Best "Titanic" film, wonderfully produced

WWalrus

"A Night T Remember" is the BEST of the Titanic films easily superior to the more famous J. Cameron soap opera version. There is no fabricated story to get in the way of the telling of what happened that night in 1912. The ship, itself, seems to be the "star" of the film. Filmed in black and white, it has the feel of being a "docudrama". The DVD version is really the one to have. Not only is the picture excellent, but there are bonus features that are worth the price of the disk - a "making of" documentary featuring the producer of the film, William MacQuitty, and Walter Lord who wrote the book that was the basis for the film (he also wrote a second book correcting some errors in the first one, "The Night Lives On") AND an audio commentary track by two Titanic experts, Don Lynch and Ken Marschall who point out various changes in actual happenings and going into more depth about the role of the "Californian", the ship in visual distance that did not come to aid of the sinking Titanic.

Considering that this film was made in 1958, it is a technical marvel. Yes, there are models used for parts of the film, but they are excellently done. If someone is expecting the computer generated special effects of today, they might be disappointed, but that is nit-picking as you become drawn into the happenings and forget such minor things.

With a predominately British cast or unfamiliar faces, the characters become more real than seeing some familiar Hollywood player in a roll. The performances are excellent and many of the actors have a striking resemblance to photos of the actual people.

There are some things that have now been proven to be incorrect - the ship is shown sinking in one piece and not breaking half - but this was the opinion of the time that is did not break apart. Since the finding of the Titanic on the ocean floor, we now know it did break up. But these things can not take away from a truly excellent film.

Anyone who is fascinated by the Titanic and wants to view a film with a "you are there" feeling should have this excellent production, especially on DVD.

score 10/10

WWalrus 20 May 2001

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0065131/