A Night to Remember (1958 film)

A Night to Remember is a 1958 British historical disaster docudrama film based on the eponymous 1955 book by Walter Lord. The film and book recount the final night of RMS Titanic, which sank on her maiden voyage after she struck an iceberg in 1912. Adapted by Eric Ambler and directed by Roy Ward Baker, the film stars Kenneth More as the ship's Second Officer Charles Lightoller and features Michael Goodliffe, Laurence Naismith, Kenneth Griffith, David McCallum and Tucker McGuire. It was filmed in the United Kingdom and tells the story of the sinking, portraying the main incidents and players in a documentary-style fashion with considerable attention to detail.^[4] The production team, supervised by producer William MacQuitty (who saw the original ship launched) used blueprints of the ship to create authentic sets, while Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall and ex-Cunard Commodore Harry Grattidge worked as technical advisors on the film. Its estimated budget of up to £600,000 (£15.8 million adjusted for inflation [2023]) was exceptional and made it the most expensive film ever made in Britain up to that time.^[3] The film's score was written by William Alwyn.

Quick Facts Directed by, Screenplay by ...

A Night to Remember
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Roy Ward Baker
Screenplay by	Eric Ambler
Story by	Walter Lord
Based on	A Night to Remember 1955 book by Walter Lord
Produced by	William MacQuitty
Starring	Kenneth More Michael Goodliffe Laurence Naismith Kenneth Griffith David McCallum Tucker McGuire
Cinematography	Geoffrey Unsworth
Music by	William Alwyn
Distributed by	The Rank Organisation
Release date	3 July 1958 (1958-07-03)
Running time	123 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£500,000[1] or £530,000[2] or £600,000; [3] upper bounds of approximately £13.9 million or £15.8 million adjusted for inflation (2023)
Box office	Precise figure unknown, but it had failed to make its budget back by 2001

Close

The film disappointed at the box office.^[1] However, it received critical acclaim and won the 1959 "Samuel Goldwyn International Award" at the Golden Globe Awards.^[5] Among the many films about the Titanic, A Night to Remember is regarded highly by Titanic historians and survivors for its accuracy, despite its modest production values, compared with the 1997 Hollywood film Titanic.^[6][7][8] Retrospective analysis by both critics and regular viewers has been favourable; for example, on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a score of 100% based on twenty-two critical reviews and a 90% score according to audience responses.^[9]

In 1912, the luxurious Titanic is the largest vessel afloat, widely believed to be unsinkable. On 10 April, Titanic sails from Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York. On 14 April, in the Atlantic, the ship receives a number of ice warnings from steamers, which are relayed to Captain Edward Smith, who orders a lookout. That evening, the SS Californian spots floating ice in the distance and tries to send a telegraph message to Titanic.

On Titanic, first class passengers Sir Richard and Lady Richard, and second class passengers the Clarkes, a young newlywed couple, overhear the band, led by Wallace Hartley. The band plays various songs, while steerage passengers Pat Murphy, Martin Gallagher, and James Farrel enjoy a party in third class, where Murphy becomes attracted to a young Polish girl and dances with her.

In the telegraph room, operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride are changing shifts. Phillips receives an ice warning but, when more messages arrive for him to send out, the warning is lost under them. On the Californian, field ice is spotted. The ship stops due to the risk, and a message is sent to Titanic. Because the Californian is so close, the telegraph message is very loud, and Phillips cuts it off abruptly. Titanic's passengers begin to settle in for the night, while gamblers Hoyle and Jay Yates stay up.

Suddenly, the vessel collides with an iceberg. Captain Smith sends for Thomas Andrews, the ship's builder, to inspect the damage. He determines that Titanic will sink within two hours, and both realise that the ship lacks sufficient lifeboat capacity for all the passengers. Distress signals are sent out, but the Californian's radio operator is off duty. 58 miles away, the RMS Carpathia radio operator receives the distress call and alerts Captain Arthur Rostron, who orders Dean to turn the ship around. Unfortunately, it will take about four hours to reach the Titanic.

Seeing the Californian on the horizon 10 miles away, Titanic begins to signal the ship, but the Californian's crew fails to comprehend why a ship within sight is firing rockets, as Captain Smith orders Second Officer Charles Lightoller to start lowering the lifeboats, while the orchestra performs ragtime. In the Grand Staircase, passenger Robbie Lucas is told the truth by Andrews, so he gets his wife and children safely into a boat.

Murphy, Gallagher and Farrel help the Polish girl and her mother to the boat deck and get them to a boat. The Richards and Hoyle are admitted to a boat by First Officer William McMaster Murdoch. Yates gives a female passenger a note to send to his sister. Ida and Isidor Straus refuse to be separated, inadvertently setting an example for Mrs Clarke, who decides to stay with her husband so Andrews advises them on how to survive.

As the crew struggles to hold back the third-class passengers, most first- and second-class passengers board lifeboats and row away. As Titanic leans, passengers begin to realise the danger; when the third-class passengers finally access the deck, chaos ensues. White Star Line Chairman J. Bruce Ismay steps into one of the last lifeboats. Passengers—among them Murphy, Gallagher and Farrel—retreat towards the stern as it rises into the air, while Lightoller and other able seamen struggle to free the two remaining collapsible lifeboats, as the Titanic's bow submerges. Captain Smith gives the final order to abandon ship, ordering every man to save himself.

The Clarkes use a rope to get down the ship's side as the orchestra performs the hymn, "Nearer, My God, to Thee" and Smith returns to the bridge to go down with his ship. Titanic begins its final plunge; Lightoller and many others are swept off. Andrews awaits his fate in the first-class smoking room, while a kindly steward comforts a lost boy separated from his mother. Lucas looks out towards the lifeboats, knowing he will never see his family again, while the Clarkes are killed by a falling funnel. The passengers pray as the stricken liner rapidly sinks into the ocean.

In the freezing water, many die of hypothermia. Lucas's dead body floats by an overturned collapsible, as Yates, unwilling to overcrowd the boat, swims away to his death. Lightoller takes charge on the boat as Murphy and Gallagher make it aboard, although Farrel is lost. Chief Baker Charles Joughin, after having given up his lifeboat seat and turning to the bottle to ease his ailments, also climbs aboard. The men are saved by another boat. The Carpathia arrives to rescue the survivors, as a shaken Lightoller tells Colonel Archibald Gracie, "I don't think I'll ever feel sure again, about anything."

On the ship, as a group prayer is held, Murphy and Gallagher stand with the Polish girl and her mother, while Mrs Farrel and Mrs Lucas and her children mourn the loss of their loved ones. Rostron takes Lightoller on deck as Carpathia sails by the remaining floating wreckage from the Titanic. Rostron informs Lightoller that 705 were saved and 1,500 lost. The Carpathia receives a message from the Californian, which heard of the disaster, but Rostron informs them that "everything that was humanly possible has been done".

Cast notes:

• Kenneth More, Laurence Naismith, and Michael Goodliffe all featured later in Sink the Bismarck!.
• Kenneth More, and Jack Watling had previously acted together in Reach for the Sky.
• Gordon Holdom - baritone, sang the song "Nearer, My God, to Thee" dubbed.^[11]
• Bernard Fox, who portrays Lookout Frederick Fleet, portrayed Colonel Archibald Gracie IV in Titanic (1997).
• Larry Taylor's son, stuntman and actor Rocky Taylor made an uncredited appearance as Bert Cartmell, a 3rd class passenger and Cora's dad in Titanic (1997).
• Sean Connery, who was uncredited as a deckhand, starred as James Bond in 7 movies from Dr. No (1962) to Never Say Never Again (1983).
• By coincidence, four members of the cast, Peter Burton, Desmond Llewelyn, Geoffrey Bayldon and Alec McCowen, went on to play "Q" in various James Bond movies. In this film, they respectively portrayed a first class steward, a gate steward who prevents the third class passengers from entering the first class deck, SS Californian Wireless Operator Cyril Evans, and RMS Carpathia Wireless Operator Harold Cottam.
• Three cast members – Connery, Llewelyn, and Blackman – would later appear in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, with Blackman as Pussy Galore.^[12]
• Norman Rossington, who portrays a steward who loses his temper with non-English speaking passengers during the start of the evacuation, also portrayed the Master-at-Arms in S.O.S. Titanic (1979).
• Jeremy Bulloch, best known for his portrayal of Boba Fett in the Star Wars films The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, makes an uncredited appearance as a boy jumping into the water.
• Derren Nesbitt and Stratford Johns appear uncredited as survivors on the upturned lifeboat.
• Frank Lawton, who plays J. Bruce Ismay, previously starred in 1933's Cavalcade, which also prominently featured the Titanic.
• This is the last movie for Alma Taylor, a very famous actress in Silent film era.
• David McCallum, who plays Harold Bride, would serve as the narrator for the 1994 A&E documentary mini-series Titanic: Death of a Dream and Titanic: The Legend Lives On.
• Richard Leech later appears in a 1982 biopic Gandhi with future Titanic star Bernard Hill, who played Captain Edward J. Smith.

The film is regarded as the most historically accurate Titanic film, except for not featuring the ship breaking in two.^{[by whom?]} (There was still doubt about this fact when the book and film were produced. The accepted view at the time, and the result of the inquiries, was that she sank intact; it was only confirmed that she split after the wreck was found in 1985).^[31][32] Lightoller's widow Sylvia praised the film's historical accuracy in an interview with The Guardian, stating "The film is really the truth and has not been embroidered".^[23]

While some events are based on history, some of the characters and their storylines are fictional or dramatised; the characters of Mr Murphy, Mr Hoyle, and Jay Yates being composites of several men.^[33] Murphy, who leads the steerage girls to the lifeboat, is a composite of several Irish emigrants. Although there was, in fact, a Martin Gallagher travelling steerage aboard the Titanic, his actions in the film are fictionalised and although he survives the sinking, he actually died in real life. Hoyle, the gambler who gets into the lifeboat on the starboard side, is a composite of several such figures, men determined to save themselves at all costs. Robbie Lucas and Mrs Liz Lucas are composites of several married couples, notably Mr Lucian Smith and Mrs Eloise Hughes Smith. Lucas even says the words actually spoken by Lucien Smith to his wife: "I never expected to ask you to obey me, but this is one time you must".^[34] Mr Clarke and Mrs Clarke are composites of several honeymoon couples, notably John and Sarah Chapman, a pair of newlyweds from second class who died during the sinking. John Chapman's body was recovered by the cable ship Mackay-Bennett, and there were no mentions or indications that suggest that he had been killed by a falling funnel.^[35] The involvement of American passengers was either limited or left out (with the exception of the Strauses, Guggenheim, Margaret Brown and Colonel Gracie).^[25]

Several historical figures were renamed or went unnamed to avoid potential legal action. Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon and Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon are depicted as Sir Richard and Lady Richard (Lady Duff's secretary Miss Francatelli is completely omitted) and Bruce Ismay is referred to throughout only as "The Chairman".

The film omits several key historical figures, including John Jacob Astor IV, the wealthiest passenger aboard the Titanic, and Stoker Frederick Barrett, with Second Engineer Officer John Henry Hesketh's role being expanded to include duties and actions that were performed by Barrett and others.^[33]

In reality, the American gambler Jay Yates (played as British by the distinctive British actor Ralph Michael), travelling under the name of J.H. Rogers, was never on board, and the note he was said to have handed to a passenger was a hoax. Yates wrote the note in New York and then had a woman accomplice pose as a survivor and deliver the note to the newspaper. Yates did this in order to make the police think he was dead. They didn't fall for the ruse, and Yates was captured a couple of months later (he was wanted on federal charges connected with postal thefts). The fictional Yates says, "Good luck and God bless you", the words spoken by an unknown swimmer at Collapsible B, whom survivor fireman Walter Hurst thought was Captain Smith.^[36]

The painting in the first class smoking room is incorrectly shown as depicting the entrance to New York Harbor, while it actually depicted the entrance to Plymouth Sound, which Titanic had been expected to visit on her return voyage (there was a painting of New York Harbor at this spot on RMS Olympic, a sister ship of Titanic). This was an error made by Walter Lord in his research, which he acknowledged in the documentary The Making of A Night to Remember.^[37][38][39]

The first scene of A Night to Remember depicts the christening of the ship at its launch. However, the Titanic was never christened, as it was not the practice of the White Star Line to stage this sort of ceremony.^[40] This has come down in popular lore as one of the many contributing factors to the ship's "bad luck".

Stanley Lord was upset over his negative portrayal; he was depicted wearing pyjamas and as being asleep in his cabin while the Titanic was sinking. In fact, Lord was sleeping in the chart room wearing his uniform.

The film gives the impression second officer Lightoller had launched almost every single lifeboat. Actions that were actually performed by others were attributed to Lightoller.^[41] Lightoller is also depicted as nearly being crushed by the fourth funnel falling in the ship's last moments. It was actually the first funnel that fell near Lightoller.^[42][43][33]

Murphy and Gallagher make it to the overturned Collapsible B with a child in their arms, which they pass to Lightoller. Lightoller finds the child is dead and puts it back in the water. This was based on accounts that Captain Smith reportedly carried a child to the boat, which later died; along with these accounts being of dubious nature, Lightoller never reported receiving a child on Collapsible B.^[44]

The world premiere was on 3 July 1958, at the Odeon Leicester Square. Boxhall and Third Officer Herbert Pitman attended the premier along with survivor Walter Nichols.^[24] Titanic survivor Elizabeth Dowdell attended the American premiere in New York on Tuesday 16 December 1958.^[45]

A Night to Remember was released by the Criterion Collection on DVD in May 1998.^[58] Initial versions of the DVD omitted Lightoller finding the child to be dead and putting it in the water. A new DVD and a high-definition Blu-ray edition were released on 27 March 2012 to commemorate the centennial of the sinking.

• 1958 in film
• Historical drama
• List of films about the RMS Titanic
  • RMS Titanic in popular culture
• Selected filmography of Geoffrey Unsworth