Titanic *** (1953, Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Wagner, Audrey Dalton, Thelma Ritter, Richard Basehart, Brian Aherne) – Classic Movie Review 5270

The 1953 drama film Titanic fits a fictional family resentment tale into the real-life story of the British passenger liner RMS Titanic going down on 15 April 1912. Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck star as a quarrelling husband and wife.

Director Jean Negulesco’s 1953 drama Titanic fits a fictional family resentment tale into the real-life story of the British passenger liner RMS Titanic going down in the North Atlantic Ocean with more than 1,500 people aboard in the early morning of 15 April 1912.

Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck star as a quarrelling husband and wife, Richard and Julia Sturges, who fall out when posh Webb clashes with his wife Stanwyck, who says her son is not his. So Webb ignores the kid till the Titanic hits the fatal iceberg and thaws out their relations.

Strong special effects help a lot. The 20th Century Fox studio provided a 20-foot model to represent the world’s largest liner. In fact, the film is technically superb for its day. The production values and photography are way above average, though Joseph MacDonald shoots in black and white when you might expect Technicolor.

Producer Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch and Richard L Breen won the film’s only Oscar for Best Story and Screenplay, but the screenplay is the weakest element of the movie, even though much of it is taken from the published reports of inquiries held in 1912 by the US Congress and the British Board of Trade. Titanic was also nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White (Lyle R Wheeler, Maurice Ransford, Stuart A Reiss) and a win in this category would have been appropriate and deserved.

Though this one has its charms, the British A Night to Remember (1958) is classier, and so is James Cameron’s 1997 Titanic.

Surprisingly running at only 97 minutes, it is very short for a movie attempting this subject. No background music is played.

Also in the cast are Robert Wagner, Audrey Dalton, Thelma Ritter, Richard Basehart, Brian Aherne, Allyn Joslyn, James Todd, Frances Bergen, William Johnstone, Christopher Severn, James O’Hara, Charles B FitzSimons, Barry Bernard, Guy Standing Jr, Helen Van Tuyl, Roy Gordon, Marta Mitrovich, Ivis Goulding, Dennis Frazer, Ashley Cowan, Harper Carter, Patrick Aherne, Merry Anders, Salvador Baguez, Eugene Borden, Hamilton Camp, Harry Cording, Nicholas Coster, Anthony Eustrel, Elizabeth Flournoy, Ralph Grosh, Ron Hagerthy, Charles Keane, Mae Marsh, Alberto Morin, Edmund Purdom (uncredited in his film debut, as Second Officer Lightoller), David Thursby, Richard West, Bert Stevens (Stanwyck’s brother, who plays one of the passengers) and the 22-year-old John Fraser uncredited in his film debut as Steward.

Titanic was filmed at Stage 4, 20th Century Fox Studios, 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles.

It was a hit. Costing $1,805,000, it grossed $4,905,000 in the US.

Stanwyck recalled: ‘We were re-creating an actual tragedy and I burst into tears. I shook with great racking sobs and couldn’t stop.’

Ritter’s character of Maude Young is based on Mrs J J ‘Unsinkable Molly’ Brown.

Titanic survivors were invited to a screening of the film in New York.

Titanic is directed by Jean Negulesco, runs 97 minutes, is made and released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch and Richard L Breen, is shot in black and white by Joseph MacDonald, is produced by Charles Brackett, is scored by Sol Kaplan, and is designed by Lyle R Wheeler and Maurice Ransford. The special photographic effects are by Ray Kellogg.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5270

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