The date was April 10, 1912, the "RMS Titanic", left Southampton, England, for New York City. Instead, the luxury liner dubbed the, "Millionaire's Special", sailed into history and legend.
Some Facts and Interesting Points About the Sinking:
The following link, from "Encyclopedia - Titanica", takes you to the actual, Special Edition of "Ship Builder Magazine", that looked at the building of the "White Star Line's Olympic and Titanic", before "Titanic" ever sailed.
The following is a quote from "Shipbuilder Magazine":
Watertight Subdivision.
The watertight subdivision of the Olympic and Titanic is very complete, and is so arranged that any two main compartments may be flooded without in any way involving the safety of the ship. There are fifteen transverse watertight bulkheads extending from the double bottom to the upper deck at the forward end of the ship, and to the saloon deck at the after end—in both instances far above the waterline. The room in which the reciprocating engines are placed is the largest of the compartments, being 69ft. long, while the turbine room is 54ft. long. The boiler rooms are generally 57ft. long, with the exception of that nearest the reciprocating engine compartment. The holds are 50ft. long.
According to the website, "History.com":
https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/titanic#unsinkable-titanic-s-fatal-flaws
It was these watertight bulkheads that inspired Shipbuilder magazine, in a special issue devoted to the Olympic liners, to deem them “practically unsinkable.”
Except, sadly, on April 14, 1912, an iceberg collided with "Titanic" and the ship went down in two-hours and forty minutes, proving "Shipbuilder" magazine wrong.
The total number of passengers and crew on-board "RMS Titanic" was 2,240, it is estimated that 1,500 passengers and crew members lost their lives.
It should be noted that the ship only had 20-lifeboats, which if completely used, only held 1,178-people. Adding to the death total, only 18-lifeboats were used and not completely full. There were four-collapsible boats on-board, "Boat A" wasn't fully put together, but saved 14-people, "Boat B" saved 28-people, "Boat C" saved 43-people, the actual amount a collapsible boat could hold, "Boat D" saved 34-people.
Perhaps ironic, is that the "White Star Line", like others, referred to those purchasing passage on one of their liners, not as passengers, but "Soul's".
Among the notable "Soul's" on "RMS Titanic's" maiden voyage who lost their life was John Jacob Astor IV, heir to the Astor fortune. His wife, Madeline, was one of the survivors.
Benjamin Guggenheim, wealthy American industrialist, lost his life on-board the "Titanic". He left his wife at home, but sailed with his French mistress and singer, Leontine Aubart, who survived. Victor Giglio, was either Guggenheim's valet, or secretary, and did not survive, but Aubert's maid, Emma Sagesser, did.
Probably the most known survivor of the sinking, by way of a 1960 Broadway musical from Meredith Wilson, was widow and heiress Margaret Brown, part of John Jacob Astor IV's party in Paris, France.
Margaret Brown helped people board the lifeboats, and took an oar on lifeboat #6, she urged Quartermaster Robert Hichens to return for more passengers, because the lifeboat wasn't full. According to Brown and other passengers, Hichens afraid the lifeboat would swamp as the ship sank, refused to rescue anymore of the passengers.
After her death on October 26, 1932, stories about Margaret Brown referred to her as "Molly Brown", and what became the title of Wilson's musical, "The Unsinkable Molly Brown". Which would be filmed in 1964, starring Debbie Reynolds.
Below, "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" is seen presenting Captain Arthur Henry Rostron of the ship, "SS Carpathia" an award for saving passengers from the "RMS Titanic".
Many books and movies make it seem that "Titanic" was the first ship to use the distress signal "SOS". That is incorrect, and that signal may have actually contributed to the confusion in the sinking.
According to the "National Geographic" website article 'Why Titanic's first call for help wasn't an SOS signal":
https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2020/05/why-titanics-first-call-for-help-wasnt-an-sos-signal
The standard distress signal used by Marconi wireless operators around the world was Gugleilmo Marconi's "CQD", "CQ (seek you)" and "D (distress)". Although an international group of counties, including the United Kingdom, in 1908, had adopted a new distress signal, "SOS". Unlike, "CQD", the letters of "SOS", had no meaning.
The two radio operators Jack Philips and Harold Bride started with "CQD", but did try "SOS" also. However, their system could only use one distress call at a time and not all operators that were receiving the "SOS" understood what that meant. Then there were irrelevant questions, like one asking if the "Titanic" were heading toward a ship that was located 500-miles-away? It is documented that amateur radio operators hearing the "COD - SOS" on their wireless sets, started asking questions to add to the confusion of getting a rescue message out.
Also documented, is that the ship "SS Californian" was the closest to "RMS Titanic", depending upon the witnesses, between five and twenty miles, and should have seen the luxury liners rockets (flares). Photographed, below, is the "Californian" on the day after the sinking.
Captain Stanley Philip Lord had been on duty for a straight 72-hours and was asleep. He was awoken twice during the night about the rockets, but believed they were "company rockets" used by some ships of one line to identify themselves to others of the same line. According to testimony, Titanic's Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall and Quartermaster Rowe, attempted to contact by Morse Code Lamp on the ships deck, another ship seen in the distance. However, there was no one on the "SS Californian" that saw these signal. Ironically, the officers of the "Californian" did the reverse, but no one on the "Titanic" apparently saw their Morse Code Lamp signals.
The following is from the testimony of Captain Lord, April 26, 1912, before the United States Senate Inquiry into the sinking of the "Titanic":
When I came off the bridge, at half past 10, I pointed out to the officer that I thought I saw a light coming along, and it was a most peculiar light, and we had been making mistakes all along with the stars, thinking they were signals. We could not distinguish where the sky ended and where the water commenced. You understand, it was a flat calm. He said he thought it was a star, and I did not say anything more. I went down below. I was talking with the engineer about keeping the steam ready, and we saw these signals coming along, and I said "There is a steamer passing. Let us go to the wireless and see what the news is." But on our way down I met the operator coming, and I said, "Do you know anything?" He said, "The Titanic." So, then, I gave him instructions to let the Titanic know. I said, "This is not the Titanic; there is no doubt about it." She came and lay at half past 11, alongside of us until, I suppose, a quarter past, within 4 miles of us. We could see everything on her quite distinctly, see her lights. We signaled her, at half past 11, with the Morse lamp. She did not take the slightest notice of it. That was between half past 11 and 20 minutes to 12. We signaled her again at 10 minutes past 12, half past 12, a quarter to 1 o'clock. We have a very powerful Morse lamp. I suppose you can see that about 10 miles, and she was about 4 miles off, and she did not take the slightest notice of it. When the second officer came on the bridge, at 12 o'clock, or 10 minutes past 12, I told him to watch that steamer, which was stopped, and I pointed out the ice to him; told him we were surrounded by ice; to watch the steamer that she did not get any closer to her. At 20 minutes to 1 I whistled up the speaking tube and asked him if she was getting any nearer. He said, "No; she is not taking any notice of us." So, I said "I will go and lie down a bit." At a quarter past he said, "I think she has fired a rocket." He said, "She did not answer the Morse lamp and she has commenced to go away from us." I said, "Call her up and let me know at once what her name is. So, he put the whistle back, and, apparently, he was calling. I could hear him ticking over my head. Then l went to sleep.
In 1992, the United Kingdom's Marine Accident Investigation Branch, re-examined Captain Lord's case and came to the conclusion:
the effect of Californian taking proper action would have been no more than to place on her the task actually carried out by RMS Carpathia that is the rescue of those who escaped ... [no] reasonably probable action by Captain Lord could have led to a different outcome of the tragedy
Film makers have been fascinated with the sinking of "RMS Titanic". As early as one-month after the event a short film was released. As of this writing there have been three-silent shorts, and six-dramatic movies about fictional events using the disaster as background. While the sinking was used as a small sequence in two-movies, one-classic docudrama, and three-animated feature films.
Then there are the 29-feature-length documentaries about the sinking, or the the forgotten men, even from China, that built the ship. Not to forget the 28-programs on television, that included only 7-docudramas about the actual sinking. However, the BBC included references to the sinking on "Upstairs, downstairs", "Downton Abbey", and even in David Tennant's "Dr. Who". Irwin Allen's "Time Tunnel" took the time travelers to the "Titanic" just before it hit the iceberg, the animated television programs, "Futurama", "Family Guy" and "Superfriends" had episodes about the ocean liner. As did "One Step Beyond", that dealt with paranormal experiences prior to the sinking.
Out of the above list, I have picked ten titles and start on:
May 16, 1912, with the first movie about the sinking, a ten-minute silent film starring actual Titanic survivor, and American movie actress, Dorothy Gibson. "SAVED FROM THE TITANIC", written by Gibson, was filmed and released by the French - United Kingdom movie company, "Eclair Film", but filmed in New York City.
Above left to right, actor Alec B. Francis as "Gibson's father", 22-years-old Dorothy Gibson, and John G. Adolfi as "Ensign Jack".
Two other short silent films were released in 1912:
"La hantise (The Obsession)" was a 24-minute short French film about a wife who has gone to a palm reader, trying to keep her husband from going on the "Titanic". The film supposedly was actually an exposé of palm reading fraud.
"In Nacht und Elis (In Night and Ice)" is a 35-minute short German film drama set on the "Titanic" and is the earliest surviving film made about the sinking.
The first sound motion picture to use "RMS Titanic" as a background was:
ATLANTIC premiering in London on November 15, 1929
The screenplay was based upon a play. "The Berg", by Swiss born British playwright Ernest Raymond, first produced in March 1929, and itself based upon the "RMS Titanic" disaster.
The screenplay was by Victor Kendall, this was his fifth screenplay, all written in 1929, and was the basis for both the German and French language productions shot with a cast of either German, or French actors. At the time dubbing a motion picture was unknown.
"Atlantic" was directed by producer, Ewald Andre Dupont. German film director Dupont had been directing motion pictures in his native Germany since 1918. He also directed the German cast in "Atlantik". The reason for the ocean liner's name change was that the "White Star Line" refused the use of the name "Titanic". Yet, according to an urban legend, the filming of "Atlantic" was done on the "White Star Line's" "Majestic", seen below.
The main dramatic story revolved around a married man who was having an affair with another passenger, "Monica", he had met, while on-board the "Atlantic" with his wife. The wife eventually discovers the affair as the ship is struck by an iceberg and starts to sink.
Franklin Dyall portrayed "John Rool". Shakespearian stage actor Dyall only portrayed 26 on-screen roles between 1916 and 1948, this was his fourth.
Madeline Carroll portrayed "Monica". She would go on to co-star in director Alfred Hitchcock's, 1935, "39 Steps", and 1936's, "Secret Agent", director Lewis Milestone's 1936, "The General Died at Dawn", and director Henry King's, 1936, "Lloyd's of London", among other British film classics.
Ellaine Terriss portrayed "Alice Rool". Terriss had been acting since 1907, but her final film, her sixteenth, was in 1939. I could not locate many stills for this picture and not one of Miss Terriss, seen below.
NOEL COWARD'S CAVALCADE
The story follows the lives of two English families, the upper-class, "Marryot's", and the working class, "Bridges" family. Along with, in and out of the main story, the "Harris" family. Throughout the screenplay the events of the time come into play, the "Second Boar War", "Queen Victoria's" death, and the historic air flight of French aviator Louis Bleriot, crossing the English Channel are examples.
The progression in years for these families' lives is shown by title cards.
At one point, a title card comes on-screen showing "APRIL 14, 1912". The card is followed by a shot of an ocean liner filled with people and cuts to a secluded balcony, with "Edward Marryot", portrayed by John Warburton, and his new bride, "Edith Harris", portrayed by Margaret Lindsay, enjoying the ocean view together.
Between February 23, 1942 and October 1942, the Reich Minister's cast and crew filmed his propaganda masterpiece in Gdynia, Pomorski, Poland, and exterior sequences in the town of Ostee.
Herbert Selpin was personally selected by Goebbels to direct the motion picture. He also was one of two credited writers on the production. During the shooting of the motion picture, Selpin experienced many problems with drunken German soldiers and sailors working as extra's and causing delays on the set. He made the mistake of criticizing the military and, apparently, the main writer and Herbert Selpin's personal friend, Walter Zerlett-Olfenius, reported his anti-military comments, which got to the Gestapo. Selpin refused to take those comments back, and on orders from Joseph Goebbels, the director was arrested, July 31, 1932.
According to an article by writer Brian Hawkins, April 14, 2012, on the website for Canada's, "The National Post", entitled, "The Titanic's last victim":
https://archive.ph/20130129183313/http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/04/14/brian-hawkins-the-titanics-last-victim/
Around midnight on Friday, July 31, 1942, two guards entered Selpin’s cell and hanged him from the bars of a ceiling window, using his trouser suspenders as a noose. For his records, Goebbels had the death scene secretly photographed and filed away. He then sent a terse letter to Selpin’s wife notifying her of her husband’s “regrettable suicide.”
It should be mentioned that Zerlett-Olfenius had his own repercussions from turning in Henry Selpin. In August 1947, he was tried for his actions and sentenced to five-years in a labor camp, and fifty-percent of his ascents taken. In 1949, his sentence was revoked and with his wife, actress Eva Tinschmann, Zerlett-Olfenius retired to Bavaria.
For the on-board filming, Joseph Goebbels arranged for the use of the German ocean liner "SS Cap Arcona", seen below:
However, the following morning brings the news that "Ismay's" initial plan is failing. He tries to calm his board members, reminding them that once the "RMS Titanic" wins the Blue Riband, an unofficial award for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, the price of the stock has to go up. "J. Bruce Ismay" adds that he believes there has been some foul play, but by whom he does not know, that caused his plan to fail.
Meanwhile, the unknown person is the telegraph office operator. Who had revealed to "John Jacob Astor's", portrayed by Karl Schonbock, secretary "Hopkins", portrayed by Karl Mexiner, what the White Star Board members were doing. "Astor" figuring out "Ismay's" plans, puts into effect his own plan to further lower the value of the White Star Line's stock by the time they reach New York City. Giving him a heads up to buy the control of the White Star Line from under "J. Bruce Ismay".
The "RMS Titanic" leaves Southampton for New York City.
This was the first motion picture to use actual events on-board the "Titanic" tied to a fictional drama. It was also the first motion picture to use the one-word title, "TITANTIC".
Part Two: The Disaster
"First Officer Petersen" testifies against "J. Bruce Ismay", he condemns "Ismay's" actions, but the court's decision clears "Ismay" of all charges and the blame for the "RMS Titanic" is put squarely upon the deceased "Captain Edward J. Smith".
The Epilogue Reads:
Der Tod von 1.500 Menschen blieb ungestraft, eine ewige Verurteilung der Profitgier Englands. (The deaths of 1,500 people remained unpunished, an eternal condemnation of England's profiteering.)
TITANIC
Darryl F. Zanuck, the studio head at "20th Century Fox", called screenplay writers Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch into his office and informed the two that:
I have Clifton Webb under contract, and we have CinemaScope, and I now want to do something big...Don't make Clifton a clown. I want him to start a new career as a character actor. Use all the young people we have on the lot, like Audrey Dalton and Robert Wagner...It was Walter Reisch that came up with the "Titanic" idea and told Zanuck that the screenplay would be:
60 percent truth, completely documentaryClifton Webb would portray one of 25-multi-millionaires that died on the ship. Writer Richard Breen was added to the screenwriting team and the three men went to work.
As to that 60% truth, the finished screenplay only named ten actual people. Nine of which were portrayed by uncredited actors, except for one role. The roles where:
http://www.bewaretheblog.com/2016/05/yonder-lies-castle-of-my-fodder-tony.html
Audrey Dalton portrayed "Annette Sturges". Irish actress Dalton's first motion picture was third billing behind Olivia de Havilland and Richard Burton in 1952's, "My Cousin Rachel". She followed this picture with another third billing behind Bob Hope and Joan Fontaine in 1954's, "Casanova's Big Night". After time off from the birth of her child, Dalton started guest appearances on American television programs, but for fans of cult science fiction. Audrey Dalton co-starred with "B" Cowboy actor, Tim Holt, in 1957's, "The Monster That Challenged the World", and in 1961, she co-starred in director William Castle's, "Mr. Sardonicus".
Thelma Ritter portrayed "Maude Young", can you say "Molly Brown"? Ritter had just been seen with fourth billing in the Susan Hayward Hollywood biography of "Jane Froman", 1952's, "With a Song in My Heart". She would follow this picture with director Sam Fuller's, 1953, film-noir classic, "Pickup on South Street", starring Richard Widmark.
Brian Aherne, as previously mentioned, portrayed "Captain Edward John Smith". British actor, William Brian de Lacy Aherne, had just appeared in director Alfred Hitchcock's, 1953, "I Confess", starring Montgomery Clift. He followed this motion picture by portraying "King Arthur", in 1954's, "Prince Valiant".
Richard Basehart portrayed "George Healey". Basehart was "Ishmael" in director John Ford's excellent, 1956, version of American author's Herman Melville's, "Moby Dick", starring Gregory Peck. Known for portraying "Admiral Harriman Nelson", on Irwin Allen's television series, "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea", Basehart had been mesmerizing as "Adolph Hitler", in 1962's "Hitler".
The "Titanic" didn't leave England directly from Southampton for New York City, but it picked up passengers in both Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland.
Third-class cabins on the Titanic had running water and electricity. Steerage passengers were provided with meals, which were a wonderful perk; most steamships that carried steerage passengers at the time required them to bring their own food. Passengers could clean up in their cabins in a washbasin. However, only two bathtubs served all 700-plus third-class men and women. Bunk beds in third class had mattresses, pillows, and blankets, but no sheets or pillowcases.
Third-class passengers ate three meals a day in two common dining rooms called the dining saloons. These rooms were located on F Deck between the second and third funnels, exactly two decks below the first-class dining room. Third-class passengers did not get individual tables; they ate on rows of tables lined up next to each other. Combined, the two third-class dining saloons could hold only around 475 people, so diners were served in two seating's.
On the bridge, "Sanderson" of the White Star Line, portrayed by Anthony Eustrel, center below, think J. Bruce Ismay, suggests the company would find it most welcome, if "Captain Smith" would keep the "Titanic" at a record-setting-speed crossing the Atlantic.
"Julia", "Annette" and "Norman" enter the main dining room and "Annette" complains about the tables location they will be seated at, because no one will really see them, or more to the point, her. Next, "Richard" to the delight of his children and the unwanted surprise of "Julia" arrives and joins the three. After their children are sent on errands, "Richard" attacks "Julia" for kidnapping their children.
"Julia" replies, that she wants to take "Annette" and "Norman" back to her hometown of Mackinac Island, Michigan. Getting them away from their snobbish father's lifestyle of an ex-American-patriate traveling through Europe. "Julia" tells "Richard", she wants "Annette" and "Norman" raised as normal, down-to-earth Americans. "Richard" protests that he doesn't want his daughter to marry a "Rural Bumpkin".
While, "Second Officer Lightoller" is asked by "Captain Smith", who received a note from "First Officer Murdoch", about "Murdoch's" concern over how many binoculars are available for lookouts? "Lightoller" tells "Captain Smith" that there are no available binoculars for the use of the lookouts and just enough for the bridge.
In their cabin, "Richard" now declares to "Annette" and "Norman" that their mother plans to take them not to a family reunion as "Julia" had used to get them on the "Titanic", but to keep them in America.
"Annette", who shares her father's snobbishness, tells her mother that her home is in France, and she will return to Europe with her father on the first ship from New York City. "Julia" admits that at "Annette's" age, her daughter can make her own decisions, but, "Norman" will stay with her. "Richard", after hearing "Julia", exclaims that this is what he gets, for attempting to civilize a woman, who buys her hats out of the "Sears & Roebuck" catalogue.
That night, "Richard" allows "Norman" to purchase his first pair of long pants and "Annette" attempts to make amends with her mother over her temper tantrum. After "Annette" and "Norman" leave for the dining room, "Richard" tells "Julia" he will not give up to her over "Norman", who will go back to France with him.
In the bar area, "Richard" and "Maude" are again in a game of bridge. "Norman" comes up to his father and asks "Richard" to accompany him to a shuffleboard tournament, but "Richard" in a very abrupt manner, just ignores "Norman", leaving him perplexed as the "father" continues playing cards.
On deck "Annette" finds "Giff", and admits she left him, because she has no idea of the latest American dances. He says he'll teach her and the two start to become closer to each other. "Annette" leaves him after the dancing lesson holding "Giff's" hat and happily tosses it into the Atlantic. The hat is bobbing in the seawater with pieces of ice starting to appear around it.
That evening, "Richard" rudely ignores the pleas of his wife for him to spend more time with "Norman". While "Lightoller" having received another report about an iceberg is growing more nervous and again asks "Captain Smith" to slow down and possibly change course. "Smith" will not change course as the ocean is calming down and he does not expect to encounter icebergs during the night and with daylight, they will be able to clearly see them.
"Annette" joins "Giff" and his friends singing by the grand piano and allows him to give her a kiss. The time is now 11:36 PM, and two sailors in the crow's nest spot an iceberg. The alarm is sounded and the ship steers hard to starboard. It appears the "RMS Titanic" will miss the iceberg, but instead, the iceberg rips a hole in the "Titanic's" side. As "Captain Edward John Smith", and "Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller" race for the bridge.
A changed "Richard" putting on a bemused air, helps "Julia" and the children into their lifejackets and the four go on deck.
Next, "Richard" goes to steerage and gets "Mrs. Uzcadum" and her children and brings them on deck. While "Richard's" gone, another passenger informs "Julia" that only women and children are to go into the lifeboats. "Julia" now realizes that "Richard" is putting on a look of composure for the family.
After "Julia" watches "Richard" get "Mrs. Uzcadum" and her children to safety, she apologizes for considering him useless, but he replies that he has been useless and self-centered. The couple pledge eternal devotion to each other.
Next, "Richard" and "Giff" watch "Julia", "Annette", and "Norman" board a lifeboat. As it's being lowered, the lifeboat stops at a lower deck and "Norman" gives up his seat for an elderly woman. "Norman" now searches for his father, while "Giff" cuts a stuck boat free, but falls into the water and is pulled into the lifeboat with "Julia" and "Annette".
"Norman" now locates "Richard", who is distraught over the fact that the boy will now die, but now tells him how proud he is of his son.
As the "RMS Titanic" continues to sink, the survivors in the lifeboats hear the music coming from the band and listen in silence as from the ship come the voices singing: "Nearer My Go, To Thee!"
The movie ends with the passengers in the lifeboats waiting to be rescued.
In November, 1955, American author, lawyer, copywriter, and historian, John Walter Lord, Jr's, meticulously researched non-fiction book on the sinking of "RMS Titanic" was published. His work remains the preeminent work on the disaster and the 1958 motion picture, that was based upon it, remains, as of this writing, the most accurate docudrama of the events.
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER
Eric Ambler turned Walter Lord's work into a screenplay. He had been the co-writer of the 1944, "The Mask of Dimitrios", and the excellent story of a British convoy escort ship during the Second World War, 1953's, "The Cruel Sea".
Among other research for the screenplay, Ambler, Baker, and MacQuitty interviewed Lord, and several of the survivors of the "Titanic". Along with "Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall", and "Second Officer Charles Lightoller's" wife. When Helen Melville Smith, the daughter of "Captain Smith", visited the set and saw actor Laurence Naismith as her father. She become emotional because of his resemblance to her father, illustrating the detail going into the screenplay and production.
There had been an earlier one-hour American television production of "A Night to Remember", on the "Kraft Television Theatre", March 28, 1956. It was a major success and a repeated "Kinescope" broadcast took place on May 2, 1956.
The television production did a more literal version of Walter Lord's book and skips around from one sequence to another, as does the book, without giving the audience or reader, one or two characters to associate the event with. The live production was directed by George Roy Hill, 1969's, " Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", and 1972's, "Slaughterhouse-Five", was narrated by Claude Rains, Clarence Derwent portrayed "Captain Smith", and Neil North portrayed "Second Officer Charles Lightoller".
For a television production, let alone a live one, there was a cast of 107 actors, with 72 speaking parts.
A decision by Ambler, Baker, and MacQuitty had been made to give the viewing audience one central character for the story to revolve around. Thus, creating more continuity than the book, or the previous television production. The decision was to make:
Kenneth More's "Second Officer Charles Lightoller" that character. During the Second World War, Royal Navy Lieutenant Kenneth More served on the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, that was involved with the sinking of the German battleship "Bismarck". In 1960, More co-starred with Dana Wynter in the motion picture "Sink the Bismarck", based upon British author C.S. Forester's, 1959, "The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck". Also in 1958, More co-starred with Jayne Mansfield in the very good, but overlooked western comedy, "The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw".
Above Kenneth More, below Charles Lightoller. Trivia: Lightoller personally saved 127 soldiers off the beach at Dunkirk, during the Second World War.
Laurence Naismith, as mentioned above, portrayed "Captain Edward John Smith". Among character actor Naismith's films is a bit part in the Bela Lugosi comedy, 1952's, "Mother Riley Meets the Vampire", Sir Laurence Olivier's, 1953, "The Beggar's Opera", Clifton Webb's, 1956, "The Man Who Never Was", 1957's, "Boy on the Dolphin", 1960's, "Sink the Bismarck", 1960's, excellent version of British author John Wyndham's "The Midwich Cuckoo's" as the "Village of the Damned", and stop-motion-animator Ray Harryhausen's, "Jason and the Argonauts".
Above Laurence Naismith and below Captain Edward Smith.
Richard Leech portrayed "First Officer William McMaster Murdoch". Leech was a qualified doctor, but decided to go into acting. Among his other films is 1953's, "The Cruel Sea", 1955's, "The Dam Busters", and 1957's, "Night of the Demon aka: Curse of the Demon".
David McCallum portrayed "Assistant Wireless Operator Harold Sydney Bride". McCallum first appeared on-seen in the three-part mini-series, 1953's, "The Rose and the Ring", and was primarily a television drama actor. In 1962, he appeared in director and star Peter Ustinov's version of American author Herman Melville's, "Billy Budd", the same year he had a major role in director John Huston's, "Freud", and in 1963, David McCallum was part of "The Great Escape". However, from 1964 through 1968, the actor had his first major American television role as "Illya Kuryakin", on "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", and from 2003 through his passing in 2023, David McCallum portrayed "Donald 'Ducky' Mallard" on televisions "NCIS".
Michael Goodliffe portraying the builder of "RMS Titanic", "Thomas Andrews". Who informed "Captain Smith", that after his inspection of the "Titanic", he believes it will totally sink within the next two-hours.
Jane Downs portrayed "Mrs. Sylvia Lightoller".
Above, Jane Downs, below "Mrs. Sylvia Lightoller".
The motion picture used actual newsreel footage of the "RMS Titanic", and even some stock footage from the "Nazi Titanic". Below actual newsreel footage of the launching of the "Titanic" is interwoven with created footage.
What follows are stills of the detailed look of the motion picture starting in the first still prior to leaving Southampton.
Below, Thomas Andrews consults with Captain Smith after the haul is breached by the iceberg.
Below, a scene from the Nazi "Titanic", all the flooding engine room scenes came from the other picture.
While, the crew assisted in placing wives and children into the lifeboats and stopping husbands from joining them, or deciding which men can go because of circumstances.
1958's, "A Night to Remember" has been compared to the last motion picture I will look at, James Cameron's, 1997, "Titanic". One of the main points film historians and survivors of the disaster made was that the 1958 film had a modest production budget in United States dollars of $763,967. While the 1997 film had a budget of $200,000,000. Yet, the 1958's film was the more historically accurate in its look and the telling of the actual events.
Two examples of this view will be found in an article by Celeste Cumming, in the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette", entitled, "Early Titanic Film A Movie to Remember", September 11, 1998. Another is in a book by the "Hollywood Reporter's", journalist, Paula Parisi, entitled "Titanic and the Making of James Cameron: The Inside Story of a Three-Year Adventure That Rewrote Motion Picture History".
American adventure novelist and underwater explorer Clive Cussler had created a fictional government agency, "NUMA (the National Underwater and Marine Agency)" in 1973's, "The Mediterranean Caper". He also introduced "Dirk Pitt", the special projects director for "NUMA", and its head, retired admiral, "James Sandecker".
In 1979, Clive Cussler brought his fictional agency to life as a private organization. His new "NUMA", according to its website, https://numa.net/. is for:
preserving our maritime heritage through the discovery, archaeological survey and conservation of shipwreck artifacts
RIP Clive Cussler, July 15, 1931 through February 24, 2020
Among the adventures of "Dirt Pitt" and "NUMA", was looking for a Confederate Civil War Iron Clad that crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the Sahara Desert with gold coins. Other had "Putt" searching for a treasure in the real hidden tomb of Genghis Khan, discovering that President Abraham Lincoln was not assassinated but kidnapped, or finding out that French author Jules Verne's "Captain Nemo" existed and the discovery of the real "Nautilus" with a magnetohydrodynamic engine.
Which brings me back to the third of the twenty-five novels written by Clive Cussler and the motion picture it was turned into
RAISE THE TITANIC
According to Larry Mc Murty, in his 2010, "Hollywood: A Third Memoir", pp 59 - 60, he claimed the original Cussler novel, which he hated, was:
less a novel than a manual on how to raise a very large boat from deep beneath the sea
Hatred aside, McMurty claims he was just one of 17-writers who worked on Adam Kennedy's screenplay, before the final draft was decided upon. Which, for those familiar with the novels, removed both "Al Giordino", and "Rudi Gunn".
Director Jerry Jameson was taken off another film project by Sir Lew Grade and assigned to this one. Between 1968 - 1970, Jameson worked as an "Editorial Supervisor", overseeing the scripts being written for twenty television series. Between 1971 - 2015, Jerry Jameson directed mainly television shows and made-for-television movies. He also directed exportation movies with titles such as 1971's, "Brute Cops", and 1974's, "Bat People", but in 1977, he was given the director's assignment for the third-installment of the "Airport" series, "Airport 77". After which, Jameson, went back to made-for-television movies until this assignment.
Jason Robards portrayed "Admiral James Sandecker". Robards had just portrayed "President Franklin D. Roosevelt", in the 1980 made-for-television movie, "F.D.R.: The Last Year". He would follow this production portraying "Howard Hughes" in the 1980 comedy drama, "Melvin (and Howard)".
Richard Jordan portrayed "Dirk Pitt". At the time of filming, Sir Lew Grade wanted to save money on the cast by using unknowns. Jordan had been acting on television since 1962, but prior to this role had supporting roles in Charles Bronson's, 1972, "Chato's Land", Robert Mitchum's, 1973, "The Friends of Eddie Coyle", co-starred as "Francis", in the 1976, science fiction film, "Logan's Run", and portrayed "Jean Valjean", with co-star Anthony Perkins as "Javert", in an excellent made-for-television production of French author Victor Hugo's, "Les Misérables".
David Selby portrayed "Dr. Gene Seagram". Selby might be "unknown" to Sir Lew Grade, but to television audiences of producer/director Dan Curtis', "Dark Shadows", from 1968 through 1971, David Selby was "Quentin Collins". David Selby would follow this feature film portraying "Richard Channing", on the prime-time soap opera, "Falcon Crest", from 1982 through 1990.
Above left, Richard Jordan, and David Selby
Anne Archer portrayed the minor role of "Dana Archibald". Archer had started appearing on television in 1970, she had just co-starred with John Ritter in the 1980 motion picture comedy, "Hero at Large". In 1985, for one-season, Archer joined David Selby on "Falcon Crest".
Alec Guinness, who portrayed "John Bigalow". Guinness had just been seen, in 1980, for his second appearance as "Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi", in what at that time was just titled, "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back". Alec Guinness would follow this film with the British mini-series, "Smiley's People".
The C.I.A. discovers that the mine was operated by Americans and that the raw Byzanium ore was placed in wooden crates, taken out of Siberia, and placed on-board a British ship to come to the United States by an American named "Brewster". Unfortunately, that ship was the "RMS Titanic", and the shipment of Byzanium is now at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
"Dirk Pitt" goes to speak to a survivor of the sinking, a deck hand named "John Bigalow". Apparently, he was the last man to see "Brewster" alive, as he just seemed to disappear on-board the "Titanic" prior to the sinking. "Bigalow" tells "Pitt" that actually, per "Brewster's" instructions, he locked him a the vault containing his shipping crates and that his last words to "Bigalow" where:
Thank God for Southby.
In typical Clive Cussler/Dirk Pitt thinking, "Pitt" suggests to "Admiral Sandecker" that they find the "RMS Titanic", raise her from the ocean floor, bring her to New York City, open the vault, and remove the Byzanium ore.
Soviet diplomat "Captain Andre Prevlov", portrayed by Bo Brundin, finds out about "Pitt's" plan and the ore. He decides to release this information to the media, forcing "Admiral Sandecker" to hold a press conference and admit where the Byzanium was found. As both diplomatic tension with the Soviet Union increases and underwater confrontations between the Soviets and "NUMA" take place, "Dirk Pitt" finds the intact "RMS Titanic" and raises the ship, and bringing it into New York harbor.
The vault is opened, the mummified body of "Brewster" found, the wooded crates are opened, but they're full of gravel. Thus, ending the Soviet involvement. but what became of the element?
"Dirk Pitt" turns to "Brewster's" last words and investigates. He discovers that "Brewster" faked a burial of a relative in Southby, England, just prior to boarding "RMS Titanic". It's obvious that grave contains the Byzanium, but a decision is made to ignore this fact and leave the element buried to not change the status quo in current American/Soviet relations.
Then there was James Cameron:
TITANIC
Popularity aside, this is in many respects a throwback to 1953's, "Titanic", but as producer, writer, director, and film-editor James Cameron, himself, described to both Maria Realf:
https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/feature/2009-12-17-james-cameron-talks-about-avatar-aliens-and-his-titanic-career-feature-story-by-maria-realf
and Alex Bilmes:
https://web.archive.org/web/20100326133227/http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/comment/articles/2009-12/14/alex-bilmes-james-cameron
In his meeting with "20th Century Fox" executives, Cameron told them that his inspiration to make the motion pictures came from British playwright William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", and deciding to update the story and set it against the sinking of the "RMS Titanic".
James Cameron weaves his "Romeo and Juliet" story by using nine-characters, that included two actresses portraying "Juliet". Along with twenty-four other passenger and crew members experiencing the events on-board "RMS Titanic" and years afterward.
"Romeo" aka: "Jack Dawson" is portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio had just been seen as "Romeo" in director Baz Luhrmann's, 1996, updating of William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". He would follow this motion picture with the 1998 version of French author Alexander Dumas' "The Man in the Iron Mask".
"Young Juliet: aka: "Rose Dewitt Bukater" was portrayed by Kate Winslet. She had just portrayed "Ophelia", in director and star Kenneth Branagh's, 1996, version of William Shakespeare's "Hamlet". She would follow this motion picture with the adventure romance drama, 1998's, "Hideous Kinky".
"Elderly Juliet" aka: "Rose Dawson Calvert" was portrayed by Gloria Stuart. Gloria Stuart started her on-screen acting career in 1932, portraying herself in the comedy, "The Cohens and the Kellys in Hollywood". It was her 1930's film work for "Universal Pictures" that she is known for and that included 1932's, "The Old Dark House", with her four co-stars, KARLOFF, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, and Lilian Bond, 1933's, "Secret of the Blue Room", co-starring with Lionel Atwill and Paul Lukas, and the classic, 1933, "H.G. Wells story, directed by James Whale and featuring her co-star Claude Rains as "The Invisible Man".
Billy Zane portrayed the villain of the piece, "Caledon 'Cal' Hockley". In 1996, Zane starred as the overlooked Sunday newspaper comic section hero, "The Phantom". He followed this picture with voice work on the animated series, "The New Batman Adventures", and the Walt Disney television production, "Pocahontas 2: Journey to the New World".
The Basic Screenplay:
In 1996, "Brock Lovett", portrayed by Bill Paxton, is searching for the wreck of the "Titanic". The fictional scene was filmed on the real Russian scientific research vessel, the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, below,
"Lovett" and his team hope to find a necklace with a large diamond known as the "Heart of the Ocean". Instead, when the recovered safe is brought on-board, they find a nude drawing of a young woman wearing the diamond. The sketch is dated April 14, 1912, the date of the sinking of the "RMS Titanic".
After watching a television news story about the discovery, "Rose Dawson Calvert" contacts "Brock Lovett" and identifies herself as the woman in the sketch. Hoping to recover the diamond, "Brock" brings "Rose" aboard the research vessel and she tells her story.
In Southampton, seventeen year old "Rose", her fiancé "Cal Hockley", and her mother "Ruth Dewitt Bukater", portrayed by Francis Fisher, board the "RMS Titanic". "Ruth" has visions of wealthy financer "Cal" not only paying off her debts, but providing financial security through his marriage to "Rose" for her own future.
Meanwhile, a poor artist named "Jack Dawson" wins a third-class ticket on the "Titanic" in a poker game and boards the ocean liner with hopes of a better life in the United States.
Once at sea, "Rose" depressed over her loveless engagement, attempts to commit suicide by climbing over the stern railing, but is stopped by "Jack".
Later, "Cal" presents "Rose" with the "Heart of the Ocean", but it doesn't have the effect on her he wanted.
"Rose" and "Jack" develop a friendship, but when she introduces him to her mother and "Cal".
They both object to him as being below her station, initially "Rose" does reject "Jack", but realizing she is in love, returns to him. Later as the ship moves toward its destiny, "Rose" brings "Jack" to her stateroom, and asks him to do a nude sketch of her wearing the "Heart of the Ocean",
Until this point, the events leading up to the sinking of "RMS Titanic" are background moments, but are very accurately portrayed.
After the sketch is made, the two go onto the forward deck and witness the collusion with the iceberg. Overhearing the ship's officers discussing the seriousness of the collusion. "Rose" and "Jack" go to warn her mother and "Cal", but "Cal" has discovered the sketch of "Rose", with an insulting note from her, and the returned necklace. He now has his servant/bodyguard, "Spicer Lovejoy", portrayed by David Warner, slip the necklace into "Jack's" pocket to frame him for theft. "Jack" is confined to the master-at-arms office, and the necklace is back in "Cal's" overcoat pocket.
With the realization of the situation with the lifeboats, "Captain Smith", portrayed by Bernard Hill, orders that only women and children be placed in them. He is also aware that the nearest ship seems to be ignoring the distress rockets.
Meanwhile, "Rose" is able to free "Jack" and the two head on-deck as the water is rising within the "Titanic".
On deck, both "Jack" and "Cal" tell "Rose" to get into one of the lifeboats. Saying to "Rose" that he will safely get "Jack" off the sinking "Titanic", "Cal" places his overcoat around her, and she enters a lifeboat. As it's being lowered, she jumps out, because she wants to be with "Jack".
"Cal" takes "Lovejoy's" pistol and starts to chase "Jack" and "Rose", but they escape below decks. "Cal" now realizes that the "Heart of the Ocean" is still in the coat he gave "Rose", but to save himself, he gets into a lifeboat, posing as a lost child's father.
"Jack" and "Rose" return to the main deck, as the ships stern is rising and the two cling to the stern rail.
The upended ship now breaks in half.
"Jack" gets "Rose" safely onto a floating transom panel, and promises to survive, he will not, as the cold water shocks his system. "Rose" is one of the six people saved by a returning lifeboat from the "SS Carpathia", and gives her name as the married "Rose DAWSON". On that "Carpathia's" deck, she discovers the diamond in the pocket of "Cal's" coat.
Back in the present, "Rose" says she heard "Cal" committed suicide after the stock market crash in 1929. "Rose" now takes the "Heart of the Ocean", which she has had all along with her, and drops it into the ocean over the wreck sight where it belongs.
While she's seemingly asleep, her photos on the dresser show a life inspired by "Jack". Next, a young "Rose" reunites with "Jack Dawson" on the grand staircase of the "RMS Titanic" as those who died in the ship rejoice.
Motion pictures tell many stories that the writers want their audience to believe, but nothing compares with reality.
