A Night to Remember (film)
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| A Night to Remember | |
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| Directed by | Roy Ward Baker |
| Produced by | William MacQuitty |
| Written by | Eric Ambler Walter Lord (novel) |
| Starring | Kenneth More Ronald Allen Robert Ayres Honor Blackman |
| Distributed by | The Rank Organization |
| Release date(s) | 1958 |
| Running time | 123 min |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
A Night to Remember is a 1958 film adaptation of Walter Lord's book of the same name. Filmed in Britain, A Night to Remember was adapted by Eric Ambler and directed by Roy Ward Baker. The movie used blueprints from the ship to recreate sets and Titanic's Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall worked as a technical advisor, all supervised by producer William MacQuitty. Produced as a docudrama, the film was highly successful.[1]
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[edit] Production
Kenneth More recalled the production of the film in his autobiography, published 20 years later in 1978. He had served in the Royal Navy in WW2 (as a gunnery officer aboard the cruiser HMS Aurora) and automatically took on the naval officer's crisp and confident air of command when a crisis arose in the film-making. There was no tank big enough at Pinewood Studios to film the survivors struggling to climb into lifeboats, so it was done in the open-air swimming bath at Ruislip Lido at 2 o'clock in the morning of an icy-cold November day. The extras flatly refused to jump in. More realised it would be up to him. "Come on!" he cried.
'I leaped. Never have I experienced such cold in all my life. It was like jumping into a deep freeze. The shock forced the breath out of my body. My heart seemed to stop beating. I felt crushed, unable to think. I had rigor mortis, without the mortis. And then I surfaced, spat out the dirty water and, gasping for breath, found my voice. 'Stop!' I shouted. 'Don't listen to me! It's bloody awful! Stay where you are!' But it was too late ....'[2]
[edit] Synopsis
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The movie starts in Harland and Wolff Shipping yards at the naming ceremony of the Titanic. The ship is named the Titanic and a bottle of champagne is smashed against the hull. Charles Herbert Lightoller, the main character in the film, is riding a train to the Titanic to report to his duties as Second officer. He jokes about the Titanic being unsinkable and a man is offended by this. However when Lightoller reveals who he is the man apologizes. At Southhampton the ship is ready to go. As it leaves many people say their goodbyes and the Titanic is off. Off into the open sea, the Titanic receives many ice warnings from nearby steamers. Captain E.J Smith is not worried about them and the ship continues going on. At about 11:40 April 14,1912 lookout Reginald Lee spots an Iceberg. Sixth Officer James Moody picks up the telephone and Lee explains there is an Iceberg dead ahead. Moody replies "Thankyou" and he yells out Iceberg Ahead. First Officer William McMaster Murdoch turns the ship hard a starboard and closes the watertight doors. However Titanic's fate is certain, it will crash. Captain Smith immediately calls for Thomas Andrews, the ship's builder, to inspect the damages. Andrews explains the ship has about and hour and a half to live. Captain Smith tells John "Jack" Phillips the telegraph operator to send out the distress call CQD. Phillips and his assistant Harold Bride work throughout the whole affair sending distress calls. The closest ship to aid is the Californian, a mere 10 miles away, however after some dissapointment from Phillips telling the Californian's wireless operator to shut up caused him to shut down for the night. Captain Smith orders Lightoller and Murdoch to start lowering the boats. Women and children are to be loaded into the boats first, and Lightoller takes this as "Women and Children only". Chief Baker Charles Joughin is supposed to escape in a boat, however the boat is overcrowded and gives a women his seat. Throughout the sinking he is seen in his room drinking whiskey.Many women and children are rluctant to get in a small cramped lifeboat so Murdoch and Lightoller use force to put them in. Many men try to sneak into the lifeboats, however Lightoller won't have it. Many second and first class women and children have left to the deck and most of the lifeboats are away. Now, the stewards holding back the third class from taking all the space in the lifeboats. When a lot of people are on board Chief Officer Henry Tingle Wilde distributes guns and ammunition to the officers in case of emergency. The bow is taking in a lot of water and there are only 2 collapsibles left. Lightoller and other able seamen try to free them. There is no time so all they could do is untie them and hope it'll save more lives. The RMS Carpathia 4 hours away is racing to the site in hopes of saving more lives. A drunk Joughin throws deck chairs overboard finding it useful.The ship sinks and Lightoller and many others swim off the ship. One of the overturned Collapsibles is floating, so Lightoller and a few more men are on the boat balancing the wait to survive. Joughin is found in the water, not minding the cold, and pulled up on the boat. Lightoller spots another lifeboat and the men are saved. The Carpathia comes and there is a memorial service dedicated to the Titanic.
[edit] Awards
A Night to Remember won the Golden Globe of Best Picture - Foreign at 1959. It was also nominated for the Laurel Awards of best Cinematography - Black and White.
[edit] Cast
The film stars:
- Kenneth More as Second Officer Charles Lightoller
- Ronald Allen as Mr. Clarke
- Robert Ayers as Arthur Peuchen
- Honor Blackman as Mrs. Liz Lucas
- Anthony Bushell as Captain Arthur Henry Rostron
- John Carney as Mr. Murphy
- Jill Dixon as Mrs. Clarke
- Michael Goodliffe as Thomas Andrews
- Kenneth Griffith as Jack Phillips
- Frank Lawton as J. Bruce Ismay
- David McCallum as Harold Bride
- Tucker McGuire as Margaret Brown
- Laurence Naismith as Captain Edward Smith
- George Rose as Chief Baker Charles Joughin.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Lynch, Don (1993). Titanic: An Illustrated History. Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-8147-X.
- ^ More, Kenneth (1978). More or Less. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-22603-X.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Beauty and the Beast |
The Criterion Collection 7 |
Succeeded by The Killer |
