Sunday 29 December 2019

The Near Midnight Meanderings On A Movie With A Microwave Meal Part 22: A Night To Remember (1958)


Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I haven't been well recently, which is why there's been a long break since the last time I've done this blog. But I'm back now for which I'm apologise.

So one of the things I'm returning to is going through and chatting about the movies the 2013 Radio Times Film Guide  bought in 2018 in W H Smith in Harlow for £2.50 when in Essex exile looking after my mother.

The most recent film then that I randomly recorded was Roy Ward Baker's 1958 production for J Arthur Rank about the Titanic disaster. So let's start  with that title.  A Night To Remember? Really!Surely it's one people would rather forget.

Of course such a movie is not easy. If it wasn't for the fact that it's a tragedy then you could joke that it's the ultimate spoiler. Everyone knows what happens next so creating tension is difficult.

I had wondered how to chat about this and then worked out that perhaps comparing it with the much more famous James Cameron Hollywood sugar coating romantic gush of a movie would be a good idea. I did see it but decades ago so these are scattered memories. It is therefore Clash Of The Titanics Part 1. When I get round to looking at Cameron's Titanic again then we'll come to Part 2.

Here's my initial reaction. I didn't like either film but for different reasons. In the case of A Night To Remember a lot of the reasons are technical. But some of this comes down to the script by thriller writer Eric Ambler. There is with few exceptions too little time is spent on too many characters. As the viewer, especially when the iceberg hits, you get a situation where you're introduced to one plot line and then suddenly are shifted to another. That's disconcerting

But like I said most of my dislike for the British film is technical. It's clearly done on a budget and it shows. You might think I'm being unfair in comparing a British movie in the late fifties with it's modern counterpart. But it's nothing to do with the actual sinking ( taken from a Nazi movie - unseen - on the subject). For example the decision to make it in black and white. I would argue (and did so in a Facebook group) that secondary to it's sinking the Titanic is remembered for it's extravagance. Black and White does not cut the mustard [or insert your colour here] Though I have to mention if you look at the set design of the restaurant it doesn't seem special either. The Hollywood version is better.
And before we leave the restaurant there is a scene when as the ship sinks a trolley hits a pillar. That pillar wobbles.

Being a British film it does seem more realistic when conveying a nation's pride at it's building and the class structure of the ship' s staff which mirrored society a whole. Class is an important part of both films but seems to be more authentic in the Rank one.

When the iceberg hits the Rank film seems to change it's patriotism to show Britain calmly dealing with this disaster. That is until you're shown that even when it comes to women and children to go on the lifeboats class is an issue as those on third find themselves locked in whilst those on the upper classes get to relative safety first.

Of course when it's about to go under then anarchy does rule.

Whilst there is a young Honor Blackman and David McCallum the true star in this film was Kenneth More. He was the upper middle class star of movies at this time. He was the comfy pair of acting slippers being representative of supposed British authority, calmness, decency and a sense of humour. Here he plays the number two of the ship and comforts his audience by being the only person to confront (albeit mildly) the only boo hiss villain here, the head of the shipping line.

I have know idea as to the veracity of this but the film seems to blame at least in part the disaster on a series of admin errors. To be honest it seemed too easy and to pat to have done this. Yet talking of blame it is interesting to note that in both movies the character that seems to have gone off lightly is the designer of the supposedly "unsinkable" ship. After all in it failed in it's first real test and no one confronts him.

You feel that even in it's budgetary constraints A Night To Remember could have been a better movie. Instead it ultimately become a disappointment.

Until the next time.





















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