Plot
At the last minute, Richard Sturges (Clifton Webb), a wealthy expatriate in Europe, offers a Basque emigrant money for his third class (the lowest class) ticket for the maiden voyage of the Titanic—and succeeds. Once aboard, he seeks out his runaway wife, Julia (Barbara Stanwyck). He discovers she is trying to take their two unsuspecting children, 18-year-old Annette (Audrey Dalton) and 13-year-old Norman (Harper Carter), to her hometown of Mackinac Island, Michigan, to rear them as down-to-Earth Americans rather than rootless elitists like Richard himself.
As the ship is prepared for departure, Sanderson (Anthony Eustrel), the company representative (based on Bruce Ismay) suggests to Captain Edward J. Smith (Brian Aherne) that a record-setting speedy passage would be welcomed.
Other passengers include Maude Young (based on real-life Titanic survivor Margaret Brown), a wealthy woman of a working class origin (Thelma Ritter); social-climbing Earl Meeker (Allyn Joslyn); a 20-year-old Purdue University tennis player named Gifford "Giff" Rogers (Robert Wagner); and George Healey (Richard Basehart), a Catholic priest who has been defrocked for alcoholism.
One night on the bridge, Captain Smith asks Second Officer Charles Lightoller (Edmund Purdom) about a note by Murdoch regarding binoculars; Lightoller explains that the ship is shy on them: they have just enough for the bridge, but none for the lookout.
When Annette learns Julia's intentions, she insists on returning to Europe with Richard on the next ship as soon as they reach America. Julia concedes that Annette is old enough to make her own decisions, but she insists on keeping custody of Norman. This angers Richard, forcing her to reveal that Norman is not his son, but rather the result of a one-night stand after one of their many bitter arguments. Upon hearing that, Richard declares to make no claim to Norman and does not want to see him again.
Richard joins Maude, Earl, and George Widener in the lounge to play auction bridge with them. The next morning, when Norman reminds him of a shuffleboard game they had arranged, he coldly brushes him off.
Meanwhile, Giff falls for Annette at first glance. At first, she repulses his brash attempts to become better acquainted, but eventually warms to him. That night, Giff, Annette, and a group of young people sing and play the piano in the dining room, while Captain Smith watches from a corner table.
Lightoller expresses his concern to Captain Smith about the ship's speed when they receive two messages from other ships warning of iceberg sightings near their route. However, Smith assures him that the sea is clear and the track is south of the reported icefield.
That night, the lookout spots an iceberg dead ahead. The crew tries to steer clear of it, but it gashes the starboard side of the bow below the waterline and the ship begins taking on water. When Richard finds Captain Smith, he insists on being told the truth: the ship is doomed and there are not enough lifeboats to save everyone on board. He tells his family to dress warmly but properly; then they head outside.
Richard and Julia have a tearful reconciliation on the boat deck, as he places her, Annette, and Norman into a lifeboat. Unnoticed by Julia, Norman gives up his seat to an older woman and goes looking for Richard. When one of the lines becomes tangled, preventing the boat from being lowered, Giff climbs down and fixes it, only to lose his grip and fall into the water. Unconscious but alive, he is dragged onto the boat.
Meeker disguises himself as a woman to board a lifeboat, but Maude notices his shoes and unmasks him in front of the others. At the other end of the spectrum of courage and unselfishness, George Healey heads down into one of the boiler rooms to comfort injured crewmen.
As the Titanic is in her final moments, Norman finds Richard. Richard tells a passing steward that Norman is his "son" and then tells Norman that he has been proud of him every day of his life. Then they join the rest of the doomed passengers and crew in singing the hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee". As the last boiler explodes, the Titanic's bow plunges, pivoting her stern high into the air while she rapidly slides into the icy water. As dawn approaches, the survivors are seen in the lifeboats, waiting for help to arrive.
Critical reception
According to the film aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 91% "Fresh" rating, based on 10 reviews. [9]
Variety reviewed the film positively stating, "but by the time the initial 45 or 50 minutes are out of the way, the impending disaster begins to take a firm grip on the imagination and builds a compelling expectancy". [10]
Pauline Kael was not impressed with the picture's special effects. She wrote: "the actual sinking looks like a nautical tragedy on the pond in Central Park". [11]
It is generally considered by historians that Titanic contains abundant historical inaccuracies. For example, the maiden voyage was not sold out, but actually barely more than half-booked, as shown by White Star Line records of 1912. Linda Koldau writes: "[...] the Titanic was far from being sold out and an additional passenger would easily have been able to purchase a first-class ticket...Yet if one accepts that historical accuracy is not the point here, since the story is not at all that of the Titanic, it is a perfectly functioning script". [12]
Also, the Carpathia had arrived at the scene at around 4:10am and started picking up the survivors before sunrise. The rescue took several hours. In addition, Captain Smith was not awake at the time of the collision with the iceberg, as shown in the film, but was awakened immediately thereafter and summoned to the bridge. The film shows, erroneously, that the iceberg penetrates the ship's port side.
The wireless from the Caronia warning the Titanic of an iceberg ahead on the steamer track was never shown by the wireless operator Jack Phillips to Captain Smith or other officers, but in the film Phillips does show it to Captain Smith and First Officer Charles Lightoller, who then wonders in the film whether that is the same iceberg north of the steamer track previously warned of in a wireless from the Baltic, which Phillips had shown to his superior officers.
During the evacuation, the ship consistently blows her steam whistle and sounds a fire alarm. She did not blow her whistle at all during the sinking and never had any fire alarms either.
The film makers decided to have the Titanic's band playing Londonderry Air and eventually Nearer, My God, to Thee (with the remaining passengers joining in), and not to mention the Californian that was in the vicinity of the real Titanic that fateful night.
Titanic historians Fitch, Layton, and Wormstedt judge that the film has some impressive special effects and, in some ways, recreates the feeling of being on board the ship. However, the film is not very accurate, although the advertising claimed the opposite. Most of the events shown are dramatically exaggerated or simply wrong. [13]
