Raise the Titanic * (1980, Jason Robards, Richard Jordan, David Selby, Alec Guinness, Anne Archer, J D Cannon, M Emmet Walsh, Bo Brundin, Norman Bartold) – Classic Movie Review 8216

Director Jerry Jameson’s sluggish 1980 action adventure thriller Raise the Titanic was a titanic disaster for producer Lord Lew Grade that sank his production company ITC Films in the murky waters of the huge debt incurred by the failure of this wreck of a movie. ‘It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic,’ he said ruefully afterwards.

Various people (played by Jason Robards, Richard Jordan, David Selby, Alec Guinness, Anne Archer, J D Cannon, M Emmet Walsh, Bo Brundin, and Norman Bartold), both Americans and Russians, want to salvage the rare precious minerals from the HMS Titanic, so they set out to try to raise the liner from its watery grave on the seabed.

The sticky screenplay by Adam Kennedy and Eric Hughes (based on the novel by Clive Cussler), slipshod effects, wooden characters and somnambulant direction over a long-seeming 122 minutes all combine to help to explain the film’s flop at the box-office.

The most distinguished contribution comes from the underwater cinematography by Bob Steadman, though John F DeCuir’s production design and art direction are craftsmanlike.

Also in the cast are Elya Baskin, Dirk Blocker, Robert Broyles, Paul Carr, Michael S Gwynne, Harvey Lewis, Charles Macaulay, Stewart Moss, Michael Pataki, Marvin Silbersher, Maurice Kowaleski, Nancy Nevinson, Trent Dolan and Paul Tuerpe.

It cost $36,000,000 and took only $14,824,000 in America.

Ricou Browning was the director of the model unit, Malta, and Alex Weldon was the special effects supervisor.

The 17 writers who worked on the screenplay (except Larry McMurtry) petitioned the Screen Writers’ Guild for credits on the movie. But credit was only given to Eric Hughes (adaptation) and Adam Kennedy (screenplay). Kennedy was mostly responsible for the final draft.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8216

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