Titanic (1953 film)
| Titanic | |
|---|---|
 Titanic film poster | |
| Directed by | Jean Negulesco |
| Written by | Charles Brackett Richard L. Breen Walter Reisch |
| Produced by | Charles Brackett |
| Starring | Clifton Webb Barbara Stanwyck Robert Wagner Audrey Dalton Harper Carter Thelma Ritter |
| Cinematography | Joseph MacDonald |
| Edited by | Louis R. Loeffler |
| Music by | Sol Kaplan |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release dates | April 16, 1953 |
Running time | 98 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Titanic is a 1953 drama film directed by Jean Negulesco. The film is not to be confused with the other movies with the same title. Its plot is centered around an estranged couple sailing on the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, which took place in April 1912.
Plot summary
Richard Ward and Julia Sturges, an estranged couple are traveling in First Class on the RMS Titanic. Determined to remove her children from Richard's "high society" world, Julia secretly takes their two children: seventeen-year-old Annette and ten-year-old Norman on the Titanic and plans to raise them in her hometown of Mackinac, Michigan. However, after he learns of her plans, Richard buys a steerage ticket aboard the vessel in hopes of reconciling with his family. Richard and Julia have a heated confrontation about the ultimate custody of their children.
While Julia realizes that Annette is mature enough to make her own decisions, and therefore, her own way in the world, she realizes that Norman is still a boy and insists on maintaining custody of him. This angers Richard and later, prior to dining at the captain's table, he aggressively confronts Julia. She then reveals to him that Norman is not his biological child, but rather the result of a one-night stand she had after leaving a party where she was being belittled in the days before Richard had 'made [her] over into [his] image.' He agrees to relinquish custody of Norman (but promises to take care of him and Julia financially), being cold and distant to him from this point on until the ship strikes the iceberg.
Richard and Julia have a tearful reconciliation on the boat deck as he is putting Julia and the children in a lifeboat. Later, Norman, concerned about his father's whereabouts, gives up his seat in a lifeboat so that he can find him. They reunite as the Titanic is in her final moments. Richard tells a passing steward that Norman is his 'son' and then tells the boy that he has been proud of him every day of his life and that he feels 'tall as a mountain' standing by the boy's side. Then they join the rest of the passengers and crew in singing the hymn "Nearer, my God, to Thee" before the ship explodes several times, rises into the air and sinks.Richard and Norma both drown in the process.
Also aboard is a twenty-year-old Purdue tennis player Gifford Rogers (Robert Wagner), who falls for Annette, and suspended priest George S. Healey who has become an alcoholic.
Historical Inacurracies
- The Titanic was not out of room on any classes.
- Tickets to the ship were impossible to transfer. Thus,Richard getting the ticket from another passenger could not have happened at all.
- The ice warning first received was not delivered to the bridge.
- There was no shuffleboard on Titanic.
- The ship did not hit the iceburg on the port side. Every historian knows it was the starboard side.
- The ship did not have an alarm.
- The ship also did not have a ship's log.
- The passengers left on the ship did not sing "Nearer,my God,to Thee".
- At the very end,a narration says 712 people survived. In reality,706 people did.
- The boilers on board the ship did not explode, as they do several times in the film.
- The ship did not sink intact. It broke apart during the final plunge.
Reception
The film was a hit and it touched and terrified moviegoers around the world. It also helped spawn new interest in the Titanic sinking which increased phenomenally with the 1955 release of Walter Lord's bestselling nonfiction account of the disaster, A Night to Remember. The film currently has an 88%"Fresh"rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Awards and nominations
The film won the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay, and was nominated for the Award for Best Art Direction - Set Decoration. It was also nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award.
Main cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Clifton Webb | Richard Ward Sturges |
| Barbara Stanwyck | Julia Sturges |
| Robert Wagner | Gifford Rogers |
| Audrey Dalton | Annette Sturges |
| Harper Carter | Norman Sturges |
| Thelma Ritter | Maude Young |
| Brian Aherne | Captain Edward J. Smith |
| Richard Basehart | George S. Healey |
| Allyn Joslyn | Earl Meeker |