Titanic (1953)

Simply Perfect

How sad is this?

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

. . . that with a whimper. This TITANIC of 1953 certainly provides viewers with plenty of Big Bangs, unlike the whimper fest of James Cameron's infamous 1997 TITANIC bladder-buster. Cameron's hatchet job makes the Billionaire Class out to be the bad guys, as they scuttle around the sinking vessel shooting at each other with guns! Jean Negulesco's 1953 TITANIC, on the other hand, is surely more realistic, depicting--as it does--the rush of Monied Men down to steerage to carry the shell-shocked poor immigrant women and children to the safety of lifeboats. These wealthy role models of the Fox Corporation Film Studio's 1953 TITANIC outing teach their sons that if they're old enough to wear long pants, they're old enough to surrender their life boat seat to the odd woman out. Barbara Stanwyck's character in the 1953 TITANIC hails from the century-long GOP stronghold of Michigan's Mackinac Island, won hands-down by Leader Trump in 2016. This 1953 TITANIC suggests that had the 20 richest Americans supporting Trump sailed on the TITANIC, he would have seen his entire Cabinet go down with the ship. (If Michigan's Betsy DeVos had orange hair, this would remind me of a certain Eurhythmics song.)

This movie essentially begins with an American woman named "Julia Sturges" (Barbara Stanwyck) boarding the RMS Titanic with her 18 year-old daughter "Annette Sturges" (Audrey Dalton) and somewhat younger son "Norman Sturges" (Harper Carter). What neither Annette nor Norman realize is that Julia has booked passage on this particular ship to get away from her husband "Richard Ward Sturges" (Clifton Webb) in order to give them a chance to experience a normal life in the United States. Unfortunately, Richard finds out and manages to obtain a ticket at the last possible moment. Although an ugly argument ensues it is nothing in comparison to the disaster that awaits them in the near future. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a splendid film which manages to combine romance, drama and tragedy in an excellent manner. The fact that it won an Academy Award for "Best Writing, Story and Screenplay" attests to this. In any case, I highly recommend this film for those who might be interested in a movie of this type and I have rated it accordingly. Definitely above average.

I remember first seeing this film on "Saturday Night At The Movies" on NBC. I enjoyed it then, and still enjoy it today. I don't really try to compare this and the Leonardo DiCaprio version...too many years in between and a different approach to the story, but I like them pretty equally.I am reviewing this film based on the recent Blu Ray edition. Sometimes it is very obvious that a Blu Ray edition of an old film is a significant improvement, this time it is not. That is not to say that it isn't a good transfer. There's little to complain about in this edition in terms of clear picture, other than a bit of graininess that may just be a result of 63 years.First off, this film is not about the Titanic. The Titanic is the setting. The story is actually about one family that is disintegrating, and their final act happens to occur on the ill-fated journey. The warring man and wife are Clifton Webb, in what is probably his finest role, and Barbara Stanwyck, in perhaps her best later role. The dialogue between two is about the best you'll find of a man and wife at war; top notch writing and delivered with real sting. The daughter is siding with the father and is quite bitter toward the mother. The younger son is left adrift by the father when he learns that he is not the father.Robert Wagner plays a young college man with romantic attention toward Webb's daughter...not unlike Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the later film...though here their romance is secondary to the failing marriage of the parents.Audrey Dalton plays Webb's daughter and is quite unpleasant about it. Harper Carter (still living as of this writing) is quite good as the young son.Filling out the cast is the wonderful Thelma Ritter, here -- I'm assuming -- representing the real Molly Brown, though named Maude Young in this story. Brian Aherne is the Titanic's captain. Richard Basehart has a very good role as a defrocked priest who is an alcoholic. Allyn Joslyn -- more often a very good comic actor -- plays an average guy who tries to latch on to the rich passengers on the ship, and turns out to be the coward on board.I have noticed in a couple of posts that reviewers said that the special effects were poor. Come on folks...this was made in 1953. For that era, the scenes here are darned good. There is one spot -- when the son is trying to find his father after the Titanic begins to list -- where it's obviously just a drastically tilted camera, because people are walking and climbing and descending stairs too normally. Ah well.I've actually watched this "Titanic" more often than the Leonardo DiCaprio film. I don't try to compare them. They're both excellent in different ways.

I've seen most of the dramatisations of the tragic maiden voyage of the Titanic including the recent 100th anniversary TV production but found this version of events the most satisfying and moving. Of course the whole point about any "Titanic" film is how to fill the space until the iceberg hits, which naturally means concocting fictional dramas amongst the passengers and on this occasion, slightly melodramatic as they were (an alcoholic priest, a tug-of-love between an American townie and her high-falutin' husband...), with sympathetic writing and strong playing, they certainly engaged my interest and by the bitter end, emotions too.Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck make an unlikely couple at first, but one comes to believe in their story, especially after Stanwyck makes her shock revelation to Webb as she desperately tries to maintain the loyalty of their two young children against the high-life allure of Webb's nomadic lifestyle. Their last scenes in particular have a rare poignancy as Webb at last shows the sacrifice and devotion that as both a father and husband he's sorely lacked before.In the lesser tales, we get to see Richard Basehart deliver a good performance as a fallen priest, who again rediscovers his vocation at the hour of greatest need and a young lantern-jawed Robert Wagner as the freshman suitor of Webb and Stanwyck's somewhat stuffy daughter. A singer and dancer he isn't though!While the special effects of the day are naturally and obviously based on a ship's model, these aren't too distracting. Occasionally you feel there aren't that many people on the boat itself and it's noticeable that there's very little coverage of the below-deck drama as the ship fills up with water, but the final scenes, especially the largely non-judgemental treatment of the captain and crew, seemed about right to me; there's no doubting the valour and devotion to duty of this particular captain in going down with his ship unlike a certain Italian captain in the modern disaster of the Concordia.This feature succeeds therefore in the quality of its writing (which was Oscar-nominated) and sensitive direction and acting rather than the special effects, which surely is as it should be.