Atlantic

No movie with Madeleine Carroll in its cast could possibly be unwatchable. That said, I have to add that this British film comes close. The story takes place on board the `SS Atlantic' and it's loosely based on the `Titanic's' unfinished voyage. The word `unsinkable' is spoken, the liner strikes an iceberg, and we hear a heavenly choir sing `Nearer My God to Thee.' The doomed passengers eventually take over the anthem, in a clever bit of sound work. But the year of the film's release (1929) means that a modern viewer has to accept otherwise primitive sound and many of the acting conventions of silent films and the stage. These aren't problems. The film's major flaw is pacing, and pacing had been well developed in silents. However, if the dialog were delivered at a realistic speed, the movie's running time would be cut in half. The intended effect was drama (and clarity in a new medium), but the result unhappily is tiresome now. The film's structure is preposterously illogical and inept. Paradoxically, I found certain details of the editing quite modern in technique: fine, abrupt cuts from one area of the ship to another, sometimes even on sound effects. Although we're on board the `Atlantic' from the first shot, we were well over 4 minutes into the movie before I discovered that fact. There are long, intrusive musical passages by the ship's dance orchestra. (Entertaining, easy sound.) Personal stories are presented in an utterly uninvolving and unconvincing way. Don't even think of spectacle. The berg is a tiny thing and the exterior damage it does to the ship's hull is a minor dent. However, the scenes of passengers swarming into the lifeboats - clearly staged on a real liner, presumably tied up to a dock - generate great excitement. Other than the glorious Miss Carroll, these sequences are the film's only points of excellence. As the movie and the ship near their end, the screen goes totally black several times when the power generators begin to fail. Their last, eternal blackout is the end of the film, with a sunset/sunrise tacked on, a clumsy symbolic effect. `Atlantic' is a cinema curiosity. At best.

I was very surprised that I found this 1929 film on YouTube today.. I had no idea it existed and I was excited to see a talking picture made only a decade and a half after the disaster. However, my excitement turned out to be rather muted, as instead of having a grand scope (as ANY picture about the Titanic should have), it looks amazingly claustrophobic. Despite the ship having about 3300 folks aboard (counting crew and passengers), you mostly see scenes with a small handful of folks in them!! I think this is for two reasons. First, the film was obviously made on the cheap. Second, 1929 was the first year for sound pictures in the UK and like the earlier American films of 1927-28, the sound technology was primitive and they had no idea how to film large rooms full of people. Instead, folks had to stand around hidden microphones and talk...which seems unnatural when you see such movies.

As for the title, apparently the White Star Line had a lot of nerve and wouldn't allow the studio to use the name 'Titanic'. I am no barrister, so I have no idea about British law, but this seems more a ploy by White Star than a legitimate case where a copyright or trademark is involved. The sinking of the Titanic was a historical event and mentioning this and the ship's name seem reasonable...and I am not sure why the studio caved and named the movie 'Atlantic' instead of 'Titanic'...but they did.

One thing that was bad about the movie but isn't the filmmakers' fault is that the print is rather jerky and it jiggles a bit. You probably won't need Dramamine to watch the picture, but it is noticeable and annoying.

Another thing to note is that there apparently were several versions of the movie. In the earliest days of sound, they studios had no idea how to dub films into other languages...so they filmed multiple versions in various languages. Laurel & Hardy did this, the Bela Lugosi version of "Dracula" has another version starring a Mexican count and with "Atlantic", they filmed it in German, English AND as a silent (as most theaters didn't have the technology to play sound films yet). And, after finishing the filming, the film was re-cut and French language scenes were added. I saw the English language version...and have no idea if these other versions even exist today nor where you can find them if they do exist.

The movie is odd in that it just begins on the ship in a small drawing room just before the ill-fated crash. I checked...the print I saw WAS the entire 90 minute picture and the normal introduction apparently just wasn't made. This provided little in the way of suspense and over an hour of the film consists of what happens after the ship collides with an iceberg. And, since it was made with very few extras and cast, the whole thing seems a bit small and anticlimactic. But I do cut the film some slack because of when it was made....expecting the same spectacle as in the Nazi propaganda film "Titanic" (1943) or "A Night to Remember" (1958) or "Titanic" (1997) would be ridiculous. Cramped productions were certainly the norm until about 1930-31....and, in hindsight, it might have worked better had they just waited a year or so to make the movie. Additionally, the film lacks reasonably well developed characters and even for 1929, it was a bit of a disappointment in this regard. So, overall it's a very mixed bag for 1929...and a film that must have impressed back in the day but which became quickly dated as well. Mostly of value to the curious and film historians. I give it a 5 because it is watchable and some of the scenes were well made...but overall, it is disappointing and cramped!

True this movie is creaky by today's standards. It's a British maritime story & British production directed by a German Expressionists director who himself was getting acquainted with sound at the time. I had waited a long time to see this film in it's entirety when I found a video two-tape copy in a Sam Goodys. Before I had only seen clips of this in Titanic documentaries. If the Producers changed the Title from Titanic to Atlantic it was more in conjunction with the movie being made only 17 years after the real disaster. Many of the survivors' relatives would have been alive and well and lawsuits would have probably abounded from them as well as The White Star Line, the Titanic's owner, which was still up and running and had an image to uphold. Remember at this time the White Star Line considered the Titanic as a ship they'd rather forget. But even with the title being Atlantic the film's makers infringed upon an earlier White Star disaster in 1873 with over 300 lives lost. The ship from the 1873 disaster was called: THE ATLANTIC. The biggest White Star disaster 39 years before the Titanic.

This movie, based on an earlier stage production, was a big undertaking for 1929 sound film. Dupont is obviously a novice with sound technique. Dialogue from characters such as Tate-Hughes is often spoken in a slow-witted fashion presumably for some kind of stage effect. Characters are given names to protect the identities of the real life victims. So Captain EJ Smith-becomes-"The Captain", Charles Lighttoller-becomes-simply "Lanchester", Ben Guggenheim-becomes-"Tate-Hughes" albeit in a wheel chair and so on. Charleston type music is played instead the Ragtime & Waltzes that were actually heard on the Titanic. But Dupont set a standard with this film that all later Titanic films imitated in one way or another. This film shows the goings-on on the bridge, scenes of the engine room(pretty good by the way), the effects on important first class passengers, the steerage passengers in the lower holds and the sinking, while very stagey, is handled poignantly with the cast singing Nearer My God To Thee...this was imitated in the 1953 Titanic w/Barbara Stanwyck. But there was no visual aspect of the actual ship sinking. Perhaps a bit to harrowing to portray since it was only 17 years and the disaster would've still been fresh in some survivors minds.

Most Titanic buffs should want to see this just to see how 1929 audiences would have handled the sinking of the Titanic as told through a fictional ship called Atlantic. It's an obvious story on the Titanic but done to protect survivors & relatives of which many were living at the time. Seeing this, one can compare it to Titanic(1953), A Night To Remember(1958 classic), the made for tv S.O.S Titanic(1979) or the recent James Cameron Oscar winner. I would give it just for historical purposes 2 1/2 stars out of 4.

Yes I know "talkies" had just been invented for the cinema 2 years earlier when this was produced in 1929 but this film showed that much had to learnt about the art of producing films.It comes over as a filmed "hammy" stage play with the actors melodramatically enunciating their lines,rolling their eyes, using too many pregnant pauses and using gestures more appropriate to silent cinema, which I suppose was normal during the process of educating them to appear more naturalistic on screen.The gaps between lines spoken should have been tightened up during editing as it considerably slows the film.It is now only of interest for Titanic buffs who want to see an early example of this marine accident on film.In next chronological order they could see "Titanic" (1953) A Night to Remember (1958)"Titanic (1997), to see how the cinema's depiction of this tragedy as evolved over the years.There have been many documentaries and TV films made including the atrocious "SOS Titanic" (1979) On my version which is a DVD, David McCallum gives the introduction.It was he who played Harold Bride Marconi's junior wireless operator in "A Night to Remember"(still the best feature film - please read my "Tribute to Walter" comments on IMDb under Howard Morley.demon.co.uk)and gave the commentary on the series of 4 videos entitled "End of a Dream" so he was well qualified to give the narration.Of more interest I found was a recording accompanied by actual photos of the 1912 US Senate hearing which is also on the DVD.Actors speak the actual words spoken by Lightoller 2nd officer, J Bruce Ismay,Managing director of White Star, Harold Bride and others including Gloria Stewart (The "old Rose" in Titanic 1997) whose voice is used for one of the first class women survivors.

From what I understand this was the first movie about the RMS Titanic that featured sound and it was produced in English, German and French (along with a silent version as well). The title was changed to "Atlantic" for fear of lawsuits. In any case, this film essentially depicts a small handful of passengers who have some interpersonal drama going on both before and after the ship hits the iceberg and begins to sink. Initially, most of the passengers are unaware that the ship is sinking which compounds the problem even more. At least that is the scenario that is portrayed in this particular film. Whether any of that is true or not is unknown to me. Be that as it may, I believe that in order for a person to enjoy this movie it is necessary to appreciate the era in which this film was made and for the viewer to make certain allowances for that fact. Likewise, although there have certainly been better films produced pertaining to the subject at hand, this is still a decent movie overall and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.