Titanic

Made in Germany as the tide of World War II was turning against the Axis powers, this 1943 production presents the famous story of the sinking of the Titanic as a mix of disaster movie and propaganda piece. The lavish production frames the voyage as a business scheme by the greedy officers of the White Star Line to buy up the company stock at rock bottom prices and then cash in when their state-of-the-art new ship Titanic breaks the world record for the transatlantic crossing to New York. The first-class passengers are a veritable Grand Hotel of characters, including a notorious burglar, a Russian countess, and an American millionaire attempting to bankrupt White Star. Subplots include a doomed romance between a lowly crewman and a manicurist, and even a little drama in the overcrowded steerage section, where all of the poor and working-class passengers are basically locked in. Titanic paints the British and Americans as greedy and power-hungry, risking the lives of innocents for profit and then becoming cowardly when tragedy strikes, and the only authority figure to stand up to them and the irresponsible Captain (who buckles under the pressure of the company president despite warnings of icebergs) is the sole German officer in the British crew. The elaborate miniatures used for the special effects of the sinking of the Titanic are impressive and were reused in the 1958 British film A Night to Remember. While hardly the best film about the Titanic, this is an entertaining slice of disaster melodrama and it is fascinating as a piece of cultural propaganda from Nazi Germany. Extras include audio commentary by film scholar Gaylyn Studlar, and archival footage of the real-life Titanic and its sister ship Olympic. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)