Titanic

While I saw and enjoyed the current "Titanic," I've always held a special place for the excellent 1953 version. Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch's Oscar-winning screenplay, deftly blending fact with fancy, tells the story compellingly in about half the time of the Cameron film. And what a cast! Barbara Stanwyck, Clifton Webb, Richard Basehart, the young Robert Wagner (looking positively "DiCaprioesque," as it were!), the (unfortunately) near-forgotten Brian Aherne, and the underrated Audrey Dalton all give sterling performances. The special effects are equal to anything in the Cameron film. And it all comes together under Jean Negulesco's sure-footed direction. As I say, you've seen the Cameron film, now see the film where they got it right!

To update these comments almost seven years after they were originally written, the DVD of this film is definitely one for any Titanic buff to have in their collection. It features TWO separate commentary tracks, one by critic Richard Schickel and stars Robert Wagner and Audrey Dalton, the other by Titanic historians. There is also the original theatrical trailer and newsreel footage of the film's premiere and Oscar wins. Most impressive of all, though, is a fascinating feature-length documentary, narrated by Victor Garber (ship-builder Thomas Andrews in the Cameron/DiCaprio film), about the sinking of the Titanic and how's it's been presented in films and on TV from the silent era to the present. All this on one DVD.

What a surprise to see this 1953 sinking of the Titanic after the long and expensive James Cameron version. To say that Jean Negulesco's version is better is saying only half of it. In fact it is much, much better. The whole story told in half the time with a scrumptious script by Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch and superb performances by Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb. The 1953 special effects are as effective as anything in Cameron's film but, I believe, that the secret of the older version is that the heart and mind of the filmmakers were on the human drama and the effects came to be part of it and not its center. It was also a time when stories were told thinking of an adult audience. The poignancy of of the tale is thought out by thinking people for thinking people. In the modern version, Leo teaches Kate how to spit, remember? Just look in Negulesco's version the power of the unfolding. Two disasters, one natural, irreversible, the other, human with unexpected twists and turns. Thelma Ritter plays Molly Brown with extraordinary little touches. Look at her eyes when she witnesses Webb shabby treatment of his son. Young and gorgeous Robert Wagner is a delightful plus. I advise you to rent it, you'll be amazed.

Just a precaution: If you are expecting a completely accurate historical account of the night with all the scientific details neatly in place, look elsewhere. This film instead focuses (touchingly) on the human drama involved with the ship, with many of the elements of real passengers' accounts rolled into the story of Clifton Webb and wife Barbara Stanwyck (Both excellent; when Isn't Barbara Stanwyck excellent?) and their children. A few real characters are involved, but for the most part the drama surrounding the fictional characters is in the forefront. A beautiful and striking account, the film deserved a few more Oscars than it got, primarily for Miss Stanwyck and a supporting Oscar for Robert Wagner, who does wonderfully in his role.

The media is full of reports of the maiden voyage of the unsinkable Titanic and all are excited about the prospect, whether it be the third class passengers travelling to a new life or the first class passengers travelling to continue the good life they have. Richard Ward Sturges is not a passenger but he buys a third class ticket off someone else then makes his way up to first class. He has done this because his wife has taken his son and daughter on board the Titanic. Tired of an uncomfortable life among the British upperclasses, Julia Sturges is seeking a "normal" life for her family back in her native America, and if that means being away from the stiff and very English Richard then so be it. As their marital drama is played out, the Titanic sails on ever faster, with bigger problems just over the horizon for all of the passengers.

Many decades before James Cameron delivered Titanic as a disaster movie with a dramatic relationship at its core, someone else had already done it with this 1953 disaster melodrama. The main difference in the narrative is perhaps a note on the difference with our time because the story is not about romantically intertwined young people but rather an older married couple and their romance. Aside from this difference the approach is similar because the majority of the film is a melodrama driven by the characters, which then is fitted into the bigger drama of the ship sinking, taking many with it. Unlike the effects-heavy modern version, this film puts the focus on the family drama happening.

This works well in making for an engaging film as we see the very English Richard clashing (in an English way) with the more modern Julia in their relationship. Of course it all comes good in the end (well, in a way) but up till then this centre-piece held my attention well. The emotion during the actual sinking of the ship is well received as well, it is restrained and very much the stiff-upper-lip type of thing of the period. Compared to the manipulative use of music and sweeping expressions of emotions in the remake, I must admit I found the changes in the characters played out with restrained emotions of the disaster. The cast work well with this. Webb is strong in his character, retaining what makes the man while also softening towards the end. Stanwyck does likewise, convincing in her early character but yet able to find the love inside her character from the past. The rest of the cast are solid enough but do not really have the same material as the two leads; Dalton, Aherne, Wagner, Basehart and others are all good enough for what is asked of them and, as normal, Ritter is entertaining in her usual character.

Overall then, an engaging melodrama that maintains a very British sense of emotion but yet is still quite moving. Those who have not yet seen the remake for what it is should perhaps take a pass at this and see if they prefer this version for being shorter and more restrained.

I just saw this film again. The only other time I saw it was probably 40 years ago on "Saturday Night at the Movies," when it made a powerful impression. It still does, in part thanks to the marvelous acting of Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck, who looks particularly lovely in this movie. They and their young son and daughter are the focus of the story. Both wonderful actors, if they seem an unlikely couple at first, you probably won't think so by the end of the movie, they are so superb.

In this version, Stanwyck is actually leaving her husband (Webb), unbeknownst to him, but when he realizes what's happening, he bribes the father in a lower class for his ticket. Webb is a social climbing, superficial man, and his American wife wants more for her kids than snobbery, arranged marriages, and a series of hotels instead of a home, so she is going back to her family with the children. What happens to Webb and Stanwyck's relationship during the voyage is powerful, touching - and, alas, too late.

While on board, a young, gorgeous Robert Wagner plays a college student suitor to the daughter, played by Audrey Dalton. Webb's last scene with Stanwyck will leave you in tears, and if it doesn't, there's also the poignant scene on deck with his son, Norman, which is beautiful.

I don't pretend to be an expert on the Titanic - however, I know a little more than a friend at work who, announcing she was seeing the Cameron version when it first came out, said, "Don't tell me how it ends." I realize that the Fox script drew a good deal of information from the navigation reports of the ship; however, I saw a documentary which showed footage of this film while it demonstrated that in this telling, the underwater scene shows the iceberg hitting on the wrong side.

I have also seen "A Night to Remember," which I also remember as being a very emotional experience. Perhaps it's the story that tugs at our hearts, or the site of that huge vessel sliding beneath the surface. Whatever it is, this is a truly engrossing and heartwrenching film.