Review of A Night to Remember (1958) by Edgar C — 21 Dec 2010

This is the one that Titanic critics like to extol as the 'real' movie about Titanic. It is, in many ways, better than its latter-day cousin. It focuses on the human drama, and it has its share of heroes, villains, cowards, and just plain folk. Some of the moments were clearly echoed in Cameron's film, such as the father saying goodbye to his wife and daughters as they are lowered away.

Kenneth More gives a good performance from the perspective of the senior surviving officer, Lightoller, and gives the movie a point of focus, although the story is really told in the many little stories of the other characters we meet. Most of the actors are unknowns, so you aren't distracted by that. (David McCallum is one of the few people might even recognize) It also makes an interesting contrast between the reactions of the crew of the Californian and the Carpathia. One crew acted, and the other didn't. History is the judge, and this film will remain a good view of the tragedy. There are apologists for the captain of the Californian, and maybe he was pilloried, but the fact remains, he didn't act when another sailor was in trouble, and that's an unwritten law of the sea.

This Rand production was low budget, but doesn't look it. It was well directed, and captures the tension and disbelief very well. It's also fun (as a Titanicophile) to pick out the various historic characters, that Lord wrote into his book based on Colonel Gracie's memoirs. Some live well, some die well, some live badly and some die badly, it's a great cross-section. The immigrant characters are also interesting, and they get some focus here, too. Once you realize that these were, for the most part, real people you see surviving or dying, you can really feel for them. I found myself tearing up in many places.

The musical score is a bit over-the-top, but that was the style. You can say it's over-romantic, but to balance that you get very realistic reactions of confusion, fear, disbelief, seem quite close to what it might have been. The social classes of the time did behave in ridiculous ways, and we are slowly losing those pretensions somewhat, so it looks unrealistic to our eyes. In short, I don't think it quite replaces the grandeur of Cameron's epic, but it's a very successful telling of the story, even if time has given us more knowledge about the accident itself.

I was lucky enough to see this on a big screen in a local classic house as a double bill with the rather melodramatic Titanic (Clifton Webb) and this blows that one away...it looks great.

Recommended.