Review of A Night to Remember (1958) by Lucas Q — 13 Jul 2008

A fantastic and meticulous recreation of the Titanic disaster still offers some fantastic visuals as the ships sinks, but unlike the 1997 film it does not get held up on some half baked love story. Instead it follows many strains of people lives as they go about business on the unsinkable ship as well as focusing a little bit on the ships around the Titanic.

The effect and shock of discovering they had not conquered anything at all with Titanic, but instead created one of the world?s biggest disasters. The captain is given a bit of depth here, but not as much as his officers who have to herd the women and children onto the boats and maintain order in a time of great panic.

Of course, not everyone is well balanced during this time, but offers a nice well-balanced view of the sinking as prejudice is still shown to the lower classes even from the officers and captain only letting them get out at the last moment.

I swear that the 1997 Cameron film used half of the scenes from this meticulous film during its sinking sequence and not as well-crafted I might acting wise. For fans of The Great Escape it is interesting to note one of two actors in their young ages playing bit roles in this larger scale production such as David McCallum as the Assistant Wireless Operator Harold Bride.

The star of sorts of the film is the second officer played by Kenneth More, but even so he is not given any unneeded time in the plot which is quite trim at a mere 123 minutes. It?s a frustrating film which I think is a good accomplishment as this is what I consider the ultimate disaster film before those films were overwhelmed by flimsy plots and character which go for style over substance.