A Night To Remember (1958)
Directed by: Roy Ward Baker
Cast: Kenneth More, Ronald Allen and Robert Ayres
IMDb page about A Night To Remember
Studio(s): Pinewood Studios
Digitally Remastered Criterion Collection Edition:
Actor Kenneth More recalled the production of the film in his autobiography, published 20 years after production in 1978. There was no tank big enough at Pinewood Studios to film the survivors struggling to climb into lifeboats, so it was done in the open-air swimming bath at Ruislip Lido at 2am on an icy November morning. When the extras refused to jump in, More realised he would have to set an example. He called out: "Come on!"
I leaped. Never have I experienced such cold in all my life. It was like jumping into a deep freeze. The shock forced the breath out of my body. My heart seemed to stop beating. I felt crushed, unable to think. I had rigor mortis, without the mortis. And then I surfaced, spat out the dirty water and, gasping for breath, found my voice.
'Stop!' I shouted. 'Don't listen to me! It's bloody awful! Stay where you are!'
But it was too late ....
The character of the baker, seen drinking after giving up his seat in a lifeboat to a female passenger, is based on Chief Baker Charles Joughin, who on that night drank some whisky, threw deck chairs overboard, rode the stern all the way down, swam in the freezing water for hours and was eventually picked up by the overturned collapsible boat B, surviving the disaster.
During the sinking, a man pauses as he flees through the first-class smoking room to ask ship's designer Thomas Andrews, "Aren't you even going to try for it, Mr Andrews?" This sequence was replicated essentially word-for-word in the 1997 Titanic film, substituting that film's protagonists Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater instead of the man. The scene was also repeated in S.O.S. Titanic with a stewardess asking him if he'll save himself, pointing out that there would be questions that only he could answer. In reality, it was a steward, the last person to see Andrews alive, who asked him if he was going to save himself.
As with most pictures about the Titanic filmed before the discovery of the wreck in 1985, A Night to Remember portrays the ship sinking in one piece. In fact, some witness reports describe the ship as breaking in two and the discovery of the wreck confirmed this. Most films since then have reflected this finding.