A Night to Remember [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Roy Ward Baker Roy Ward Baker

Overview

This meticulous re-creation of the sinking of the Titanic was adapted by Eric Ambler from the best-selling book by Walter Lord, and it preceded the blockbuster Titanic by almost 40 years. The film covers the life and death of the huge vessel from its launching celebration to that fateful night of April 14, 1912, when the "unsinkable" ship struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Of the 2224 passengers on board, 1513 were drowned as a result of the bad planning of lifeboats and escape routes. Kenneth More heads a huge and stellar cast, with 200 speaking parts, as second officer Herbert Lightoller, from whose point-of-view the story unfolds. Also in the cast are Laurence Naismith as the ill-fated Captain Smith; Michael Goodliffe as conscience-stricken ship's designer Thomas Andrews; Tucker McGuire as feisty American millionaire Molly Brown, whose courage and tenacity saved many lives; and Anthony Bushell as the captain of the Carpathia, who launched a noble but vain rescue mission once he was apprised of the disaster. Also appearing are two future TV favorites: The Avengers' Honor Blackman as a woman who believes that she has nothing to live for, and The Man From UNCLE's David McCallum as a wireless operator. The climactic sinking of the vessel is re-created with painstaking accuracy; filmed in "real time," it is a mere 37 minutes shorter than the actual tragedy. Two years before the film's release, an American TV adaptation of A Night to Remember set a precedent as the most elaborate and technically complex "live" broadcast of its time. Some viewers will find this movie a more accurate and gripping representation of this sea disaster than the romance-heavy Titanic.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/27/2012
UPC:	0715515094214
Original Release:	1958
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W, Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	2:03:00
Sales rank:	714

Special Features

New digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack; Audio commentary by Don Lynch and Ken Marschall, author and illustrator of "Titanic": An Illustrated History; The Making of "A Night to Remember" (1993), a sixty-minute documentary featuring producer William MacQuitty's rare behind-the-scenes footage; Archival interview with Titanic survivor Eva Hart; En natt att minnas (1962), a half-hour Swedish documentary featuring interviews with Titanic survivors; The Iceberg That Sank the "Titanic" (2006), a fifty-minute BBC documentary; Trailer; PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critix Michael Sragow and archival photographs

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Kenneth More	Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller
Ronald Allen	Mr. Clarke
Honor Blackman	Mrs. Liz Lucas
David McCallum	Assistant Wireless Operator Harold Bride
Robert Ayres	Peuchen
Anthony Bushell	Capt. Rostron
John Cairney	Murphy
Jill Dixon	Mrs. Clarke
Jane Downs	Mrs. Lightoller
James Dyrenforth	Col. Gracie
Michael Goodliffe	Thomas Andrews
George Rose	Joughin
Ralph Michael	Yates
Kenneth Griffith	Phillips
Frank Lawton	Chairman
Michael Bryant	Moody
Harriette Johns	Lady Richard
Richard Leech	Murdoch
Alec McCowen	Cottan
Tucker McGuire	Mrs. Brown
John Merivale	Lucas
Laurence Naismith	Capt. Smith
Russell Napier	Capt. Lord
Redmond Phillips	Hoyle
Joseph Tomelty	Dr. O'Laughlin
Patrick Waddington	Sir Richard
Jack Watling	Boxhall
Geoffrey Bayldon	Evans
Cyril Chamberlain	Q.M. Rowe
Richard Clarke	Gallagher
Bee Duffell	Mrs. Farrell
Harold Goldblatt	Guggenheim
Gerald Harper	3rd Officer
Richard Hayward	Victualling Manager
Danuta Karell	Polish Mother
Andrew Keir	Engineer Officer Hesketh
Christina Lubicz	Polish Girl
Barry MacGregor	Gibson
Patrick McAlinney	Farrell
Helen Misener	Mrs. Straus
Mary Monahan	Kate
Howard Pays	Lowe
Philip Ray	Clergyman
Harold Siddons	Stone
Julian Somers	Bull
Tim Turner	Groves
Meier Tzelniker	Straus
Alan Frank	Actor
Tom Naylor	Actor
John Richardson	Actor
Sean Connery	Titanic Deck Hand
Thomas Heathcote	Actor
Eddie Malin	Steward
Marianne Stone	Stewardess No. 2
William Alwyn	Composer

Technical Credits

Eric Ambler

Walter Lord

Roy Ward Baker	Director
William McQuitty	Producer
Earl St. John	Executive Producer,Producer
Eric Ambler	Screenwriter
William MacQuitty	Producer
Geoffrey Daniels	Sound Effects
Gordon K. McCallum	Sound Effects
Harry Miller	Sound Effects
Walter Lord	Screenwriter
Bill Warrington	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

This brisk and skillfully executed screen adaptation of Walter Lord's bestseller about the disastrous maiden voyage of the Titanic lacks the romantic appeal of James Cameron's later blockbuster, but it's in many ways a superior examination of how and why the tragedy occurred. In a grim but not morbid approach, director Roy Ward Baker looks at both the human side of this story, offering a emotionally potent look at the handful who survived and the many who did not, and the nuts and bolts behind the shipwreck, explaining (as Cameron's film did not) just why the Titanic was supposed to be unsinkable and how these same qualities ended up working against the ship. Baker's pacing, swift but never rushed, gives the film a crisp, almost documentary feel (the realistic atmosphere is aided immeasurably by Geoffrey Unsworth's splendid camerawork), and he draws fine performances from his cast, especially Kenneth More as second-in-command Herbert Lightoller and Laurence Naismith as the doomed Captain Smith. A Night to Remember was one of the best films from the under-appreciated Baker, who also made the Marilyn Monroe vehicle Don't Bother to Knock and the mind-bending sci-fi classic Quatermass and the Pit.

All Movie Guide - Mark Deming