A Shipboard Companion

I clicked on this - one of my favorite movies - and found that all the reviews here now (7/02) are of the James Cameron version of 'Titanic.' Some uninformed people who can't read or click correctly are leaving their Epinions about that film here. STOP STOP STOP

I first learned of the tragedy of the TITANIC when I was in grade school and bought a 25 cent paperback version of 'A Night to Remember.' I was fascinated. The next fall, NBC television started its revolutionary 'Saturday Night at the Movies' network series. Week one was 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes', week two was 'The Snows of Kilimajaro', and week three was 'Titanic' a movie that was then all of 9 years old.

I loved seeing the ship, seeing the interiors, seeing the clothes, and watching the story. I checked the passenger list at the back of my book and found that most of the main characters in the movie were fictional. But that didn't harm my enjoyment at all. There were enough real names used and enough facts (even though the film was made a couple of years before Walter Lord's 'A Night to Remember' was published) gotten right that I was thrilled to see it. The story I had read at last had images to go with it.

After it left network rotation, 20th Century Fox's 1953 version of 'Titanic' made the rounds of the local stations quite often. It was sometimes on in the afternoon and sometimes late at night. I watched it everytime I could. I got very familiar with the story - and I saw something more in it each time. The screenplay had originally been written for producer David O. Selznick in the 1930's. Selznick even had conferences with director Alfred Hitchcock about making it his first American film. Nothing came of it and the script languished for years. Charles Brackett and Richard L. Breen brought their script to Fox. Daryl F. Zanuck produced it and Jean Negulesco directed. The script won the 1953 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. It has it all over Cameron's script for staying within the time frame of 1912. The characters behave and speak at all times as they would have then - no trace of 1953 shows up. The modern speech and actions of the characters are what will date Cameron's film most - it was NOT nominated in the screenplay category.

The first image of the 1953 film is of the TITANIC itself, floating majestically in the harbor at Cherbourg. Slowly a tender is bringing out passengers. And on board it we meet the people we are going to spend the next few days with.

Though the story is about the ship - we are introduced to it through its characters. They are in the main of one family - Richard Ward Sturges (Clifton Webb), his wife Julia (Barbara Stanwyck), their daughter Annette (Audrey Dalton), and their young son Norman (Harper Carter).

Julia is taking the children back to America after years of rootless living in Europe. Richard gains access to the ship by paying an outrageous price to a Basque father for his third class ticket. We are immediately aware that in fact, Richard has probably saved the life of the father - he will come on the next boat. In reality, Sturges would have had no trouble booking passage on the Titanic. First class was not even 80% full.

Julia is surprised to see Richard walk into the dining room. He has borrowed a dinner jacket from his friend John Jacob Astor. Richard deftly banishes the children from the table, and he and Julia have a definite understanding about their differences. Richard tells her: "I made the pardonable mistake of thinking I could civilize a girl who bought her hats out of a Sears Roebuck catalog. And don't think I haven't had my share of regrets." Barbara Stanwyck is beautiful in her playing of this scene as is Clifton Webb. "One thing, Richard," she tells him before walking away, "you've always been honest."

Annette has drawn the attention of Purdue University student Gifford Rogers - played by the impossibly handsome young Robert Wagner. She plays the aristocrat with him but is soon charmed. They spend the last few moments before the TITANIC strikes the iceberg singing college fighting songs with his friends. Annette and Giff steal away alone and kiss. Later as he bids his farewell to her he says: "....I wouldn't have missed this boat - not for anything...."

The ship sails on. Julia finally agrees that Annette can return to Europe with Richard. Annette has told her: "As for you, Mother, I love you, but my address is Paris, France." Julia insists that Norman however will stay with her in Michigan. Richard is outraged. "No court in the world, no power under heaven, can force me to give up my son." And then Julia tells him, simply: "He is not your son."

Richard immediately begins ignoring the son he had been doting upon just moments before. Young Harper Carter is a great Norman and his scenes with Webb are very touching. Their final moments on the ship are not historically possible but are emotionally satisfying. Webb plays a man obsessed with doing the right thing according to etiquette. Richard Ward Sturges even dies correctly. And again, had Norman lived he would have in all probability been a casualty of The Great War just a few years later.

We are caught up in these emotions. The TITANIC strikes the iceberg. And the familiar ending happens.

The power of the story is matched by the power of all the performances of the actors. Thelma Ritter (as a character based on but not named Mrs. J.J. Brown), Brian Aherne (as Captain Smith), Richard Basehart (as a defrocked priest), and Allyn Joslyn (as a 1st Class passenger who dons a dress to board a lifeboat) are all superb in their roles.

The music and sound editing of this film are great tools that are used to punctuate the actions and emotions of the characters. Once the ship strikes the iceberg, the warning whistle (never actually sounded) and funnel blasts are perfectly timed.

The final parting of Richard and Julia is a depiction of the emotion that must have been felt by hundreds of people on the TITANIC. Julia's reaction when she realizes that Norman has given up his seat in the lifeboat is heart-wrenching.

If you can overlook some of the botched facts - you will enjoy this movie. This is still the version I believe has the strongest script! The sets are fairly accurate. The costumes are great. Stanwyck in particular is flattered by the styles of 1912.

We are not aboard with the passengers and crew for the last moments of the ship. These moments are vividly portrayed in later versions. And we do not see and hear the aftermath of the sinking, other films do that as well. This 'Titanic' is a quiet tragedy.

The studio held a premiere in New York City and invited several survivors to the showing. It was a horror show for them and photos of the event in Life magazine show some of their reactions. This film is a great primer, and seen along with 1958's 'A Night to Remember' and James Cameron's 'Titanic' it will bring the human side of the tragedy to life for you.

** A reversed process shot shows the ship striking the iceberg on the wrong side under the water.


UPDATE: This film was released on DVD in September, 2003. There is a commentary by Robert Wagner and Audrey Dalton - but it seems to be heavily edited from separate interviews. Not many of the comments are scene specific and there is NO interaction between them. It is nice to hear them praise Stanwyck and Webb for their help and professionalism. Dalton has a couple of funny on-set stories to relate.

The commentary also includes cinematographer (not of TITANIC)Michael Lonza and Titanic historian Silvia Stoddard. Again these drop in and out and not generally scene specific. Lonza talks a lot about the studio lot and Stoddard claims that Ismay was still alive when the film was made in 1953 (he died in 1937, and I am not an historian).

There are some Movietone Newsreeels, the original trailer (which was available on the VHS), a small still gallery with the pictures shown through a ship's window for some reason, a Stoddard audio essay, a separate commentary by critic Richard Schickel which shows some nice insight, and a documentary "Beyond Titanic".

The DVD scene listiing makes an error in that Chapter 16 is titled after the dance that Wagner teaches Dalton. The song and dance is The Navajo Rag, but the chapter title is "Oh! That Navajo Rug".

We do learn that Harper Carter, who played Norman, was the son of a stand-in and extra that used to hang around the Fox lot! Carter is featured as "Ted" in the Elvis Presley musical SPEEDWAY, and couple of films as a child before 1953, but I can find no other credit for him.

All in all a nice DVD package, with a nice transfer, stereo sound (as on the VHS), and extras of moderate interest.