A Night To Remember (1958)

Author: Old Mother Hubbard

“A Night To Remember” (1958) Out of all the films about the sinking of the Titanic I found this one to be the best mainly for it’s historical accuracy, aside from the fact that the ship split in half and this movie depicts the ship going down in one piece. It’s possible that the story of the band playing “Nearer My God To Thee” before the ship sank was some bullshit joke told in a bar room for a laugh and the media thought it was so corny that they ran with it. I think the “Nearer My God To Thee” story is an old wives’ tale.

Anywho, “A Night To Remember” starts with a little dramatization to get the audience involved in the drama that happens later but mostly it stays focused on the events as they unfolded. It’s a really sad story. 705 people survived and between 1,496 to 1,517 died because they lacked lifeboat capacity for every passenger. As the ship begins to sink more and more, the situation becomes more dire and grim as panic sets in (A-duhhhhh – we already knew that OMH).

Some of the special effects in “A Night To Remember” are of the “toy boat in a bathtub” variety. James Cameron’s “Titanic” (1997) has spectacular special effects but you have to endure the bullshit love story about Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet). Just to be clear folks – that bullshit love story about a good looking first class rich aristocrat woman falling for a shit bag in steerage and hanging out with his scummy friends for laughs never happened. It was made up out of thin air but people will believe it to be true until the day they die. “A Night To Remember” has a little bit of the social class separation stuff but it’s put in to show the problems steerage passengers had getting to the lifeboats. I’d prefer to skip the bullshit love story in James Cameron’s “Titanic” and just watch “A Night To Remember.” 4 stars.