Náufragos do Titanic

Although not as honored as the 1997 Leonardo DiCaprio-Kate Winslet story about the Titanic disaster, this version of Titanic starring Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck can definitely hold its own. In fact it got an Oscar itself in 1953 for Best Story and Screenplay.

Although there was a lot more sociology in the 1997 blockbuster, people do remember most from it the story of ill fated young love between DiCaprio and Winslet. In this version we're dealing with an older married couple whose marriage is on the rocks. The old story of staying together for their children's sake is what's holding them together. But Stanwyck isn't having any more.

It's her children, Harper Carter and Audrey Dalton, that she's most concerned about. Though American from the Middle West, due to their father's influence they're taking on old world and very haughty airs. And you can't get more haughty than Clifton Webb on screen.

Brian Aherne is the foolish, but brave Captain Smith whose eagerness to do the bidding of his employers and set a record crossing led to the disaster. Robert Wagner has a nice role as the young college kid who Stanwyck tries to match up with Dalton to wean her away from her father's fascination with titled nobility.

Also look for good performances by Thelma Ritter as the Molly Brown in all but name role, Richard Basehart as the defrocked priest and Allyn Joslyn as the eager social climber.

It's Webb and Stanwyck who carry the story. Webb who originally is an snob, shows in fact some real character during the disaster. And Barbara Stanwyck's last moments as the film ends are some of then best in her long distinguished career.

It's your father's Titanic and a good one too.

A doomed ocean liner is perfect fare for a big-budget studio like Fox, whose production unit gives the real life tragedy the conventional Hollywood treatment. Wagner and Dalton charm as the attractive young lovers, while Stanwyck lends a formidable presence as the matron with a past. However, Webb is an unusual choice for the lead, given his rather brittle personality. The script makes good use of his aristocratic demeanor by squaring him off against his estranged commoner wife Stanwyck. He's all stuffy rules and European airs, while she's taking their two kids and returning to her practical American roots. There's a subtext here about Webb coming to realize a human side buried under layers of snobbish pretensions. It's an interesting idea, but I wonder how many viewers were able to warm up to Webb's basically cold personality. Fox took a chance here and I doubt that it helped at the box-office.

Nonetheless, Ray Kellogg's special effects are outstanding, especially the liner as it lists headfirst into the water that became a spectacular logo for the movie's ad campaign. Note, however, the general absence of noisy panic surrounding the evacuation, the opposite of what you would expect given the life and death circumstance. Generally, both passengers and crew react efficiently as if executing a fire drill. I suspect anything more realistic would have risked unsettling 1950's audiences and dampening box-office appeal, but whatever, the general absence is noticeable. Also, I'm not clear on what happened to the women and children in steerage. These are the poor folk presumably responding to America's "give us your huddled masses yearning to be free". Maybe I missed something, but the class segregation aboard the liner is made unmistakably clear and we do know the ladies and children of wealth made the cut. But what about those "huddled masses" since the movie is based on fact? Still and all, not to worry since they're all going to heaven anyway as the final choral overlay assures us.

Speaking of class struggle, too bad the screenplay doesn't exploit the lively potential of a Clifton Webb-Thelma Ritter face-off. They're two extreme ends of the refinement spectrum — the earthy commoner and the waspish aristocrat. Yet no one was better at delivering sarcastic barbs than these two. Squaring them off against one another would have produced great verbal fireworks and social contrast. All in all, the movie is entertaining with some good moments, but fails to hit the dramatic high points inherent in the real life tragedy. Ultimately, the screenplay reflects the extreme cautiousness of its time period.

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.

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.

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.