April 14 - A Night to Remember

Today’s movie is a disaster movie with scenes set on April 14. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER                

The RMS Titanic is launched and is called unsinkable. She sets sail on her maiden voyage to New York. On April 14, 1912 [11:09 to 40:14] the SS Californian and the Titanic receive ice warnings. Some steerage passengers on the Titanic celebrate with an impromptu dance, while the ships first class passengers dine in ostentatious luxury. A second ice report received by the Titanic is accidentally misplaced and not given to the captain, while the Californian is stopped by ice floes. The Californian tries to broadcast another ice warning, but the Titanic cuts them off.  The lookouts on the Titanic spot an iceberg, but the ship is too large to turn quickly and it scrapes the iceberg along one side, opening up a three hundred foot long gash below the waterline and immediately starts taking on water. Captain Smith asks Thomas Andrews, the ship’s builder, who happens to be on board, to inspect the damage. He does and reports that the ship is going to sink in less than two hours. The Titanic begins broadcasting SOS, but the Californian, which is only ten miles away, turns off its receiver. The Captain orders women and children into the lifeboats, even thought there are only enough lifeboats for about half of those on board. The RMS Carpathia receives Titanic’s SOS and heads to the rescue. Passengers reluctantly come out on deck in the freezing weather. The Titanic tries firing rockets to get the attention of the Californian, but fails to do so. The steerage passengers are kept below decks by locked gates and many start to get angry.  The Californian tries to communicate by Morse lamp, but the Titanic can’t read their message.  Some of the steerage passengers sneak into first class and onto the boat deck. The crew has been lowering the lifeboats and generally only allowing women and children on. The ship’s band begins playing on deck to calm the passengers, but the crew eventually has to fire shots to calm the crowds trying to push onto the lifeboats. When almost all the lifeboats are gone, steerage passengers are allowed up on the boat deck.  The cowardly and despicable Bruce Ismay, president of White Star Lines, owner of the Titanic, who was on board, got into a lifeboat. There is fighting for the last spaces in the lifeboats. The portside collapsible boat finishes up lying upside down on the deck. The band plays the hymn ‘Nearer, My God to Thee’ as its final selection. There is a mob scene as the remaining passengers stampede to the stern as the Titanic sinks by the bow and go into the frigid water when the ship finally slips beneath the water. “ Molly’ Brown a domineering first class passenger in a lifeboat wants to go back and pick up survivors floating in the water, but the crew refuses.  Second Officer Charles Lightoller ends up atop the capsized collapsible boat and by excellent seamanship saves lives. The Carpathia picks up 705 survivors and they have a remembrance service.        

An excellent dramatization of this fascinating story. This one many not have the production values of the 1997 film, but the story is as good, with some outstanding performances. Well worth watching.

The Other Side of the Night: The Carpathia, The Californian and the Night the Titanic Was Lost by Daniel A. Butler(Casemate, Philadelphia, PA, 2009) at pages 57-59 and the film at 11: 40 gives the date the ship hit the iceberg.

Director - Roy Ward Baker

Producer - William MacQuitty

Screenplay - Eric Ambler

Runtime – 2 hours 3 minutes

Released – July 1, 1958

Starring –

Kenneth More as Second Officer Charles Lightoller

Ronald Allen as Mr. Clarke

Robert Ayres as Arthur Godfrey Peuchen

Honor Blackman as Mrs. Liz Lucas

Anthony Bushell as Captain Arthur Rostron(Carpathia)

John Cairney as Mr. Murphy

Jill Dixon as Mrs. Clarke

Jane Downs as Mrs. Sylvia Lightoller

James Dyrenforth as Colonel Archibald Gracie IV

Michael Goodliffe as Thomas Andrews

Kenneth Griffith as Wireless Operator Jack Phillips

Harriette Johns as Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon

Frank Lawton as J. Bruce Ismay

Richard Leech as First Officer William Murdoch

David McCallum as Assistant Wireless Operator Harold Sydney Bride

Alec McCowen as Wireless Operator Harold Thomas Cottam, Carpathia

Geoffrey Bayldon as Wireless Operator Cyril Evans, Californian

Tucker McGuire as Mrs. Margaret "Molly" Brown

John Merivale as Robbie Lucas

Ralph Michael as Jay Yates

Laurence Naismith as Captain Edward Smith

Russell Napier as Captain Stanley Lord

Redmond Phillips as Mr. Hoyle

George Rose as Chief Baker Charles Joughin

Charles Belchier as Bandleader Wallace Hartley

Joseph Tomelty as Dr. William O'Loughlin

Jack Watling as Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall

Patrick Waddington as  Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon

Howard Pays as Fifth Officer Harold Lowe

Michael Bryant as Sixth Officer James Moody

Cyril Chamberlain as Quartermaster Rowe

Richard Clarke as Martin Gallagher

Bee Duffell as Mrs. Farrell

Harold Goldblatt as Benjamin Guggenheim

Gerald Harper as Third Officer (Carpathia)

Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014.