Titanic (1953)

You may wonder why I bothered watching this a few years after another '50s British account of the event, A Night to Remember (which I do remember). Between that and the '97 blockbuster, hadn't I had my fill of the general history? Well, given the extremes of praise and backlash for the James Cameron epic, I remained curious how else it could have gone. Besides, unlike ANtR, this predecessor won a writing Oscar and stars Barbara Stanwyck.

Also in contrast with ANtR, it takes a more personal approach to the story. There is in fact a budding romance between a teen girl in first class and a teen boy from a lower deck, but they're not Jack and Rose; nobody regards their relationship as scandalous. Nor do they get the lion's share of the focus, which goes to a more troubled relationship between two parents. The ritzy, spoiling dad (Clifton Webb) seems to be a bad influence on both kids, so Mom (Stanwyck) wants to take them from Paris back to Michigan. Dad's not ready to part from them, so he buys a ticket just in time.

Think he winds up regretting that purchase? I can't say for sure. I suppose he would've had a fair chance of reconnecting with his family later, but this way, he gets to be a hero in a dire emergency. It also turns out -- slight spoiler alert -- that this is his last chance to see his preteen son, who proves tragically heroic himself. (I'm not sure how well the boy understands the slim odds of survival for anyone leaving a lifeboat.)

I am aware that in actuality, no preteens died on the RMS Titanic. That's one of many blatant liberties taken herein, which might be a reason for this adaptation having the lowest IMDb score of the three I've mentioned. Still, many of the touches pay tribute to the actions of real people as reported by survivors (and rumormongers). There's even a lawyer-friendly stand-in for the Unsinkable Molly Brown.

The crash comes much later and a bit more noticeably than in ANtR, albeit nowhere near as dramatically as in the '97 version. Passengers express some worry right away, and officials waste little time ordering women and children to the lifeboats, despite an effort to downplay the deadliness to avoid mass hysteria. Indeed, we never do see full-blown panic. Nobody commits suicide, unless you count the old woman who chooses to stay by her husband to the end. (That moment moved me the most, and we don't even know those characters otherwise.) With few exceptions, it's almost calm enough to be surreal. Everyone either accepted their fate or held onto an unrealistic hope.

Part of the perceived calm comes from this being one of the few features I know to include no music except what characters play. I usually appreciate that, if only for realism. Sometimes it enhances a sense of dead seriousness. This time I wasn't sure how to feel about it.

If the 1953 Titanic has one advantage over both other tellings that I've seen, it's a 98-minute length, with an especially short time spent on sinking. Of course, brevity is a double-edged sword, limiting how much you grow to care. In the end, I can't recommend all three flicks unless you're a major cineaste, yet I can't easily pick which one to rule out. If you've seen no more than one, I leave it to you to prioritize from descriptions.