Titanic (1953 film)

Titanic is a 1953 dramatic movie directed by Jean Negulesco. The film is not to be confused with the movie with the same title made in 1997. Its plot, like in the 1997 movie, is centered around the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, which took place in April 1912.

Tagline: TITANIC in Emotion...in Spectacle...in Climax...in Cast!

Plot summary

Richard Ward and Julia Sturges, a divorcing couple are traveling in First Class on the RMS Titanic. Determined to remove her family from Richard's "high society" world, Julia secretly takes their two children: seventeen-year-old Annette and ten-year-old Norman on the Titanic and plans to raise them in her hometown of Mecannack, Michigan. However, after he learns of her plans, Richard buys a steerage ticket aboard the vessel in hopes of reconciling with his family. Richard and Julia have a heated confrontation about the ultimate custody of their children. While Julia realizes that Annette is mature enough to make her own decisions, and therefore, her own way in the world, she realizes that Norman is still a boy and insists on maintaining custody of him. This angers Richard and he aggressively confronts Julia. She then reveals to him that Norman is not his biological child, but rather the result of a one-night stand she had after an argument with Richard. He agrees to relinquish custody of Norman (but promises to take care of him and Julia financially), being cold and distant to him from this point on until the ship strikes the iceberg. Norman, concerned about his father's whereabouts, gives up his seat in a lifeboat so that he can find him. They reunite as the Titanic is in her final moments, and join the rest of the passengers and crew in singing the hymn "Nearer, my God, to Thee" before the ship sinks.

Also aboard is a twenty-year-old cricket player Gifford Rogers, who falls for Annette, and suspended priest George S. Headley who has become an alcoholic.

Reception

The film was a hit and it touched and terrified moviegoers around the world. It also helped spawn new interest in the Titanic sinking which increased phenomenally with the 1955 release of Walter Lord's bestselling nonfiction account of the disaster, A Night to Remember.

Real Titanic passengers and crew who were portrayed in the film, or referenced in the script, included Colonel John Jacob Astor IV, Madeleine Astor, Isidor Straus, Captain Edward J. Smith, Second Officer Charles Lightoller, Benjamin Guggenheim, and Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon.

Trivia

In the opening sequence, when gifts are being sent to the Astors, the Guggenheims and others, all the characters mentioned ended up dying.

The film won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Main cast

Clifton Webb - Richard Ward Sturges
Barbara Stanwyck - Julia Sturges
Robert Wagner - Gifford Rogers
Audrey Dalton - Annette Sturges
Thelma Ritter - Maude Young
Brian Aherne - Captain Edward J. Smith
Richard Basehart - George S. Headley
Allyn Joslyn - Earl Meeker

Other Titanic movies

External links