A Night to Remember **** (1958, Kenneth More, Ronald Allen, Honor Blackman, Robert Ayres) – Classic Movie Review 1833

Director Roy Ward Baker’s 1958 film version of the disaster that afflicted the ‘unsinkable’ RMS Titanic while on its ill-fated maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York in 1912 was a jewel in the crown of Britain’s J Arthur Rank studio back in its heyday. A Night to Remember won the 1959 Golden Globe for Best English-Language Foreign Film.

Kenneth More stars in an ideal, admirable, iconic star turn at the helm (of the movie) as the heroic crewman Second Officer Herbert Lightoller. In the story, Titanic’s sinking is seen from the standpoint. [Spoiler alert] Lightoller, the most senior of the ship’s deck officers to survive, went on to distinguish himself as a line British naval officer in the First World War and served as a senior naval staff officer (convoys) during the Second World War. He operated his own successful family business producing pleasure craft between the wars.

Though it is sometimes quite hokey and feels studio bound being filmed mostly in the Pinewood Studio tank, A Night to Remember is extremely effective, successful and enjoyable for all that, with a fine production for its day. And, even if the expected model shots may not quite look like the real thing, they are rather enjoyable to watch.

But there was no tank at Pinewood Studios big enough to film the survivors struggling in the water to climb into lifeboats, so it was done in the open-air swimming bath at Ruislip Lido in London at 2:00 am on a cold November morning. The big model used in the sinking scenes was 35 feet long. The pool in which they filmed was only 15 feet deep, so the model was constructed in sections. As each section sank out of view, they removed it so that it wouldn’t hit bottom.

The stalwart British actors help keep it afloat with their rousing ensemble playing. Giving the movie’s three best performances, More is properly heroic as Second Officer Herbert Lightoller, Laurence Naismith is commanding as ship’s captain Walter Lord and Michael Goodliffe is Thomas Andrews, the ship’s designer-architect.

Eric Ambler scripts cannily from Walter Lord’s book, deploying a large cast of characters to careful and considerable effect, providing excellent scenes and dialogue.

The result is better than the 1953 Hollywood version, Titanic, and an obvious influence on the James Cameron 1997 blockbuster Titanic, when the story was remade with some close similarities.

Note that Daily Star film critic and regular movie extra Alan Frank, playing a man clinging to the wreckage, is billed higher than Sean Connery! Talking of James Bond, Desmond Llewelyn, Q in the Bond films, plays Seaman at Steerage Gate, while Honor Blackman, Pussy Galore in Goldfinger, plays Mrs Liz Lucas.

[Spoiler alert] In this film the Titanic doesn’t split in two while sinking and goes down in one piece. It wasn’t until 1985 when the wreckage of Titanic was discovered, that they found out it had split in two.

The extras refused to jump into the water. More recalled jumping into the water: ‘Never have I experienced such cold in all my life. It was like jumping into a deep freeze just like the people did on the actual Titanic.’ When he surfaced he shouted: ‘It’s bloody awful! Stay where you are!’ But it was too late as the extras followed suit.

The footage of the launching of the Titanic is that of the 1938 launching of the Cunard Liner Queen Elizabeth, as no footage of the Titanic’s launching exists. The shot of the Titanic leaving port is an early one of the RMS Mauretania – the sister ship to the Lusitania.

The main cast are Kenneth More, Laurence Naismith, Ronald Allen, Robert Ayres, Honor Blackman, Anthony Bushell, John Cairney, Jill Dixon, Jane Downs, Michael Goodliffe, David McCallum, Alec McCowen, Frank Lawton, Joseph Tomelty, Jack Watling, Geoffrey Bayldon, Cyril Chamberlain, Harold Goldblatt, Andrew Keir, Philip Ray, Richard Clarke, George Rose, Ralph Michael, Kenneth Griffith, Gerald Harper, Alan Frank, Sean Connery and Dudley Sutton in his (uncredited) film debut as Lookout.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1833

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