Review of A Night to Remember (1958) by Jahir H — 20 Jan 2014

Definitely the best Titanic movie out there and by far superior to the "remake" (let's call it carbon copy) from 1997. The acting is solid, albeit not outstanding, but I feel like it fits the bill, never letting the actual humanity, disaster, scale and causal chain drift off the proportion scale. While all bases are covered, no particular story is put in focus, be it the love story between the young couple, the captain's loyality towards his ship or the officers' relentless duty. The effects are amazing, especiall for the time, even though the final seconds of the sinking giant look a tad dated. However, the interior shots are top notch and even some of the exterior shots (if not all) can impress. Lots of extras make the whole disastrous occurence appear the part and you wont find the same guy falling into the water twice, let alone dozens of backdrop projections with screaming folks in front of screaming folks etc. There is hardly any music in the film until the very end, which only adds to the momentum. The actions (or lack thereof) of the surrounding ships are portrayed to a minimum scale, quiet suitable when we consider how little their part played has been, even though it could have been quite bigger, especially as far as an earlier rescue is concerned, a tragedy alongside a tragedy.

To me personally, it borders on scandal how blatantly Cameron copied most of this film to make his "masterpiece", which - as it turns out to be - (who would have though ... I would!) is just a remake of a masterpiece that did everything right in the first place. This being a British production, it never got the Academy's recognition that it should (no Oscars!).

A fantastic piece of cinema.