A Night to Remember

Two years after Twentieth Century Fox released the melodramatic 1953 disaster film Titanic, Walter Lord's meticulously researched book A Night to Remember became a phenomenal bestseller. Three years after that, the book was brought to the screen in this riveting 1958 British production that remains the definitive realistic dramatization of the tragedy, adhering to the known facts of the time and achieving a documentary-like immediacy that matches (and in some ways surpasses) James Cameron's beloved epic that was released 39 years later. While the film erroneously perpetuates the once-common belief that Titanic sunk in one piece (instead of breaking in half as its bow began to plunge), many other misconceptions are accurately corrected, and the intelligent screenplay by thrill-master Eric Ambler is a model of factual suspense. Although the film features a handful of recognizable actors—including Kenneth More, Honor Blackman, and a young David McCallum—the real star of director Roy Ward Baker's film is the Titanic itself, a symbol of the excessive confidence of the booming industrial age. Presented on DVD and Blu-ray, this Criterion Collection release features extras including an audio commentary, a 1993 “making-of” documentary, the 2006 BBC documentary “The Iceberg That Sank the Titanic,” archival interviews with survivors, and a booklet. Highly recommended. (J. Shannon)