Titanic (1953)

An unhappily married couple struggle to deal with their problems while on board the ill-fated ship.

Director:

Jean Negulesco

Writers:

Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch

Stars:

Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Wagner

Won 1 Oscar. Another 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited 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 E. J. Smith
Richard Basehart	...	George Healey
Allyn Joslyn	...	Earl Meeker
James Todd	...	Sandy Comstock
Frances Bergen	...	Madeleine Astor
William Johnstone	...	John Jacob Astor

Storyline

Unhappily married and uncomfortable with life among the British upper crust, Julia Sturges takes her two children and boards the Titanic for America. Her husband Richard also arranges passage on the doomed luxury liner in order to let him have custody of their two children. Their problems soon seem minor when the ship hits an iceberg.

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Plot Keywords:

ship captain | maiden voyage | year 1912 | 1910s | iceberg | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Drama | History | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Basque French Spanish

Release Date:

13 July 1953 (UK)

Also Known As:

Nearer My God to Thee

Filming Locations:

Stage 4, 20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,805,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$4,905,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

None of the Olympic class ships (of which Titanic was the second) had double height public rooms as portrayed in the film. All public rooms were single height to save construction costs.

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Goofs

Early scenes during the sinking show the engineering areas experiencing severe listing, whilst the lounge where passengers are playing cards has no tilt whatsoever. As the ship was not made of rubber, the tilt must have been the same.

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Quotes

Maude: [after Richard has rejected his son Norman and refused to play in the shuffleboard match with him] It certainly clouded up. Well, word'll do it faster than a hickory stick any time.

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Connections

Version of Titanic (1943)

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Soundtracks

Far Above Cayuga's Waters
(ca 1870) (uncredited)
(Cornell University fight song)
Music (from the song "Annie Lisle") by H.S. Thompson (1857)
Lyrics by Archibald Croswell-Weeks and Wilmot Moses Smith (ca 1870)
Sung by Robert Wagner and friends

User Reviews

Forever a classic

A powerful film that has it all. Watching this film seems to put you there, on the ship, as it happens. The characters are truly believable, not wooden or "modernized" as in other movie versions. Also impressive were the c. 1953 special effects. There are times when the huge model used in the movie looks more "real" than the effects featured in movies made about the disaster to this day. It seems unfair that someone can step in and make a new film of the same name (and, you will see, ideas) and seemingly pretend as though this great film never existed.