Given that TCM is showing this at 10:00 PM (EDT) on April 14, 2012, it’s all the more fascinating for that was the night precisely a century ago that Titanic struck the iceberg in the North Atlantic. Over 1,500 perished in this disaster.
On a personal note, I was 16 when I first saw A Night to Remember when it was first shown in a local movie theater. It was what led to my interest in Titanic and I make a point to watch it whenever it's on.
When I first heard the story of the Titanic as a girl being home schooled, I was given a book titled “Wreck Of The Titan” - spooky. Here’s a link:http://www.gettysburgghosts.net/titan.htm
Anyway, the telegraph operator continually broadcast distress messages until the very end. SOS was not standard back then, so he was broadcasting CQD.
Last message was interrupted in mid-broadcast. It was C ... Q ..., and never got the D sent.
Telegraph operator did not make it ...
Excellent movie.
Thanks for posting. I want to see it again.
Another great movie about the Titanic is ‘Titanic’ (1953)
with Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb.
Both are far superior to Cameron’s ‘Titanic’.
An awesome movie. I’ve seen it many times. Have already set the DVR. I watch this movie almost every April because I am a recreational sailor and this story reminds me how fragile we are, how much we are at the whim of nature and the defects of man made creations. An important lesson.
Vision: Feel free to lift whatever you think is apt for the TCM Classic Movie alert ping.
I also have to credit beaversmon who made me aware of Titanic in Real Time from the History Channel. Messages from the captain, crew, engineers and passengers are sent as it would have happened, had Twitter been around a century ago. One message recently posted is:
#officer Received a wireless message from La Touraine warning us of a thick ice-field, shouldn't be a problem according to the captain.
Kenneth More had an amazing career. He got to sink both the Titanic AND the Bismarck.
When Titanic debuted, my ten year old daughter fell in love with it and saw it four times. She even scored the theme song so she could play it on the piano. A year later Cablevision picked up TCM. I told my daughter if she wanted to see what Titanic was about, she should watch A Night to Remember. Reluctantly she watched this old B&W flick. She absolutely loved it and now at 26 she still can sit enthralled by this old Brit classic.
The best movie on the Titanic.
I hated the 1997 one that they are bringing back. It was geared to teenagers.
I’m a high school teacher. A Night to Remember was recently added to the 10th grade English curriculum and I recently received 30 copies of the book to use in the classroom.
Kids are FASCINATED!! (they thought the Titanic didn’t exist and was just a movie!!)
I think everyone reading about it or viewing images of it feels a personal imprint on a variety of one's own human emotions.
I also think that the story of the doomed Titanic surpasses even the attack on the Twin Towers, as epic a tragedy as the New York catastrophe was.
Maybe this is because the personal accounts and stories of Titanic survivors plus the actors in films portraying life and death aboard the ship personalized the Titanic saga much more than the accounts and videos of 9/11.
I'd be interested in what other Freepers feel is the reason the Titanic story never seems to lose its appeal to the imagination and to the heart......even after a hundred years have gone by.
Leni
Who plays Jack and Rose in “A Night to Remember?”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036443/
And something else from IMDB...
A Night to Remember (1958) Some of the shots of Titanic sailing at day time and some quick scenes of the interior flooding as the ship sinks, were actually taken from this 1943 version of the disaster.
I first saw it when it was released also. I was on a date with a new guy who later became my husband.
1958 was a good year for me.
I think this was the very first movie I saw as a very young child that I can still remember to this day, it must have been in the early 60’s.
Oh yes! A few low moments but the high points are many. Wonderful screenplay.
So finally I shall watch this movie.
I always have misgivings about UK productions. Europeans love “reality” (i.e., they never had enough money to do more) which tends to be boring and uninspiring.
I also find it ironic it’s based on a book by a man from my own backyard. I read it when in middle school - excellent; the “bible” of Titanic.
Walter Lord also wrote an excellent book “Dawn’s Early Light” about that little British spat in our backyard. Should get more play being it is the 200th anniversary starting this year of the British War.
In post #18, Nortex wrote in part, "I think part of the reason why it became such a big story was that mass communications was really starting to reach a global audience. It was THE STORY of that era."
I agree completely with the point Nortex makes. The news of the tragedy reached all continents quickly and continued in real time, something that wouldn't been possible worldwide in previous eras.
Another freeper wrote me: "IMHO, the reason the Titanic wins is because of the romance. Not Jack and Rose, but the whole idea of a ship steaming at night in darkness under the silent stars of a cold sea, wrecking and foundering with no one to hear.
"I mean, there was a monster black ice berg out there in the dark, just waiting.....and the lookouts never could see it.
"Any kid who had an imagination could see that picture in his mind's eye. Years ago, I saw a Titanic exhibit. It had an exhibit room dressed up to look like a lonely deck in the dark. You could stare out over the sea. They even had a cool fan blowing so you could feel the chill. It was eerie."
I think this is another cogent reason that the story of the Titanic is so seductively gripping....the drama, the heroics, the mystery, the darkness, the cold, the unknown, the feeling of fate and doom.....all the things that were going to be found in the ever-popular suspense and horror films of the fledging silent "moving pictures" industry (and later the talkies) of the time.
If you have additional opinions and comments of your own on the reason for the lure of the "Titanic story", let's hear from you.
Leni
Thanks for the reminders. I’ve always heard of this movie but never had the chance to see it.