The Forgotten Ship: 1953’s TITANIC
James Cameron’s epic gets all the attention these days, but what of 20th Century Fox’s first film about the Titanic disaster?
The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 not only became one of the biggest disasters in maritime history, but it also managed to become a part of popular culture. For decades people have been fascinated by the grandeur, the tragedy, and the mystery of the great ship that was said to be unsinkable. There have been numerous pieces of media about the Titanic from propaganda films to documentaries to television miniseries. There are two motion pictures that are at the forefront of Titanic’s place in the public eye. There is 1958’s A Night to Remember, which is a docudrama based on the book of the same name by Walter Lord. The other is 1997’s Titanic, directed by James Cameron which just took over the world and made Cameron the king of the cinematic world. The former works to represent as close to the events as it can possibly portray them. The latter is a blend of amazing visual effects and classic Hollywood spectacle. However, there is one more film about the disaster that may go under people’s radar and goes by a slightly different playbook than its successors.
Directed by Jean Negulesco with a screenplay written in collaboration by Charles Brackett, Richard L. Breen and Walter Reisch, Titanic was released on the 16th of April 1953. It was…
