Titanic is a 1953 American drama film directed by Jean Negulesco. Its plot is centered around an estranged couple sailing on the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, which took place in April 1912.
Mrs. Julia Sturges (Barbara Stanwyck), who is at the time estranged from her husband Richard (Clifton Webb), is traveling first class on the RMS Titanic. Determined to remove her children from her husband Richard's "high society" world in Europe, Julia secretly takes their two children, seventeen-year-old Annette (Audrey Dalton) and ten-year-old Norman (Harper Carter), on the Titanic and plans to raise them in her hometown of Mackinac, Michigan. However, after he learns of her plans, Richard buys a steerage ticket aboard the vessel in hopes of intercepting them and taking the children back to Europe. Richard and Julia talk about the custody of Annette and Norman over their first dinner on board.
Other passengers include a wealthy woman of working class origins based on Molly Brown, Maude Young (Thelma Ritter); a social-climbing snob, Earl Meeker (Allyn Joslyn); a twenty-year-old Purdue tennis player, Gifford Rogers (Robert Wagner); who falls in love with Annette Sturges; and a priest who has been suspended for alcoholism, George S. Headley (Richard Basehart).
Julia realizes that Annette is old enough to make her own decisions, and therefore may choose to return to Europe with her father, but insists on maintaining custody of Norman. This angers Richard and later, prior to dining at the captain's table, he aggressively confronts Julia. She then reveals to him that Norman is not his biological child, but rather the result of a one-night stand she had after leaving a party where she was being belittled in the days before Richard had 'made [her] over into [his] image.' He agrees to relinquish custody of Norman (but promises to take care of him and Julia financially), being cold and distant from them. Richard joins Maude, Earl, and George Widener in the lounge to play bridge with them. Norman tries to get Richard to play shuffleboard with him, but he yells at him sending him away. Giff teaches Annette the "Navajo Rag" and she finds herself smitten with him. That night Giff, Annette, and a group of college kids sing and play the piano in the dining room and in a corner table, Captain Smith watches. Suddenly the lookout spots an iceberg and although the crew tries to steer clear of danger, the ship is cut open by the iceberg. Julia and Norman are awaken by the crash and Annette tells them that the ship has hit an iceberg. Richard tells his family to dress warmly, but properly and then they head outside.
Richard and Julia have a tearful reconciliation on the boat deck as he is putting Julia and the children in famous Lifeboat #6. Later, Norman gives up his seat in the full lifeboat so that a woman can be accommodated and goes looking for his father. They reunite as the Titanic is in her final moments. Richard tells a passing steward that Norman is his 'son' and then tells the boy that he has been proud of him every day of his life and that he feels 'tall as a mountain' standing by the boy's side. Then they join the rest of the passengers and crew in singing the hymn "Nearer, my God, to Thee" before the ship's boilers explode several times and the ship sinks. Richard and Norman both die in the process, along with the other passengers who died in the sinking. The Titanic rises high in the air, explodes one last time and finally sinks.
Giff Rogers falls into the ocean while trying to free a stuck lifeboat fall and is rescued by the passengers in Lifeboat #7. He survives.
Meeker disguises himself as a woman and gains admittance to a lifeboat. He also survives, although Young recognizes him and calls him out in front of the other people in the lifeboat.
George Headley pulls himself together as the ship is sinking and goes below to rescue (or provide last rites for) crewmen who have been trapped in the engine room, Headley's decision leads to this final exchange between the priest and a crewman who has reached the deck:
Fleeing crewman: "For God's sake, don't go in there!"
The RMS Titanic was just over half full for her maiden voyage, so Richard would not have had any trouble purchasing a First Class ticket at the last minute.
Julia, Richard and their children board at Cherbourg during a foggy day. Then they leave at night. In reality, the passengers who boarded at Cherbourg boarded on a clear night and also didn't have dinner because it was being served while the ship was at Cherbourg.
Upon leaving Cherbourg, the Captain tells Mr. Lightoller to take the ship to sea. In fact, the Titanic had one more stop, in Queenstown (now known as Cobh), before it headed out into the Atlantic Ocean.
The ice warning first received was not delivered to the bridge.
Captain Smith was in his cabin when the ship hit the iceberg.
There was no shuffleboard on the Titanic.
The ship did not have an alarm.
The ship's interior is very inaccurately depicted.
The boilers on board did not explode, as they do several times in the film.
None of the passengers and crew sang "Nearer My God to Thee" during the ship's final moments. It was believed that the band possibly played the song as the passengers and crew were panicking. "Nearer My God to Thee" has an American setting (which is used in the film) and a British setting, which sound entirely different from each other. It is not certain which, if any, version was actually played on the ship.
In reality, the Titanic collided with the iceberg at 11:40 PM. In the film, it collides at 11:36 PM.
The Titanic's crewmembers did not wear British Naval Uniforms.
There were no horns in the band.
The cabin of John Jacob Astor IV was not A56, but Parlor Suite C62-64.
An ensign is seen on the stern's flagstaff as it goes under, even though it was only flown during the daylight.
Julia Sturges' family is supposedly from Mackinac, Michigan. It should be pronounced "Mak-i-naw", not "Mak-i-nak." Richard may have pronounced it incorrectly as a form of ridicule.
In the scene when the Titanic hits the iceberg the water is calm and almost flat. In the scene where Richard sees the iceberg after collison and when the lifeboats are being lowered there is foam and waves in the water.
None of the first or second class children died in the sinking apart from three-year-old Lorraine Allison in First Class, who died with her parents as they searched for her baby brother, Trevor, who had been removed from the ship by his nurse.
The ship did not have a tailor shop.
Under no circumstances would women have been allowed in the smoking room prior to the First World War.
The costumes are wildly inaccurate to 1912. Many costumes are more the mode of the early 1930s than the early 1910s.
A man as conservative and formal as Richard Sturgess would never have worn a dinner jacket (black tie and short jacket) but would have worn the more traditional evening dress (white tie and tailcoat), but, as noted in the film, Richard boarded the ship without formal attire. Initially, he had to borrow some clothes from his friend, John Jacob Astor. The tailor shop may not have been able to make white tie and tails on such short notice. Wearing a dinner jacket may have been a "sacrifice" that Richard was required to make under the circumstances.
In the scene when the Titanic is seen with the iceberg, the ship makes a shadow on the berg although there was no moon on the night of April 14, 1912.
Giff Rodgers would not have been allowed in the dining room without proper evening attire (tuxedo or white tie and tails).
The Titanic did not list to port until the latter half of its sinking.
It is unlikely that a Roman Catholic priest would have been suspended or otherwise publicly embarrassed for mere alcoholism. Far worse conduct by priests has been resolved internally without public disclosure. Further, since Catholic priests are incardinated to a specific bishop of a particular diocese who normally has full authority over the priests serving under him, it would not have been necessary for the priest to travel to Rome for the disciplinary proceedings.
All of the major first passengers, the Astors, the Strausses, the Widners, etc. actually traveled with private maids and valets. Since Richard Sturges is shown as a close personal friend of John and Madeline Astor, his wealth would had necessitated his family having personal servants, too. Julia and the children do not have them and Julia is shown unpacking trunks and picking up clothes from Norman's stateroom, something she would never have done.
The staterooms occupied by the Sturges family, A52-54, were not of the caliber occupied by someone of their social station. The B and C deck suites would have been more appropriate. Also, their stateroom is shown with portholes. There were no portholes on A deck.
A Deck only had 37 passenger cabins, therefore there could not have been rooms numbered as high A52-54, etc.
Second officer Lightoller is wearing two stripes on his coats, rather than one. Two stripes indicate that you are first officer, who in this case was William Murdoch. Originally, though, Lightoller was first officer, Murdoch chief officer and a man named David Blair was second. But, when Captain Smith came aboard the ship in Southampton, he requested Henry Wilde from the Olympic to be his chief officer, due to Murdoch's lack of experience as chief officer (the Titanic would have been his first trip as chief officer). So Murdoch and Lightoller were bumped down a step and Blair was bumped off the ship altogether.
In reality, the Titanic hit the iceberg on the starboard side and only the rivets popped out and plates buckled, making water come in. In the film, the ship hits the berg on the portside and it rips a huge gash in the side that would sink the ship in minutes and cause the boilers to explode right after the collision.
Charles Brackett, who co-wrote and produced the film, told the press that some of the stories had to be discarded, "because they are too fantastic for movie audiences to believe." In a September 1952 news article, it was reported that Terry Moore was set to play the role of Annette Sturges, on condition that she would finish production of Man on a Tightrope on time.
According to the film aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes, Titanic holds an 88% "Fresh" rating, based on 8 reviews.
Variety Magazine 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."
Titanic won the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. The film was also nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award.
