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I had seen this movie in the theatre as a child. The image of a serving trolley moving slightly in the first class dining room by the first tilt of the ship, lingered in my mind all these years. Today it evokes for me the baby carriage on the Odessa steps. I just saw the Criterion DVD edition: priceless, with informative extras and participation of real survivors (filmed in the 50's). The movie holds up splendidly. Ever increasing tension is created by editing, use of the camera, sober use of props. Indeed the sliding trolley is a haunting example of the cinematic mode in which tension is ratcheted: we go back to the same image, each time with more pronounced tilt and movement, purely cinematic depiction of increasing powerlessness and doom. Restrained cross-sectional plot hints are enough to depict the variety and complexity of the human load aboard. These are economical but multiple and diverse enough incidental passenger "portraits" for us to develop care and empathy with individuals as well as to develop a sense of the grand but very human tragedy unfolding on-screen. There is no dominant story line other than the vessel itself; no love story here. Comparisons to "Titanic" are unfair to both films, but unavoidable. One can "enjoy" both, but it seems to me "A Night to Remember," even with an overlit model ship, is the more moving, elegant, arguably realistic, ultimately most satisfying of the Titanic movies. It also has a mercifully less intrusive musical soundtrack. (There is also a "Titanic" with Clifton Webb and Robert Wagner.....not really in the same league as either of the two films discussed above).
score 9/10
imyjr 4 September 2000
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0065124/ |
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20-2-2021 00:55:10