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Kenneth More, Honor Blackman, Anthony Bushell, Ronald Allen, Robert Ayres ... see more see more... , Jane Downs , Jill Dixon , Kenneth Griffith , James Dyrenforth , Michael Goodliffe , Harriette Johns , Frank Lawton , Richard Leech , David McCallum , Alec McCowen , Tucker McGuire , John Merivale , Laurence Naismith , Russell Napier , George Rose , Jack Watling , Bee Duffell , Patrick Waddington , Geoffrey Bayldon , Michael Bryant , John Cairney , Cyril Chamberlain , Richard Clarke , Harold Goldblatt , Gerald Harper , Thomas Heathcote , Andrew Keir , Eddie Malin , Ralph Michael , Redmond Phillips , Philip Ray , Harold Siddons , Julian Somers , Marianne Stone , Joseph Tomelty , Tim Turner , John Richardson , Barry MacGregor , Meier Tzelniker , Richard Hayward , Patrick McAlinney , Howard Pays , Alan Frank , Christina Lubicz , Tom Naylor

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 cov... read more read more...ers 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. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Unrated, 1 hr. 59 min.

Directed by: Roy Ward Baker

Release Date: July 1, 1958

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DVD Release Date: June 16, 1998

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Flixster Reviews (474)

  • TheDudeLebowski65
    April 15, 2012
    TheDudeLebowski65
    R.M.S Titanic- 100 years ago today 1912-2012

    This year being the centenary of R.M.S Titanic's sinking, I would decide to review this classic film depicting the most famous sea disaster of the 20th century. Now before I review the film, I just want to say that I didn't enjoy the ... read more1997 version of Titanic, I just felt it was a film that had too much fiction and unnecessary drama that tried too hard at over doing the suffering and pain of that horrible tragedy. I thought Cameron had a great eye for the film, but the romantic storyline absolutely ruined the film for me. I see that film as a blunder, and I just hated the fact that they mostly had to sugar the facts with a purposely tear jerking love story, as a person who's very much intrigued by the story of Titanic I was very disappointed with that film. However, A Night to Remember is a film I highly recommend to viewers who want the true story of the Titanic. With this film you get the facts, not fiction. Brilliantly directed by Roy Ward Backer, A Night to Remember is a cinematic classic that tells the true story of the greatest ship ever made. The cast assembled here for this production is phenomenal. I've been fascinated with the Titanic since I was a young kid, and now I'm in my mid to late twenties. This film is superb, it has everything you want that would please a Titanic buff. A Night to Remember is dramatic and suspenseful, and one key element that makes this a worthy film to watch is that it's an accurate portrait of the disaster. The film is brilliant and a flawless piece of cinema. The actors on-screen deliver memorable performances as well. The film is a much more accomplished film compared to the massively overrated Titanic, and if you're interested in the facts about the tragedy, this is the film to watch. After all these years, A Night to Remember remains the definitive Titanic film. James Cameron's film is nothing compared to this one. More accurate, better acting, and hold true to the facts, it's no secret that this film remains a favorite of Titanic enthusiasts the world over. Not only is A Night to Remember a memorable film that accurately portrays this famous disaster, this is a cinematic classic that should be seen by film enthusiasts everywhere. Watching this film, you may agree that it's far superior to the typical Hollywood love story that James Cameron gas made. I think that this is a phenomenal picture and is terrific tribute to the victims that died during the sinking. A brilliantly acted piece of cinema that delivers drama and suspense from start to finish. Forget the sappy purposely tear jerkin love sick Cameron version that relies more on fiction, and pick up this one instead.
  • kiriyamakazou
    March 13, 2011
    kiriyamakazou
    The only movie about The Titanic you need to see. Nowhere will you find melodramatic nonsense, or forced love stories. This film is filled with tension and terror way before its time. As the events unfold, it's surprising to see how calm everybody is. The calmness gradually build... read mores to madness, but not to the insanity of the 1997 film. I saw this film when I was very young, and it always stuck with me. Some shots were directly lifted for Cameron's effort. Some may mistake the very Englishness of it all as a lack of emotion. It couldn't be further from the truth. A man lies to his wife about the severity of the impact, a woman runs for her lucky pig, the designer tells a couple their best chance of survival etc. It's the calmness that is unsettling, but also what this film, and those on the
  • thmtsang
    March 1, 2011
    thmtsang
    Based on a researched book this movie is like a factual documentary. It's not about storytelling or character building but more about the harsh reality of the disaster. It paints a picture of what ifs and regrets. Very moving and believable depiction. The set is amazing for that ... read moreperiod.
  • moonrivers
    June 7, 2010
    moonrivers
    all art essentially becomes a comment on the moment of its creation whether it's intentional or not, and this film, made right before the social upheaval of the tumultous sixties, certainly can be seen as just that. the grand lady as a metaphor for the great empire's dwindling? ... read more maybe. underlining the entire work is an implicit call for calm, for order, for ... sanity perhaps. powerful moments played in quiet abound here, making this an exemplary work. makes one proud to be a brit, even if one is not.
  • flixsterman
    September 13, 2009
    flixsterman
    Hard to find on DVD. In my opinion, it's the BEST Titanic film ever made.
  • YosemiteSamFan
    October 25, 2007
    YosemiteSamFan
    Superbly moving Titanic film. Very well done!
  • McKittrick
    September 20, 2007
    McKittrick
    Don't bother with Jack and Sarah!! Watch this instead!!
  • garyX
    August 24, 2007
    garyX
    A british dramatization of the actual recorded events leading up to and during the sinking of the Titanic performed without the melodramatic histrionics of Cameron's bloated monstrosity. The crew are played with a reserved, pragmatic dignity, counterpointing the aloof complacency... read more and later panic of the passengers. It's meticulous in it's detail, solidly acted and features model effects that have stood the test of time rather impressively. It's a little overlong (even though it's an hour shorter than 1997's debacle) but the writer's choice to let the drama of the actual events unfold without embellishment and sentiment was the right one. If only James Cameron had taken a page from his book...
  • crossbladezero
    April 7, 2012
    crossbladezero
    It's "The Titanic Adventure", but unlike "Poseidon", this really happened. I guess that's why they couldn't get Ernest Borgnine for this film; too many painful memories from when he was rescued from the actual Titanic, back when he was in his 50s. It truly was a night to remember... read more, even if you are slipping into senility, something Mr. Borgnine is certainly not slipping into, because if that disaster couldn't kill him, then there's no way alzheimer's is gonna take him out. Wow, I am going the distance with this bogus joke about Ernest Bornine being old enough to have actually been on the Titanic, and, as I said, he's not even in this film. I guess I have to reach for some kind of reference to a star, because, with the exception of Sean Conney, who made some random cameo somewhere in the film, the people in this are such unknowns that, for a seconds there, I thought that they had died in an actual recreation of the Titanic sinking. Of course, then I heard the dialogue, and it quickly hit me that this is anything but authentic pandemonium, because I doubt that they would be knocking out terrible snap-liners during pure, horrifying disaster. Hey, that doesn't make the film any less exciting, partially because the film couldn't get any less exciting. No, the film does really hit some high points in tension, but if you want some consistency in those thrills aboard the Titanic, then wait about 39 years, because as enjoyable as this film is, it's not without its slip-ups.

    The film slips a bit from the get-go, rushing atmospheric exposition and pumping out steam, which already found itself diluted by under informative, yet still overlong and repetitive openings for our leads. The film goes immediately underdeveloped and immediately disengaging, but something that is most certainly not immediate is the film's picking up. The film is slow and loose, limply procrastinating, which isn't to say that I wanted them to waste no time in throwing us in the middle of emotional terror before we had even established resonance with the situation, because at that point, it would have been spectacle over substance, but it is to say that the film makes ends meet with dry padding. For the padded-out length, to even the poor dialogue, so much of the substance feels so artificial, and sure, I understand that's how they rolled in the '50s, even in the final years of the era, but that's still no real excuse, partially because it throws some mild inconsistency in the intellegence of the film. The film boasts historical accuracy and ambition, but its substance goes diluted, due to its usage of forced charm and over meditation on characters as cheap substitutes for exposition. It's a false, overlong, lifeless bore of a disaster that could rival the actual Titanic sinking... but enough about "Eyes Wide Shut". Seriously though, this film certainly stands to be better, but it could have fallen so spectacularly flat, as well, yet it goes saved by its ultimately prevailing moments of genuine effectiveness, largely spawned from effective production values.

    Now, don't go expecting these production designs to be the 1950s practical equivalent of Jim Cameron's later-to-arrive digital recreation of the sinking, but do expect some pretty impressive usage of the, as Wikipedia put it, "modest" production values. The reconstruction of the Titanic's rooms and exterior are pretty dead-on, and when things start sinking, shaking and falling apart at the seams, you feel it; maybe not all the time, but when things go down, they really hit, and part of that effectiveness lays in the quality of the build-up. Sure, maybe the film takes a little bit too long with the pre-pandemonium, but when push comes to shove, while the film doesn't quite deliver terribly sharply on the emotional aspects of the disaster, it certainly gives you a sense of tension, really playing up the accuracies to hit you, though not bear down and manipulate you. As cheesy as the writing is, the early stages of the colorful characters and story charm you, and as things begin to bash down, you see a lot of characters shift and do things that really catch you offguard. Again, if exposition was sharper, and writing with it, then things would have really hit with more subtlety, but as it stands, the film keeps you going through the slow and wakes you up when things get heavy. Its charm resides within its workmanlike moments, but its style and tension reside in the moments where the limited resources find themselves used to great effect, and while the film won't stick with you terribly thoroughly, it is still rather "a film to remember". Yup, all of that repetition, just to get to a joke about the title; but hey it's still a pretty decent movie anyways.

    At the end of this night, limited exposition and padding dull down a film tainted by shoddy writing and bit of a shortage on emotion, but the film boasts enough charm throughout the more relaxed moments to keep you going, and when disaster comes into play, the sharp production and authenticity power the intrigue and tension that help in making "A Night to Remember" a generally impacing and interesting classic study on the final hours of the "Unsinkable" Ship.

    2.5/5 - Fair
  • chaleins
    December 21, 2010
    chaleins
    This is the one that Titanic critics like to extol as the 'real' movie about Titanic. It is, in many ways, better than its latter-day cousin. It focuses on the human drama, and it has its share of heroes, villains, cowards, and just plain folk. Some of the moments were clearly ec... read morehoed in Cameron's film, such as the father saying goodbye to his wife and daughters as they are lowered away.

    Kenneth More gives a good performance from the perspective of the senior surviving officer, Lightoller, and gives the movie a point of focus, although the story is really told in the many little stories of the other characters we meet. Most of the actors are unknowns, so you aren't distracted by that. (David McCallum is one of the few people might even recognize) It also makes an interesting contrast between the reactions of the crew of the Californian and the Carpathia. One crew acted, and the other didn't. History is the judge, and this film will remain a good view of the tragedy. There are apologists for the captain of the Californian, and maybe he was pilloried, but the fact remains, he didn't act when another sailor was in trouble, and that's an unwritten law of the sea.

    This Rand production was low budget, but doesn't look it. It was well directed, and captures the tension and disbelief very well. It's also fun (as a Titanicophile) to pick out the various historic characters, that Lord wrote into his book based on Colonel Gracie's memoirs. Some live well, some die well, some live badly and some die badly, it's a great cross-section. The immigrant characters are also interesting, and they get some focus here, too. Once you realize that these were, for the most part, real people you see surviving or dying, you can really feel for them. I found myself tearing up in many places.

    The musical score is a bit over-the-top, but that was the style. You can say it's over-romantic, but to balance that you get very realistic reactions of confusion, fear, disbelief, seem quite close to what it might have been. The social classes of the time did behave in ridiculous ways, and we are slowly losing those pretensions somewhat, so it looks unrealistic to our eyes. In short, I don't think it quite replaces the grandeur of Cameron's epic, but it's a very successful telling of the story, even if time has given us more knowledge about the accident itself.

    I was lucky enough to see this on a big screen in a local classic house as a double bill with the rather melodramatic Titanic (Clifton Webb) and this blows that one away...it looks great.

    Recommended.

View All A Night to Remember Reviews

Critic Reviews

Brian Costello
May 18, 2012
Brian Costello, Common Sense Media

1950s British take on Titanic tragedy is a masterpiece. Full Review

Christopher Long
May 1, 2012
Christopher Long, Movie Metropolis

(We have) stood witness to a spectacular tragedy that took place on a perfectly unspectacular, dead calm night Full Review

Matt Brunson
April 25, 2012
Matt Brunson, Creative Loafing

Kenneth More essays the central role of Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller, and he's the reassuring presence throughout a film that breaks down the incident in powerful fashion. Full Review

Catherine Shoard
April 13, 2012
Catherine Shoard, Guardian [UK]

A restrained, nearly austere ensemble drama that manages to intertwine a dozen different stories without tripping up on any of them, it relies on real-life survivor testimony for almost every line and... Full Review

Allan Hunter
April 13, 2012
Allan Hunter, Daily Express

A film with a documentary-like intensity and a sense of British reserve that makes it all the more moving. Full Review

David Jenkins
April 12, 2012
David Jenkins, Little White Lies

Cold and brutal - exactly how this tale should be told. Full Review

Tom Huddleston
April 10, 2012
Tom Huddleston, Time Out

Baker cuts to the chase - the iceberg strikes 30 minutes in - and maintains tension with consummate skill: not an easy task when the outcome is already known. Full Review

James Kendrick
April 3, 2012
James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk

a film that broke new ground in depicting one of history's worst maritime disasters, interweaving historical reality with a dexterous sense of storytelling that keeps the film fresh and engaging so ma... Full Review

Brian Henry Martin
March 29, 2012
Brian Henry Martin, UTV

Forget about Kate and Leo in 3D, the best Titanic movie, like the ship itself, is Belfast built by a legendary Irish filmmaker. Full Review

Steven D. Greydanus
February 11, 2006
Steven D. Greydanus, Decent Films Guide

The clearest, most honorable cinematic depiction of the Titanic disaster… a classy depiction of how human beings in 1912 faced life and death in the fabled tragedy. Full Review

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A Night to Remember Trivia

  • What actress said this quote in a 2006 movie?: "Everyone remembers what happened that night and what it meant for this country. But I will always remember the man and what he meant to me."   Answer »
  • In the film "Time Bandits",the footage of the Titanic sinking is actually footage from which other film?  Answer »
  • This movie deals with the sinking of the RMS Titanic, but it's not called Titanic. Can you name this Titanic movie?  Answer »
  • 14th of April 1912 11:51pm 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland a iceberg is struck by the grandest ship to ever sail. Kenneth More and David McCallum are in this brilliant telling of the sinking of the Titanic. What's the title of this film?  Answer »
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