A Night to Remember (Criterion Collection) (1958)

Cameron's film has its moments, but in truth I only liked it for the chance it gave me to see a great old ocean liner brought to life again on screen. In "A Night To Remember", the effects are not nearly so impressive, but the story is far better. It's very much in the style of a docudrama, but its a docudrama about one of the most fascinating and enduring stories in all of history. I don't quite know why Cameron felt it necessary to tell a soap opera melodrama about two fictional lovers and use one of the most dramatic stories in all human history as nothing more than a backdrop. "A Night To Remember", based on Walter Lord's outstanding book of the same name, tells the story of the disaster itself. Kenneth More plays a heroic Second Officer Lightoller, and the film actually makes him out to look a little better than he did in reality he lowered several of the lifeboats less than half loaded, and permitted no men at all to get in, even when the boats were ready to lower and no more women were nearby to board. Still, this bit of dramatic license doesn't hurt the film.

The account of Titanic's loss has something in it to appeal to everybody. For the lovers of a great story it has incredible drama and suspense. For lovers of nostalgia it is far the best documented voyage of any ship from the golden age of the great ocean liners. For those interested in tragic irony there is the story of a great ship, regarded as unsinkable going down after ominous warnings were ignored. For those interested in stories with a moral, there is the cautionary tale of placing blind faith in any work of human hands, or thinking that the things of men are impervious to the forces of nature. For students of human nature, Titanic was a microcosm of society, with the full range of human strength and weakness on display, from acts of inspiring heroism to those of despicable cowardice. For those interested in social history, there is the huge gulf between the first class passengers with their vast wealth, and those in steerage with little more than the clothes they stood up in.

Few stories have proven so enduring and so fascinating as that of the Titanic. This movie remains the best, and most faithful film version of it to this day.

For all the special effects and color cinematography of recent years, few films in the disaster genre have been able to top this amazing film of the fateful voyage of the Titanic; it is smartly written, with extraordinary cinematography (by Geoffrey Unsworth) and brilliantly acted by a cast of mostly unknown actors, although the star, Kenneth More was famous in England. American audiences will probably only recognize David McCallum (Illya Kuryakin in the Man from U.N.C.L.E. series) who plays a radio operator, and Honor Blackman, who gained fame as the Bond Girl with the naughty name in Goldfinger, who has a small part as the wife of a brave and stoic man, and the noted British actor Laurence Naismith, who is marvelous as Captain Smith.

Even though one knows the end, the tension runs high, and we get caught up in lives of the people aboard "the floating palace", and how they handled their dreadful fate. The characterizations are beautifully developed, which is rare in this type of film.

The scenes of the inner workings of the ship are intense, and very well re-created. When compared to documentaries made about the Titanic, this film would seem to be quite accurate, in the physical aspects of the ship, and of the people who sailed her, as passengers and as crew.

I find this 1958 version far superior to the 1997 Oscar winning "Titanic", mostly because the script and acting are much more believable, making the events of that dreadful night come to life and stir the emotions in a deeper way than the newer film ever could.

Adapted for the screen by Eric Ambler from the book by Walter Lord (which I read many years ago and also found fascinating), the direction by Roy Ward Baker is superb, and the almost symphonic score by William Alwyn terrific.

"A Night to Remember" won a 1959 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film.

Total running time is 123 minutes.

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Unlike other film versions of the famous maritime disaster, "A Night To Remember" does not attempt to romanticize the sinking of the Titanic via fictional characters playing out a superficial and often implausible story--and demonstrates that the basic facts are far more fascinating than any soap-opera-bubble that can be imposed upon them.

As frequently noted, the film has a somewhat documentary feel that adds considerably to its tension. Less frequently noted are the remarkable performances of the ensemble cast, playing characters who fight to retain their integrity in the face of rising panic. Unlike the soapy 1950s Stanwyck version or the overblown James Cameron film of the 1990s, there are no easy endings for those who are trapped, no love recognized at the last moment or sustaining memories of brief shipboard happiness to float them forward through life: at the end there is only darkness and death--mitigated, sometimes nobly, by the human kindness and sacrifice. Powerful stuff.

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Walter Lord sadly died in May 2002 aged 85 and is justly famous for his meticulous research of the circumstances surrounding the sinking on Monday 15/4/1912 of the White Star liner,RMS Titanic and stirring the public's interest in this disaster.There are a few factual errors in this marvellous Rank Organisation 1958 film.The ship is seen to sink in one piece but this was the received wisdom in 1955 when the book was first published.The picture above the fireplace in the first class smoking room is seen to be "The Approach to the New World (by Norman Wilkinson).In fact this hung in the equivalent location on her earlier sister ship, RMS "Olympic".The correct painting should have been "Plymouth Harbour" by the same artist.Also White Star and the ship's constructors, Harland & Wolff just launched their liners at their Belfast shipyard without flowery speeches such as "....I Name this ship Titanic.May god bless her etc etc".The launching scene is actually of the "Olympic" which you can tell because of her light grey painted hull made more photogenic for the cine cameras of the day Titanic's hull was black. with white superstructure and a gold band separating these two colours.Lord admitted these understandable errors in his sequel "The Night Lives On" (1986) after Dr Robert Ballard ( of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute ,Massachussets) at last found the final resting place of the ship, 2 1/2 miles down on the Atlantic floor in 1985.

That said, this is a riveting and unforgetable docu-drama of this historical event, arguably the most infamous maritime disaster (although loss of life has been greater in other shipwrecks).The fascination lies in the "if onlys".i.e. if only she had been going a few knots slower, if only she had had enough lifeboats for all instead of the maximum laid down by the British Board of Trade in their already out of date 1894 regulations, when the maximum tonnage was deemed to be up to 10000 tons.Titanic came in at 46000 tons.If the weather had been rougher, waves would have broken over the base of the iceberg thus making it more visible.If the crow's nest crew had been given binoculars (they were removed at Southampton).If the Titanic had not been delayed in her construction (and therefore her 31/5/11 launch) by her shipworkers being transferred to the repair in September 1911 of the RMS Olympic following a collision in the Solent with HMS Hawke.If 1st officer Murdoch had steered straight at the berg instead of trying to avoid it the ship may have stayed afloat (although deaths would have occurred by the crumpling of the bow).If the "California's" captain, Stanley Lord had raised wireless operator, Cyril Furmston Evans who had just retired for the night, instead of trying to contact the mystery ship with a Morse lamp.If Alexander Carlisle, marine architect who originally planned 32 lifeboats had not been over-ruled by White Star because it made the boat deck look "cluttered".In fact RMS Titanic ended up with 16 lifeboats, the regulation number required by law, but then White Star actually exceeded the quota by the provision of an extra two Englebert collapsible sided lifeboats with a further two lashed on top of the officers' quarters.If a vital ice message from the "Caronia" sent on behalf of Capt. Barr and received by senior Titanic Marconi operator John Phillips, had gone to the bridge in good time, warning of icebergs directly in the path of the ill fated vessel.And so the "if onlys" go on.

The fascination is of a small Anglo Saxon floating town set in 1912 with all the social classes represented from the aristocratic and rich (first) class, to the professional middle (second) class down to the emigrant and poor (third/steerage) classes and "never the twain shall meet".The "gilded age", as termed by Mark Twain, had begun in about 1890 and society was marvelling at the wit of man and the many technological innovations and inventions.Perhaps Mankind could outdo Nature but a Greek tragedy was waiting in the wings to punish man for his rash hubris and arrogance.

There is a companion video available called "The making of A Night To Remember" which goes behind the scenes at Pinewood studios and shows the locations used.Actual Titanic survivors were invited as advisors to the Irish producer, William MacQuity, among them were Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall, Lawrence Beesley, the science master from Dulwich College (who wrote the book "Titanic Its Story and Its Lessons, published by Houghton Mifflin 1912)a second class passenger who escaped in boat 13.Captain Edward John Smith's daughter Helen stated that the actor Lawrence Naismith who played him, was uncannily like her father as evidenced in contemporay photographs of the two men at approx. the same age.Captain Smith died aged 62, (probably on his last voyage before retirement although this can never be proved).Actor Kenneth More is seen chatting to Sylvia Lightoller the widow of Charles Herbert Lightoller who was second officer,read his biography "Titanic Voyager".The convincing creaking sound you hear as Andrews tries to sit down in the first class smoking room just before the end, was the actual sound of the hydraulic lifting gear in the studio as it progressively raised the floor.MacQuitty was very careful to ensure the accuracy of the film set angles (of the ever slanting deck as she sank by the bow and rose by the stern), were always matching the dramas recorded by witnesses, so there is a marvellous sense of continuity in the filmed sinking.The B&W photography merges seemlessly with the authentic period film and all the actors convincingly say their lines many based on actual speeches said by the principal characters as remembered by witnesses.This is a superb film.Watch Cameron's "Titanic" 1997 only for the special effects.

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Forget Cameron's TITANIC. Roy Ward Baker's A NIGHT TO REMEMBER is the real thing. Cameron definitely has the older film licked in the special effects department, and the kiddies who demand state-of-the-art visuals above all else will undoubtedly be disappointed by the model work in Baker's film. But the Titanic tragedy is hardly a "special effects story." It is a powerful human drama, and on that level, Cameron's film is much inferior to Baker's 1958 triumph.

This is not to say that Cameron's TITANIC is without emotional impact. But nearly every good scene in TITANIC was lifted in some cases almost word-for-word from the older film. To give but one example: the musicians on deck decide that enough is enough, and split up. As the others walk away, the leader begins to play a hymn. The other musicians rejoin him, and as they play, we cut to a dramatic montage. Sound familiar? Of course, the two films are telling the same story, so a certain amount of overlap is surely to be expected. But it's difficult to escape the impression that the meticulous research for which Cameron's team are praised really consisted of repeated viewings of A NIGHT TO REMEMBER.

But enough of Cameron. Suffice it to say that Baker's masterpiece stands up perfectly well next to the more recent blockbuster, and is in many ways the superior film. For one thing, we are spared the sappy love story and scenery-chewing bad guys. Based closely on Walter Lord's meticulously researched bestseller, Eric Ambler's script sticks almost totally to the known facts. Composite characters are used in some cases, to cut down on the number of faces we need to keep track of (still quite a few), but the events of the disaster are generally protrayed as they actually happened. In fact, quite a few Titanic survivors were consulted during the making of the film, and the Titanic's Fourth Officer Boxhall served as a technical adviser. Walter Lord himself was also involved, so it need scarcely surprise us that the film is more accurate than any other Titanic dramatization.

On this score, however, commentators inevitably feel obligated to point out that Baker's film shows the ship sinking in one piece, instead of breaking in two as we now know it did. As a matter of fact, we should have known it even then many witnesses reported that the ship had done just that. For some reason, however, the prevailing wisdom in the 1950s was that the ship went down in one piece. I just can't get too bothered by this inaccuracy in the film; the point is, the ship went down. The film gets the human details of the disaster largely correct, and that's really what counts, isn't it? Besides, this is one of only a very few technical elements that the filmakers didn't get right.

Speaking of getting things right, it's curious to note that while it plays an important role in A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, the Californian is not even mentioned in Cameron's film. This ship was actually within sight of the wreck, and its crew either couldn't or wouldn't realize what was happening right in front of them. Baker's film leaves no doubt in the viewer's mind that these men acted reprehensibly; the DVD commentary gives a slightly more charitable presentation of the case. By today's standards, there is no excuse for the Californian's failure to act; but then, many of our modern conventions concerning disasters at sea were brought into being precisely because of the Titanic tragedy. At the time, things were far less cut and dried. Still, it's hard to look at the scenes involving the crew of the Californian without feeling a great deal of anger.

So much for the facts what about the movie? It is full of unforgettable scenes, although many of them, unfortunately, may have been spoiled for modern viewers by Cameron's "borrowing." Ambler's script is gripping, building slowly to an intense climax. There is very little music in the film, apart from what the on-screen orchestra plays; this lends a certain verisimilitude, but more importantly, it helps the film to steer well clear of melodrama. The special effects, to no one's surprise, are fair at best though it must be added that they stand up far better than a lot of special effects work from the same period. Otherwise, the film's technical merits are outstanding. The sets are magnificent, the cinematography equally so.

Baker's direction is outstanding to his credit, the movie almost totally avoids the overheated melodrama that mars so many films from the 1950s. He has drawn understated, believeable performances from a very large cast, and nearly every note rings true. In keeping with the meticulous attention to detail that charcterized this entire project, Baker and his team employed some brilliant (and yet deceptively simple) technical tricks to achieve the realism they insisted upon. For example, their external set of the Titanic consisted only of the port side of the ship, but there were several important scenes set on the starboard side. To capture these scenes, Baker and his superb camerman, Geoffrey Unsworth, filmed them through a mirror. They had the actors salute and shake hands with their left hands, the Titanic emblem was done mirror-fashion so it would look right through the camera, the men's double-breasted coats were buttoned the wrong way round, and so on. The ruse worked quite well: even the best gaffe-spotters will have a tough time finding anything amiss in the starboard scenes!

Given the superb technical craftsmanship of the film, the DVD extras are somewhat disappointing, especially from Criterion. In addition to the usual theatrical trailer, the extras include a weak "making of" documentary consisting of the reminiscences of Walter Lord and producer William MacQuitty, along with MacQuitty's home movies from the set. Somewhat interesting, but not what it could have been; conspicuously absent is any input from director Roy Ward Baker. The commentary track (from Don Lynch and Ken Marschall, author and illustrator of "Titanic: An Illustrated History") is very informative, and sheds light on the factual basis of so much of the film's action. Here, too, however, a commentary track from Baker and members of his technical team would have been wonderful.

In fact, Baker is scarcely even mentioned in the extras. This is all the more shameful in light of the fact that this is not only his best film, but one of the best films of its time. Surely a director's commentary track would have been valuable? I suppose Baker's subsequent "decline" into the realm of Hammer horror (where, by the way, he made both some awful and some outstanding films) may have tarnished his reputation as a director, but if Criterion can find room for kitchen-sink, two-disc sets covering the oeuvre of Michael Bay, they can surely honor the work of a director who had his ups and downs, but still made a number of very fine films.

The picture quality is generally very good, though there are occasional moments (usually no more than a couple of seconds) where the print looks worn. Sound is about what you'd expect from a good print of a movie from the 1950s.

In all, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER is marvelously understated and compelling cinema. The film holds up remarkably well today but then, it should. Movies that are based on great acting and superb craftsmanship tend to wear far better than sappy romances and special-effects extravaganzas.

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