive on a small raft. Told in a flashback.
Stars: Richard Burton, Joan Collins, Basil Sydney and Cy Grant

Sea Wife is better than its 5.6 IMDB rating. The cinematography is beautiful (especially location shots of Jamaica) , the acting is good (except for Collins), its only 81 minutes, and the Singapore evacuation and ship sinking are well done. Unfortunately, the script is rather bland and everyone is a little too polite and subdued. Which is a problem when your movie is about 4 people on a raft - cause they can't do much except talk.   Once on the raft, the story only has 2 subplots and both are missed opportunities.

First, the Collins-Burton love story is a waste of time because Collins is a Nun. We know that from the start - even though Burton is never told.  Second, the conflict between the bigot and Black purser, which should have been exciting, is defeated by a failure of nerve.  In the book, the black purser finds a machete and turns into a scary, controlling paranoid, resulting in the bigot - rightly or wrongly - trying to leave him on the island.  In the movie, the black purser is so harmless and friendly (even his island behavior seems more cautious than paranoid)  that leaving him on the island seems completely contrived and irrational.  And then he gets eaten by a shark.  Really.

Summary:  Not as bad as its reputation suggests - its an enjoyable World War 2 survival tale - but  a tepid screenplay and Joan Collins prevent it from being anything more.  Watch "Lifeboat" instead.