A Night to Remember (movie)

A Night to Remember is a 1958 British drama movie. The movie was adapted from Walter Lord's book of the same name.

A Night to Remember
Directed by	Roy Ward Baker
Screenplay by	Eric Ambler
Story by	Walter Lord
Based on	A Night to Remember by Walter Lord
Produced by	William MacQuitty
Starring	Kenneth More
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 or £530,000 or £600,000; upper bounds of approximately £NaN or £NaN adjusted for inflation (2019)
Box office	Precise figure unknown, but it had failed to make its budget back by 2001

Plot

The RMS Titanic is christened for its maiden voyage. Passengers and crew get on board the ship. The ship departs from port on April 10, 1912 and heads out into sea.

The ship receives a number of ice warnings from other ships. However, only a few of the messages are sent to Captain Edward J. Smith. The captain does not slow down the ship, or consider an alternate route.

Late on Sunday, April 14, one of the lookouts sees an iceberg in front of the ship. Titanic turns hard to port and tries to avoid the iceberg. But the ship eventually hits the iceberg on its starboard side. The first five compartments, below the waterline, are ripped open. Thomas Andrews, the ship's maker, inspects the damage. He then learns the ship will sink within two hours. Making matters worse, the ship does not have enough lifeboats for all the people aboard.

A distress signal is sent out. The radio operator on the RMS Carpathia hears the distress call, understands the emergency and alerts Captain Arthur Rostron. Rostron, right away, orders the Carpathia to head to the Titanic at full speed. But unfortunately, it will take four hours to reach the Titanic.

Captain Smith orders Officers William Murdoch and Charles Lightoller to begin lowering the lifeboats. Women and children are let on the boats first. However, the women and children are not that happy about getting into the lifeboats. They are then forced into the boats by officers.

The Carpathia is racing to the Titanic site. Before Carpathia can get there, though, Titanic sinks.

On the Carpathia, Lightoller is told by Rostron that only 705 people have survived. They have only passed one body.

Cast

• Kenneth More as Second Officer Charles Lightoller
• Ronald Allen as Mr. Clarke (Mr. John Chapman)
• Robert Ayers as Arthur Godfrey Peuchen
• Honor Blackman as Mrs. Liz Lucas
• Anthony Bushell as Captain Arthur Rostron
• John Cairney as Mr. Murphy
• Jill Dixon as Mrs. Clarke (Mrs. Sarah Chapman)
• Jane Downs as Mrs. Sylvia Lightoller
• James Dyrenforth as Colonel Archibald Gracie IV
• Michael Goodliffe as shipbuilder Thomas Andrews
• Kenneth Griffith as Wireless Operator Jack Phillips
• Harriette Johns as Lady Richard (Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon)
• Frank Lawton as J. Bruce Ismay
• Richard Leech as First Officer William Murdoch
• David McCallum as Assistant Wireless Operator Harold Sydney Bride
• Alec McCowen as Wireless Operator Harold Thomas Cottam, SS Carpathia
• Geoffrey Bayldon as Wireless Operator Cyril Evans, SS Californian
• Tucker McGuire as Mrs. Margaret 'Molly' Brown
• John Merivale as Robbie Lucas
• Ralph Michael as Jay Yates
• Laurence Naismith as Captain Edward J. Smith
• Russell Napier as Captain Stanley Lord
• Redmond Phillips as Mr. Hoyle
• George Rose as Chief Baker Charles Joughin
• Joseph Tomelty as Dr. William O'Loughlin
• Patrick Waddington as Sir Richard (Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon)
• Jack Watling as Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall
• Michael Bryant as Sixth Officer James Moody
• Cyril Chamberlain as Quartermaster Rowe
• Richard Clarke as Martin Gallagher
• Bee Duffell as Mrs. Farrell
• Harold Goldblatt as Benjamin Guggenheim
• Gerald Harper as Third Officer, SS Carpathia
• Thomas Heathcote as Steward
• Andrew Keir as Second Engineer Officer John Henry 'Harry' Hesketh
• Patrick McAlinney as Mr. James Farrell
• Howard Pays as Fifth Officer Harold Lowe
• Harold Siddons as Second Officer Herbert Stone, SS Californian
• Charles Belchier as Bandleader Wallace Hartley (uncredited)
• Teresa Thorne as Miss Edith Russell (uncredited)
• Howard Lang as Chief Officer Henry Wilde (uncredited)
• Sean Connery as Steerage passenger (uncredited)
• John Moulder Brown as boy (uncredited)
• Henry Campbell as William T. Stead (uncredited)
• Larry Taylor as bearded seaman (uncredited)
• Julian Somers as Mr. Bull
• Rosamund Greenwood as Mrs. Bull (uncredited)

Historical inaccuracies

As with many Titanic movies made prior to 1985, this movie shows Titanic sinking in one piece. But in reality, the ship broke in two before sinking.

Reception

The movie won several awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best English-Language Foreign Film.

Bibliography

• Aldridge, Rebecca (2008). The Sinking of the Titanic. New York: Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7910-9643-7.
• Anderson, D. Brian (2005). The Titanic in Print and on Screen. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-1786-2.
• Barczewski, Stephanie (2006). Titanic: A Night Remembered. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-85285-500-0.
• Barnes, Julian (2010). A History of the World in 10½ Chapters. London: Random House. ISBN 978-1-4090-8865-3.
• Biel, Steven (1996). Down with the Old Canoe. London: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-03965-X.
• Chirnside, Mark (2004). The Olympic-class ships : Olympic, Titanic, Britannic. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus. ISBN 978-0-7524-2868-0.
• Eaton, John P.; Haas, Charles A. (1994). Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy. Wellingborough, Northamptonshire: Patrick Stephens. ISBN 978-1-85260-493-6.
• Heyer, Paul (2012). Titanic Century: Media, Myth, and the Making of a Cultural Icon. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-39815-5.
• Lord, Walter (1988). The Night Lives On. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-670-81452-7.
• Mayer, Geoff (2004). Roy Ward Baker. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-6354-1.
• Rasor, Eugene L. (2001). The Titanic: Historiography and Annotated Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-31215-1.
• Richards, Jeffrey (2001). Imperialism and Music: Britain, 1876–1953. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-6143-1.
• Street, Sarah (2004). "Questions of Authenticity and Realism in A Night to Remember (1958)". In Bergfelder, Tim; Street, Sarah (eds.). The Titanic in myth and memory: representations in visual and literary culture. London: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-85043-431-3.
• Ward, Greg (2012). The Rough Guide to the Titanic. London: Rough Guides Ltd. ISBN 978-1-4053-8699-9.
• Winocour, Jack, ed. (1960). The Story of the Titanic as told by its Survivors. London: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-20610-3.

Other websites

• A Night to Remember on IMDb
• A Night to Remember at the TCM Movie Database
• A Night to Remember at AllMovie
• A Night to Remember at Rotten Tomatoes
• A Night to Remember an essay by Michael Sragow at the Criterion Collection