User Reviews

Winner of three Academy Awards, the 1953 "Titanic" (dates are important because of the plethora of identically titled films about the great disaster), was recently re-released by 20th Century Fox as part of their important DVD Studio Classics series.

Fascination with the fate of the huge and opulent liner is as strong as ever, especially since improved technology has led to more breathtaking visits to the ship's resting spot on the floor of the Atlantic where state-of-the-art robots with cameras explore the crumbling interiors of the still eerily majestic but rapidly decaying wreck.

The first film dramatizing the fate of the White Star Line's greatest ship came out very soon after the 1912 sinking. Since then there have been many movies and several Broadway shows about the loss of over 1500 lives ("The Unsinkable Molly Brown" and, of course, "Titanic").

20th Century's contribution to the genre came before the historically much more accurate "A Night to Remember," based on Walter Lord's bestselling book of that title. And of course it can't begin to match the special effects and wizardry, to say nothing of a cloyingly popular tune, of James Cameron's international top money grosser.

But Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb bring a dramatic and impelling story to the screen that remains powerful and, really, very sad decades after the movie's release. Directed by Jean Negulesco, "Titanic" has major (and what could have been easily avoidable) errors about the April 1912 collision with an iceberg. That doesn't matter because this film is about the relationship of rich, haughty, upper class European (no nationality specified) Webb and his estranged American wife of some two decades, Barbara Stanwyck. They have an ingenue teenage girl who is a Parisian snob and a younger boy who adores his dad. The feeling is mutual until Stanwyck reveals that her husband, from whom she's fleeing so the kids can grow up in darkest rural Michigan as Americans, isn't the boy's father. The ship is the setting for a family in dissolution with every first-time viewer knowing the matter won't be resolved when the ship docks in new York.

Of course the tempestuous exchanges between Webb and Stanwyck, strongly and believably acted, must give way to the exigencies of dealing with a mortally stricken vessel. Stanwyck and Webb are at the height of their acting careers.. The last dialogue between Webb and his son as drowning approaches is among the most moving and heart-wrenching I have ever experienced in a movie (maybe it's just a guy thing).

Barbara Stanwyck said in an interview that when her lifeboat scene ended she burst into uncontrollable tears, so strongly had she felt the experience of the survivors.

DVDs frequently have extra features which can and do run from the inane to the outstanding. I have yet to encounter a more valuable and fascinating extra than the documentary "Beyond Titanic," a ninety-five minute film only a bit shorter than the movie itself. While many Titanic documentaries focus on the causes of the maritime debacle or the exploration of the sunken ship, this film is about the social and cultural significance and heritage of one of the world's most consistently engrossing and endlessly studied tragedies.

"Beyond Titanic" presents the cinema history of the voyage from the first silent reels emerging soon after the event to the most recent movies. Authors of outstanding books on the Titanic are interviewed and film clips from movies and newsreels bring the story to life.

While watching the movie before we saw the documentary, my teenage son turned to me and cynically asked why women and children should have had a right to available lifeboat seats before men were debarked from the listing vessel. "Beyond Titanic" tackles the social mores of the time and quickly but clearly shows that the heroism of men who yielded the opportunity to get into the boats, and thus forfeited their lives, was a standard that those opposed to woman's suffrage applauded. Fighters for women's rights were embarrassed, indeed appalled, and many clearly felt that no such consideration should have been extended on the basis of gender. Probably no one disputed that children should have been saved before adults (at least I hope so).

There are more extra features including newsreels.

And to think that this new release cost but $9.95.

For the movie, 8/10. For "Beyond Titanic," 10/10.

I think I saw it on Saturday Night At the Movies on Channel 4 in New York City in 1962 - some fifty years after the disaster. I was only eight, and the name of the "Titanic" was not unknown to me, nor her fate. But I was watching the film, and followed much of the actions in it. But then came that conclusion...I was horrified by the last noisy moments of that purported model of R.M.S. Titanic as it plunged to the bottom.

It was not until I read Walter Lord's A NIGHT TO REMEMBER about two years later that I began to realize how that Oscar winning script was full of errors. Some of them (the passengers and crew singing "Nearer My God to Thee" is a good example) are moving, but did not happen. The fate that awaited most of those 1500 people still on board at 2:20 A.M. on April 15, 1912 was so apparent that to sing a mournful him regarding approaching death would have caused a really panicky across everyone (already with their nerves stretched too far). But I also read that the ship went down with no explosion, and no huge displacement of water. Actually it went down fairly quietly (since then we know it broke in half, but the passengers were all on the part that was the last to sink), and it went under with a mild gulp. In the film it goes down with a pair of roars, and displacing enough water to send a tidal wave or geyser into the sky (if it had happened in real life it would have flooded Newfoundland!).

Silly about that, but for me, for years, I was nervous looking at pictures of the Titanic going down (this has changed since Dr. Ballard found the actual wreck), and in a strange way it effected me - I actually had nightmares about the shipwreck, one triggered by the sound of crickets which my subconscious turned into the clanging of the warning bell on the ship.

In SLEEPING IN SEATTLE a scene involves Tom Hanks and his sister and brother-in-law talking about the effect of AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER in making the sister cry (and Hanks and his brother-in-law are equally affected by the film THE DIRTY DOZEN because of the accidental fate of Triny Lopez). But none talk about films that caused nightmares.

TITANIC (1953) has a lot going for it. The performance of Clifton Webb (from typical Webb social snob into cuckolded husband into strong father figure at the moment of crisis) was possibly his best dramatic performance in terms of one where his heart came out. Only parts of MR. SCOUTMASTER, THREE COINS IN A FOUNTAIN, and CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN are as critical or moving as this, and in them there are scenes that are far more funny than anything in this film. Here the screenplay enabled Webb's Richard Sturgis to show what he really had inside him. He was more than a man who could lead a cotillion or know what a first rate suit from Saville Row is like as opposed to a White Star liner evening suit.

Barbara Stanwyck is equally good - and at a disadvantage. Except for her two children, she is not able to rely on any male opposite Webb. Usually she could rely on one to be there to help pick the pieces at the end. Not here - she rediscovers the man she loved, but she has to reveal the greatest secret of her life and witness the greatest sea tragedy of her time. Quite a price to pay to see what she did have.

Brian Ahearn is fine as Captain Smith, who tries everything he can think of to buy more time for his passengers, and finds he can't. Richard Basehart is very good as the disillusioned priest who rediscovers his faith in time to comfort the doomed (including himself).

Another poster mentions Thelma Ritter's "Molly Brown" clone - a dandy performance, but the best is Ritter's quiet wisdom, as she suspects the friendly overtures of so-called manly Allan Joslyn. Her suspicions are paid off. Joslyn last moment in the film is a slight shocker, based on the story of one of the men who fled the ship, rather shamefully.

Not as factually correct as A NIGHT TO REMEMBER or TITANIC (1997), but more tolerable (except for that...brr...conclusion) than the Nazi TITANIC (1943). But moving and sturdy in it's own way.

The first Hollywood telling of events of that cold clear night back in April 1912 and it chooses do so with a family drama as the lead, which actually thanks to strong scripting and superb leads works remarkably well.

Fair enough there is little in the way of historical accuracy, skip to 'A Night To Remember' for that, but the 'human side' is handled brilliantly. Most of the main characters are completely fictional, even more so than 1997's Titanic, but this is a good thing in that you're not putting words or actions into the mouths of real people.

The family at the centre of the story are the result are being torn apart, not least by certain major revelations, but as the ship goes down disaster at least brings redemption and forgiveness.

Whereas the 1997 movie has the stunning effects, the 'event' feeling, few would say it was well scripted or acted, and rightly so. This 1953 effort however is packed with underrated actors excelling with strong material.

Not least the leads Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck, Webb delivers an infectious discerning charm. Credit to must go to the drunken priest played by Richard Baseheart (his last line is my summary) and Brian Aherne's captain is a believably honourable if ultimately responsible captain. As the young 'love interest' couple Robert Wagner and Audrey Dalton are more believable and wholly less irritating than 1997's Jack and Rose.

Many mentions have already been made about the father and son ending, and they're right, it is genuinely moving, the son clearly worships his father like a hero and makes the brave gesture of giving up his seat on a boat to 'make a swim for it' Enough to make any father proud.

It's clear to me as a longtime (pre 1997) Titanic fan that if you want the best film re tellings of this story, you are best off with the two films of the 1950s.

Most of the sets are inaccurate and there are anachronisms galore. There was no siren wailing during the sinking; the ice sliced open the starboard (right) side, not the port (left), there are countless other errors in this film too many to count. What makes it so watchable? Why, Barbara Stanwyck and Thelma Ritter of course!!! Stanwyck gets the histrionics as only she can deliver them while Ritter gets all the wisecracking one-liners - as only SHE can deliver them. Robert Wagner and Audrey Dalton make a beautiful couple, but they take a backseat to the two "tough broads" of the silver screen. Even Clifton Webb seems weak and prissy here. But then to me, he always does. The script has crackling dialogue and deservedly one an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

I think James Cameron's TITANIC is one of the best films ever made. It is epic in scale, grand in storytelling and will have more than an ephemeral grip on films and audiences to come. If there is ever another film made about Titanic, it will most certainly get compared to 1997's version before the 1953 version or before A NIGHT TO REMEMBER. But having said that, let me tell you that Jean Negulesco's version is very well done. There are even quite a few similarities between the two films. While A Night To Remember was a very well done film concerning more with the factual events, Titanic (1953) and Titanic (1997) are factual films against the backdrop of young love and love in general. Having a fictitious romance blooming on board was smart and both films play well because of it. It enhances the peril and imminent danger that one feels when the ship is going down. We know and are a little familiar with some of the people on board and we sympathize with them as the ship heads imminently to Davey Jones locker. While Cameron's film is in a class by itself, this film starring Barbara Stanwyk and Clifton Webb holds its own quite nicely.

Stanwyk and Webb play an unhappy married couple who are heading to The U.S from France. With them are their two children. Norman is the impressionable son and Anne is the snooty, country club destined, caviar eating, don't touch me I'm too beautiful for you, daughter. She looks and acts similarly to Rose did in the 97 version of Titanic. Also along for the ride is a young Robert Wagner, who plays Giff Rogers, a DiCaprio look-alike with a soap opera name who falls for Anne.

There are some obvious similarities with the two versions, one of course being the young lovers but there are some other interesting and amusing resemblances. One of them being the comment that Molly Brown and Richard Sturgess ( Webb) both make concerning the dinner call. They are almost said verbatim and it is nice to see Cameron tip his cap in homage to some of the films that inspired him to make his billion dollar baby.

"Why is it the British always have to make the announcement for dinner like a damn cattle call?"

I enjoyed subtle touches like this.

As for the film itself. It is quite well done. I was very surprised and impressed to see the inside of the ship looking the way it did. The dining halls were filled with large banquet tables and lavishly dressed patrons and there was always music playing joyously somewhere in the background. The director and set designers went through great pains to ensure the authenticity and design of the ship.

Also well done was the story between husband and wife. There was some real turmoil with them and I could feel for both of them. The conflict between Norman and his dad was very emotional as well. I don't want to include a spoiler here but when you think of Rose and her loyalty to Jack in the modern Titanic, it actually pales in comparison to how father and son play out their last scenes together.

What could have been done a little better was some of the tragedy that Titanic stood for. There was ample time given to the convivial parties of the rich and famous but not enough was elaborated on with the lower class. Most of the people on board were shown as wealthy and prosperous. I knew that JJ Astor and his young wife Madeline were on board but I would have liked to see more about the young Spanish mother and her children that would have lost their husband had he boarded the ship at the beginning. I also would have liked to see some more of the festivities that were below in the third class passenger area. The one thing that this film forgot was that there was more than affluent people on board the Titanic. There was a plethora of different classes and races and different cultures on board the ship. This film would have you believe that only the rich occupied the ship. More also could have been done with the actual sinking of the ship. The act of the sinking was well done but in terms of the facts and figures, I wanted to know more. The writing team of Charles Brackett and Richard Breen could have done a little more to edify us with facts about what happened when the ship was about to sink. Maybe it is unfair to compare the two, but in Cameron's version, there were people swimming in the frigid waters, people hanging off the back of the ship and more than just flocks of passive passengers going down to their death without some pandemonium. I wanted to see more. I think there would have been more of a bucolic thrashing about to try to find something, anything, to save themselves. I don't care how stoic and virile you are, when faced with death, you would panic. I don't buy the narration that over 800 people sang their way to their graves. The screams of the dying and the freezing would have been ubiquitous and that is something that Titanic is missing. Again, unfair to compare but since I was spoiled enough to see 1997's version before 1953, it is an inevitable comparison.

This Titanic is however, quite the accomplishment. There is enough emotion in here to convey at least some of the lugubrious scenes of the night, and if you can watch this film without comparing the two Titanics, then you will see a very well done film. I enjoyed it quite a bit and was even surprised to admit to myself that most of the acting wasn't all that one dimensional the way it is in most "classic era" films. I could feel real emotion in the passengers and crew. And that is an achievement unto itself.

7 out of 10-- If you have seen Cameron's Titanic, then this one should be mandatory viewing. It is quite interesting and ominous to watch the ship sink and know that nearly 800 people were going to die on that ship. It's a true account of a horrible event in our history and for that it should be witnessed by young and old. It is quite a film.

This movie begins stunningly with the calving of an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Far away in England, the doomed board a glittering Titanic.

This film conjures a queasy scenario of people assuming they are safe, but really being shockingly vulnerable.

The Titanic was the "grandest steamship afloat," but set sail lacking the binoculars or lifeboats to forestall disaster just past midnight on April 15, 1912. Soon, a ghostly chorus of "Closer My God to Thee" rises from the deck.

We have impressive performances here from Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb as a miserably married couple, blind to their narcissism till it's too late. Brian Aherne is oddly detached as the ship captain who inexplicably orders extra speed through an icefield.

In all, a terribly sad story of man's myopia.

"She's going down."

I watched this many times on TV as a kid, mainly interested in the exciting final scenes. When I reacquainted myself with it as an adult I realized how much I missed.

The obnoxiously pretentious and pontificating character portrayed by Clifton Webb makes Billy Zane's later effort look anemic - and Zane did a great job. Stunning Barbara Stanwick plays the kind of magnetic woman that no man could watch walk away without making a last stand. Robert Wagner exhibits the same irresistible rascally charm he still shows as Dinozzo's dad on NCIS.

The scene containing the interchange between the two main stars when Stanwick finally and powerfully plays her "high trump", then turns away to leave an emotionally eviscerated Webb slack-jawed and speechless is a cinematic gem. Each suffer a private Gethsemane in their own way and the sense of loss and bitterness both feel is palpably grim and painful to see. Of course the Titanic does sink and those who die and those who survive are separated with cold, irreversible finality.

The special effects are not that special, even by 1950s standards, but that is not what this movie was really about in the first place. Don't expect the 1996 version, this isn't for kids, it's drama played by 2 stars at the top of their game.

I think James Cameron's TITANIC is one of the best films ever made. It is epic in scale, grand in storytelling and will have more than an ephemeral grip on films and audiences to come. If there is ever another film made about Titanic, it will most certainly get compared to 1997's version before the 1953 version or before A NIGHT TO REMEMBER. But having said that, let me tell you that Jean Negulesco's version is very well done. There are even quite a few similarities between the two films. While A Night To Remember was a very well done film concerning more with the factual events, Titanic (1953) and Titanic (1997) are factual films against the backdrop of young love and love in general. Having a fictitious romance blooming on board was smart and both films play well because of it. It enhances the peril and imminent danger that one feels when the ship is going down. We know and are a little familiar with some of the people on board and we sympathize with them as the ship heads imminently to Davey Jones locker. While Cameron's film is in a class by itself, this film starring Barbara Stanwyk and Clifton Webb holds its own quite nicely.

Stanwyk and Webb play an unhappy married couple who are heading to The U.S from France. With them are their two children. Norman is the impressionable son and Anne is the snooty, country club destined, caviar eating, don't touch me I'm too beautiful for you, daughter. She looks and acts similarly to Rose did in the 97 version of Titanic. Also along for the ride is a young Robert Wagner, who plays Giff Rogers, a DiCaprio look-alike with a soap opera name who falls for Anne.

There are some obvious similarities with the two versions, one of course being the young lovers but there are some other interesting and amusing resemblances. One of them being the comment that Molly Brown and Richard Sturgess ( Webb) both make concerning the dinner call. They are almost said verbatim and it is nice to see Cameron tip his cap in homage to some of the films that inspired him to make his billion dollar baby.

"Why is it the British always have to make the announcement for dinner like a damn cattle call?"

I enjoyed subtle touches like this.

As for the film itself. It is quite well done. I was very surprised and impressed to see the inside of the ship looking the way it did. The dining halls were filled with large banquet tables and lavishly dressed patrons and there was always music playing joyously somewhere in the background. The director and set designers went through great pains to ensure the authenticity and design of the ship.

Also well done was the story between husband and wife. There was some real turmoil with them and I could feel for both of them. The conflict between Norman and his dad was very emotional as well. I don't want to include a spoiler here but when you think of Rose and her loyalty to Jack in the modern Titanic, it actually pales in comparison to how father and son play out their last scenes together.

What could have been done a little better was some of the tragedy that Titanic stood for. There was ample time given to the convivial parties of the rich and famous but not enough was elaborated on with the lower class. Most of the people on board were shown as wealthy and prosperous. I knew that JJ Astor and his young wife Madeline were on board but I would have liked to see more about the young Spanish mother and her children that would have lost their husband had he boarded the ship at the beginning. I also would have liked to see some more of the festivities that were below in the third class passenger area. The one thing that this film forgot was that there was more than affluent people on board the Titanic. There was a plethora of different classes and races and different cultures on board the ship. This film would have you believe that only the rich occupied the ship. More also could have been done with the actual sinking of the ship. The act of the sinking was well done but in terms of the facts and figures, I wanted to know more. The writing team of Charles Brackett and Richard Breen could have done a little more to edify us with facts about what happened when the ship was about to sink. Maybe it is unfair to compare the two, but in Cameron's version, there were people swimming in the frigid waters, people hanging off the back of the ship and more than just flocks of passive passengers going down to their death without some pandemonium. I wanted to see more. I think there would have been more of a bucolic thrashing about to try to find something, anything, to save themselves. I don't care how stoic and virile you are, when faced with death, you would panic. I don't buy the narration that over 800 people sang their way to their graves. The screams of the dying and the freezing would have been ubiquitous and that is something that Titanic is missing. Again, unfair to compare but since I was spoiled enough to see 1997's version before 1953, it is an inevitable comparison.

This Titanic is however, quite the accomplishment. There is enough emotion in here to convey at least some of the lugubrious scenes of the night, and if you can watch this film without comparing the two Titanics, then you will see a very well done film. I enjoyed it quite a bit and was even surprised to admit to myself that most of the acting wasn't all that one dimensional the way it is in most "classic era" films. I could feel real emotion in the passengers and crew. And that is an achievement unto itself.

7 out of 10-- If you have seen Cameron's Titanic, then this one should be mandatory viewing. It is quite interesting and ominous to watch the ship sink and know that nearly 800 people were going to die on that ship. It's a true account of a horrible event in our history and for that it should be witnessed by young and old. It is quite a film.

Review for Titanic (1953) The Titanic has had an interesting place in cinema. It has been chronicled in silent films (1912's "Save the Titanic"), as the basis for a Nazi propaganda film (1943's of "Titanic"), a historical drama (1958's "A Night to Remember"), and most recently a romantic epic drama (James Cameron's "Titanic"). Jean Negulesco's 1953 version of Titanic tries to be like a historical drama and fictional drama at the same time, succeeding in some areas, but failing in most areas.

Rich, upper-class married Julia Sturges (Barbara Stanwyck) separates from her stuffy and uptight husband Richard (Clifton Webb), wanting to bring up her teenage daughter (Audrey Dalton) and young son as middle class Americans in Michigan. Richard doesn't want his kids to have such low lifestyle, so after buying a ticket from a steerage passenger aboard the Titanic, is set to stop his wife from taking "his" kids. Aboard the ship, the daughter strikes up a romance with an American college student (Robert Wagner), a defrocked priest (Richard Baseheart) is running away from his own problems, and the eventful April 15 sinking of Titanic will change everyone's lives forever.

Let me start off with the positives. As a historical drama, this movie does pretty well in most areas. The sets are pretty awesome in scope and detail. You get the sense of the vastness of the Titanic from the many rooms and wide shots throughout the film. While it is normal for Hollywood to take artistic license with anything that has historical significance, the things that I know beforehand and know are historically inaccurate, I can't let fly by. There was no explosion on board the Titanic as it would've been impossible, right before the Titanic sank in the ocean the passengers didn't stop and sing a Welsh hymn. Those two things that happened in the movie really bothered me as anyone who is not familiar with the Titanic should know that stuff never happened. Hollywood can take artistic license as long its believable to some degree.

Now the movie as a drama is so uneven I may not have the right words to get my point across, but I'll try my best. The actors are for the most part great. Barbara Stanwyck has yet to fail me. Clifton Webb as well. He is very good as unhumorous, spoiled man who wants to do things for his benefit and his ways. They both have a sincere love and understanding for each other as characters, yet still have a true yearning to do things their own ways for their own reasons. This was my first Audrey Dalton film, and she gives a well enriched performance as an arrogant, stuck up, spoiled rich girl, who knows that the one thing she can't buy is love and wants it from the right person. Thelma Ritter who plays a "Molly Brown like character" is fantastic as usual. She delivers lines like she was born to say them. Another one that has never failed me. Richard Baseheart is also very good, and quite possibly the best actor in the film, as the priest who is running away from his own demons. There is a scene with him and Barbara Stanwyck in his cabin and she finds out he was priest. The monologue he gives about his family and his reasons why he left the priesthood is so poignant and heartbreaking. The one who has though in this film, is Robert Wagner. I personally feel his character is so out of place, like he is from the wrong time period. His dialogue, actions, and overall conduct seem too 1950's for me. It seems more that he should be more in a 50's sitcom as an older brother like in "Leave it to Beaver." His romance with Audrey Dalton works, mostly because Dalton isn't so upfront with her emotions. I could believe more that she loved him, and not the other way around.

While having good actors is a plus, the writing and direction are another story in there own ways. Jean Negulesco unfortunately doesn't seem to know pacing because the movie at many times just seems to stop, with characters just talking. The actors are great to watch, but even a great speaker should know when to stop talking and take his seat. I understand this is a melodrama, but even melodramas should have their own distinct pacing. The writing is probably the worst, which surprises me as there were three of Hollywood's most adept screenwriters writing on this film. Charles Brackett wrote another great melodrama with Billy Wilder, Sunset Blvd., but I have no idea what went wrong here. The dialogue ranges from good to acceptable with the actor's delivering the worst lines in the best way they can.

Titanic is a movie not for people looking for history of the Titanic. It is for people who like Hollywood melodramas. If you want to see the best film about Titanic in my opinion, see A Night to Remember.