Movie review - "A Night to Remember" (1958) ****

If you ever want to look at the difference between American and British film industries compare this version of the Titanic stories - no real stars except Kenneth More, and even he's very much a cog in a big wheel; no histrionics; a lot of stiff upper lips and telling of the facts. It's still powerful drama, though - even more effective for being restrained. 

 This shows the best and worst of British society from the time: the rigid class structures, oppression of the lower orders who want to go to help (it's just as strong as the 1997 film on this), arrogance of the rulers, the frightfully decent behaviour of the toffs (playing cards, putting on dinner jackets to go out in style, letting women and children go first) but also the lower orders (playing music, etc). It puts a lot of emphasis on the "if only" factor with plenty of scenes about the Californian and ignoring warnings.

More's Lightoller doesn't really do anything dynamic except ensure women and children go first, but he behaves well as they all do. It's striking how many scenes were copied in the 1997 Titanic: asking the designer of the ship if we wanted to make a run of it, the poor people running upstairs and gasping at the glory of it, etc. 

 

Occasionally the lack of star names meant it was hard to tell who was who - it's a bit bland-Britishers-of-the-50s at times - but everyone steps up and tries. And of course the Titanic is so inherently dramatic - I can't think of a version of this story that has failed to be moving: the insistence that the ship can't sink, the "slow burn" of the drama with everyone going down in calm weather, etc. It was a ship sunk by irony.