Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4091 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-09-14
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, Colour, Full Screen, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 180 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Two years after 20th Century Fox released its melodramatic disaster film Titanic in 1953, Walter Lord's meticulously researched book A Night to Remember surprised its publishers by becoming a phenomenal bestseller. Lord had an intuition that readers craved the reality of the Titanic disaster and not the romantically mythologised translations (like Fox's film, starring Barbara Stanwyck), which relied on fictional characters to "enhance" the world's worst maritime disaster. Lord's book proved that the truth was far more compelling than fiction, outlining the many "if onlys" (if only the iceberg had been spotted a few minutes earlier, etc.) that lent sombre irony to the loss of 1,500 Titanic passengers. Three years after Lord's book appeared, it was brought to the screen with the kind of riveting authenticity that Lord had insisted upon in his own research. The 1958 British production of A Night to Remember remains a definitive dramatization of the disaster, adhering to the known facts of the time and achieving a documentary-like immediacy that matches (and in some ways surpasses) the James Cameron epic released 39 years later. The film erroneously perpetuates the once-common belief that the Titanic sunk in one piece (instead of breaking in half as its bow began to plunge), but many other misconceptions are accurately corrected, and the intelligent screenplay by thriller master Eric Ambler is a model of factual suspense. By making Titanic the star of the film, director Roy Baker emphasises the excessive confidence of the booming industrial age and creates an intense you-are-there realism that pays tribute to Walter Lord's tenacious quest for truth. --Jeff Shannon

Synopsis

A Night To Remember / The Making Of A Night To Remember DVD contains the 1958 film--directed by Roy Baker and based on the novel by Walter Lord--and a "making of" documentary about the movie's production. "A Night to Remember" tells the tragic tale of the maiden voyage of the Titanic in a semi-documentary style, through the eyes of the ship's second officer, Herbert Lightoller, whose duties provided him with a unique perspective of the everyday goings-on aboard the huge ocean liner. An excellent cast (selected for their resemblances to photos of the real passengers) conveys the courage, greed, fear, hope and despair of those who boarded the doomed vessel.

Customer Reviews

classic disaster film
This 1958, black and white film tells the story of the ill fated Titanic. Unlike the Oscar winning James Cameron version, there are no high tech special effects, and, more importantly, no made up romances to detract from the story. Instead, what you have is a true story, produced in a straight forward manner that is far more gripping than any fiction.
An important omission in the Cameron version is the proximity of another ship, The California, and it's inability, (or refusal), to help the stricken liner, an issue that is addressed in this version. This is a film that has focused more on the actual events of that fateful night in 1912 rather than on the relationships between various passengers. It certainly pumps up the tension, even though everyone knows the outcome. There is always a part of you hoping that this time the Titanics desperate calls for help will be answered.
Starring Kenneth More, Honor Blackman and a young David McCallum, this movie has stood the test of time and is well worth a viewing.

Better than Titantic!
This is the original classic story of the sinking of the Titanic. It was filmed in 1958 in black and white in a big tank at Pinewood Studios with no CGI but despite this the filmakers have portrayed the sinking very well with a lot of details and great performances. The black and white images instead of being a problem or a minus I feel add to the film, after all its set in the freezing North Atlantic at night, not a lot of colour there! Still very moving and powerful and if you liked Cameron's Titantic then you should like this too but no Rose or Jack though! I am sure Cameron must have watched this film as there a lot of similairities. Anyway its a good film and deserves a watch. Enjoy, if thats the right word!

A Great British film!
I first saw this film many years ago and have seen it many times since. Its definetly a great British movie of a terrible disaster when 1,500 people lost their lives when unsinkable Titanic hit an iceberg and sank on a bitterly cold April night during 1912. I bought the vidoe version some years ago, and the DVD version quite recently. Overall, the DVD version is a better picture and contains a fascinating documentary "The Making of...." However, I noticed some slight cuts in the DVD version and also through part of the film, a vertical dark line from top to bottom of the film which is noticeable in the dark scenes. This is a pity cos its such a fine film. Nevertheless, its still worth a buy cos of the extras available on the disc.