Those inappropriate Essentials Jr. movies

Last week, I mentioned that TCM was running To Be or Not to Be as part of Essentials Jr., and wondered how much kids would get the World War II stuff and the sexual tension going on. This week is an even more interesting choice: Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat, at 8:00 PM tonight.

Now, I happen to like Lifeboat, and think it's one of the underrated Hitchcock movies, in that it doesn't get mentioned with the supposedly great stuff like Vertigo (which I happen to think is terribly overrated, and wouldn't fit in Essentials Jr. either, but that's another story). The problem is, there's a lot of material in Lifeboat that I'd think would be difficult for children, especially the younger ones. The sexual tension between the John Hodiak and Tallulah Bankhead characters might give some parents pause, although I'd suggest that's the least of the problems. You've got, in rough order:

A woman who commits suicide because her baby has died;
A man who has to have his leg amputated in decidedly un-hospital-like conditions;
The amputee going delirious and being put out of his misery by a Nazi who may not have had the guy's best interests at heart;
Mob justice being meted out in rather uncomfortable fashion.

Lifeboat is certainly a great movie for adults. I'm just not certain how much the kids will enjoy it.