A Night to Remember (1958)

Great Film overall

Best movie ever!

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The luxury cruise ship the Titanic sinks after hitting an iceberg during its maiden voyage. Director Roy Ward Baker and screenwriter Eric Ambler wisely eschew cheap sentiment and overblown melodramatic flourishes in favor of a more admirably subtle and restrained documentary-style sense of realism and authenticity that just the same still astutely captures the heart-wrenching tragedy of the catastrophic event. Indeed, there are many poignant and striking moments throughout: The rich lady who refuses to leave without her lucky china pig, a father saying a final goodbye to his wife and children, Benjamin Guggenheim (a marvelously smooth performance by Harold Goldblatt) deciding not to wear a life jacket so he can die as a gentleman, the band playing right til the bitter end, Ida Strauss insisting on staying aboard with her beloved husband, the brave crew doing whatever they can to mitigate the severity of the situation, and an old waiter attempting to comfort an abandoned child in the worst possible crisis. While Kenneth More clearly holds the entire epic picture together with his outstanding portrayal of the stalwart and fiercely efficient Second Officer Charles Lightoller, he nonetheless receives sterling support from Laurence Naismith as the resolute Captain Edward John Smith, Frank Lawton as the cowardly J. Bruce Ismay, Michael Goodlife as proud and pragmatic designer Thomas Andrews, Tucker McGuire as the boisterous Margaret "Molly" Brown, George Rose as the drunken baker Charles Joughin, and David McCallum and Kenneth Griffith as a couple of exceptionally selfless and dedicated wireless officers. However, it's the artful way this film combines a feeling of epic scope and basic human drama without one overwhelming the other that stands out as the key reason it's widely hailed as the definitive motion picture about the sinking of the supposedly unsinkable Titanic. Essential viewing.

It isn't hard to imagine why the story of the Titanic has seen so many film interpretations. Catastrophe makes for exciting film and as far as pure spectacle and great tragedy goes, you can't do much better. Plus, it doesn't hurt that the actual sinking of the Titanic took roughly 2 increasingly horrific hours, lending itself eerily well to the medium. Beyond that potential for spectacle though, what really keeps the story of the Titanic afloat (... hold your applause) is its power as an allegory. It's the perfect man vs. nature metaphor - of man's supreme technological accomplishments, and the naivety of those who believe they are above the mercy of the Earth's raw power. Even further, it works brilliantly as an allegory of class stratification and discrimination, and the equalizing power of imminent death which transcends all social constructs. And finally, the stories of its individual passengers gives us looks into the depths of human nature: the power of denial, the strength of loyalty and compassion, courage and cowardice, rationality and panic. Impressively, A Night to Remember successfully mines essentially all of these elements and brings them to the screen. Given it was made in 1958, it is pretty incredible how well this film captures the scale and spectacle of the disaster. Of course it doesn't quite reach the jaw-dropping scale of the renown James Cameron epic (which is highly indebted to this film), but the effects in this film are still very effective in their own right and hold up extremely well. And beyond the spectacle, the depth and breadth of the aforementioned themes inherent to this tale are all explored: man vs. nature, privilege vs. poverty, man vs. women, man vs. man, and man vs. himself. It's pretty difficult to fault this film in any way, but I will say that for those who have seen Cameron's Titanic, its impact may be a bit lessened. I wouldn't necessarily say that Cameron's film is the better of the two - in fact, as I mentioned, it owes many, many of its successes to this film. But, for better or for worse Cameron's film is able to drum up a fair bit more melodrama and emotional weight. A Night to Remember is more in the style of a documentary, presenting the event as it occurred without much in the way of extra dramatization (which clearly isn't necessary given an event of this magnitude and tragedy). But, from a pure entertainment value perspective, the docudrama style of this film definitely feels a bit drier and more procedural than what Cameron accomplished in 1997.It's a bit sad because even though I did enjoy this film a lot and have a lot of respect for what it accomplishes, I do think its impact was lessened just by virtue of having seen Cameron's film. It worked for me completely in its craft and thematic execution, but it didn't quite resonate with me on an emotional level beyond that. Still, this is an excellent film and it most definitely stands on its own as a fantastic and classic Titanic adaptation. I would especially recommend it if the cheesy melodrama of the 1997 version disagrees with you.

Things being what they are, you can't look at a movie about the Titanic without comparing it to James Cameron's film (nor can you be blamed for doing so; that movie's a cultural behemoth and defined the sinking for a generation). And even though "A Night to Remember" can't compete with Cameron's huge spectacle, that's just fine; it's not supposed to. This movie covers the territory very well without feeling drawn out. More importantly, you find yourself gradually getting sucked in only to be hit in the solar plexus by a simple line or the image of a piece of furniture crashing into a stack of child's building blocks. Instead of a love story, it's the earnest performance from Second Officer Kenneth More, and the movie pays much more attention to the class division among the passengers and the unsinkable reputation of the ocean liner.And I love that, in the final moments of Titanic's lifespan, it's really about mourning the loss of such an illustrious vessel (complete with an uplifting afterword). I didn't expect to shed a tear, and this is a find movie indeed.8/10

If you were to ask me, I'd honestly have to say that this 1958, $1.6 million, b&w production spotlighting the tragic sinking of the famed ocean-liner, Titanic, actually scores a notch higher than does the likes of James Cameron's 1997, $200 million, colour spectacle. I'm not kidding here.This film is a first-rate production all the way from its involving story, to its attention to detail, to its awesome effects depicting the actual sinking of this "unsinkable" luxury-liner.I swear you'll be absolutely amazed at this film's top-notch production values, especially on its budget of only $1.6 million.You know, I'd actually go so far as to say that A Night To Remember puts Cameron's glittering showpiece to shame in a number of ways.And, on top of that, I found that I actually liked a number of the characters and even sympathized with them over their dire & desperate situation, which I really didn't in the 1997 version.This film also clearly brings to light certain crucial facts about the distress call sent out by the Titanic once the iceberg had been struck. This aspect was pretty much ignored in the Cameron version.Yes. I recommend this film very highly.