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A Night to Remember (1958,
UK)
In Roy Baker's documentary-style, fairly-accurate
accounting of the April 14, 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic after
it sailed from Liverpool and across the North Atlantic - it was the
most expensive British film at the time and one of the earliest disaster
films:
- the climactic film ending in which the RMS Titanic oceanliner
hit an iceberg ("Iceberg dead ahead, sir") and sliced
a hole in the ship, causing it to sink fairly rapidly
- as the ship slowly went under, lifeboats were deployed
and women and children (in first and second class) boarded them
- the ship began to list as it took on more water, and
passengers became frantic, while some were resigned to their inevitable
fate - in the first-class smoking room, a steward paused to ask the
resolute, stone-faced ship's designer Thomas Andrews: "Aren't
you going to try for it, Mr. Andrews?", but he received no reply
- during the ship's final plunge of the front section
of the ship into the deep water, passengers jumped into the sea as
the stern rose high into the air, and many of those in the water
suffered an icy death
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On Lifeboats
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Sinking of Bow
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Listing of Ship and Final Sinking
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Slanted Interior
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Disaster At Sea
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- the final scene was on the deck of the Carpathia that
had rescued the survivors from the water or from lifeboats; according
to the latest count, 1,500 people were lost; while 705 survived;
the wireless operator (Alec McCowen) brought Captain Arthur Rostron
(Anthony Bushell) a transmitted message received from the nearby Californian (that
earlier could have saved the Titanic), asking if they could
help; the Captain responded with the film's final spoken dialogue:
"Tell them no, nothing. Everything that was humanly possible
has been done"
- a scrolling epilogue postcript appeared above a tracking
shot of the surface of the ocean, strewn with floating lifejackets,
furniture (deck chairs, tables, etc.), a musical instrument, the
playroom's rocking horse, and other discarded items: "BUT THIS
IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY - FOR THEIR SACRIFICE WAS NOT IN VAIN.
TODAY THERE ARE LIFEBOATS FOR ALL. UNCEASING RADIO VIGIL AND, IN
THE NORTH ATLANTIC, THE INTERNATIONAL ICE PATROL GUARDS THE SEA LANES
MAKING THEM SAFE FOR THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD"
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Advertisement for Titanic's Sailing
Collision With Massive Iceberg
Lowered Lifeboat
Chaos On-Board
Orchestral Members Playing On Deck
Ship's Designer in Smoking Room Asked By Steward: "Aren't
you going to try for it, Mr. Andrews?"
Carpathian Captain: "Everything that
was humanly possible has been done"
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