ThiefHott Too much of everything

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

john_vance-20806 I watched this many times on TV as a kid, mainly interested in the exciting final scenes. When I reacquainted myself with it as an adult I realized how much I missed.The obnoxiously pretentious and pontificating character portrayed by Clifton Webb makes Billy Zane's later effort look anemic - and Zane did a great job. Stunning Barbara Stanwick plays the kind of magnetic woman that no man could watch walk away without making a last stand. Robert Wagner exhibits the same irresistible rascally charm he still shows as Dinozzo's dad on NCIS.The scene containing the interchange between the two main stars when Stanwick finally and powerfully plays her "high trump", then turns away to leave an emotionally eviscerated Webb slack-jawed and speechless is a cinematic gem. Each suffer a private Gethsemane in their own way and the sense of loss and bitterness both feel is palpably grim and painful to see. Of course the Titanic does sink and those who die and those who survive are separated with cold, irreversible finality.The special effects are not that special, even by 1950s standards, but that is not what this movie was really about in the first place. Don't expect the 1996 version, this isn't for kids, it's drama played by 2 stars at the top of their game.

vincentlynch-moonoi I remember first seeing this film on "Saturday Night At The Movies" on NBC. I enjoyed it then, and still enjoy it today. I don't really try to compare this and the Leonardo DiCaprio version...too many years in between and a different approach to the story, but I like them pretty equally.I am reviewing this film based on the recent Blu Ray edition. Sometimes it is very obvious that a Blu Ray edition of an old film is a significant improvement, this time it is not. That is not to say that it isn't a good transfer. There's little to complain about in this edition in terms of clear picture, other than a bit of graininess that may just be a result of 63 years.First off, this film is not about the Titanic. The Titanic is the setting. The story is actually about one family that is disintegrating, and their final act happens to occur on the ill-fated journey. The warring man and wife are Clifton Webb, in what is probably his finest role, and Barbara Stanwyck, in perhaps her best later role. The dialogue between two is about the best you'll find of a man and wife at war; top notch writing and delivered with real sting. The daughter is siding with the father and is quite bitter toward the mother. The younger son is left adrift by the father when he learns that he is not the father.Robert Wagner plays a young college man with romantic attention toward Webb's daughter...not unlike Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the later film...though here their romance is secondary to the failing marriage of the parents.Audrey Dalton plays Webb's daughter and is quite unpleasant about it. Harper Carter (still living as of this writing) is quite good as the young son.Filling out the cast is the wonderful Thelma Ritter, here -- I'm assuming -- representing the real Molly Brown, though named Maude Young in this story. Brian Aherne is the Titanic's captain. Richard Basehart has a very good role as a defrocked priest who is an alcoholic. Allyn Joslyn -- more often a very good comic actor -- plays an average guy who tries to latch on to the rich passengers on the ship, and turns out to be the coward on board.I have noticed in a couple of posts that reviewers said that the special effects were poor. Come on folks...this was made in 1953. For that era, the scenes here are darned good. There is one spot -- when the son is trying to find his father after the Titanic begins to list -- where it's obviously just a drastically tilted camera, because people are walking and climbing and descending stairs too normally. Ah well.I've actually watched this "Titanic" more often than the Leonardo DiCaprio film. I don't try to compare them. They're both excellent in different ways.

mark.waltz Of course, this is not the first version of the story of the Titanic. It has been the subject of movies since the silent era, making appearances as important settings and being mentioned as part of history to reflect the passage of time. The passage on this maiden voyage focuses on a troubled American family who has been traveling abroad for years-estranged parents, a daughter caught up in European society who is slowly becoming a pretentious snob, and a young son so devoted to the man he assumes is his father. The battling parents are Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb, both admittedly not nice people, but Stanwyck's character is, even if she has a bombshell to dump on the uppity Webb that will rock his world just as much as the collision of the Titanic with the iceberg.Having kicked off the start of that popular film genre known as film noir, Stanwyck (as Phyllis Diedrickson in "Double Indemnity") and Webb (as Waldo Lydecker in "Laura") went toe to toe in 1944 for who was the greatest film villain of the year. Together, they seem an odd couple. He's rather prissy (as always), with his nose so high in the air that he can smell the atmosphere on the moon, so determined to raise his children among the elite of European society that he's furious that Stanwyck (whom he considers a failed Pygmallion like project) would take them away from him.Of the two children, Audrey Dalton's 18 year old daughter is the most like him-determined to remain among the elite rather than return to her mother's home town in Michigan. She cruelly announces to her mother that upon their arrival in New York, she will return to Europe with her father. Pre-teen Harper Carter (greatly used in the film but unbilled!) is closest in easy-going manner to his mother but greatly adores his father. When Stanwyck and Webb bring out the weapons in their battle for the children, Stanwyck's dagger inflicts the greatest wound, leaving the usually ready to fight Webb standing there with invisible egg on his face.Among the others on the ship is a handsome college athlete (Robert Wagner) who falls for Dalton in spite of her initial rudeness to him. A scene between Wagner and Stanwyck actually has more heat between them then their on-screen partners which reflects why in real life the two of them were involved in a heated affair. It is obvious even with a name change that Thelma Ritter is playing a character based upon Molly Brown. Richard Basehart gives an intense performance as a troubled priest defrocked for alcoholism. Veteran leading man Brian Aherne is dignified as the ship's captain.Real-life Titanic passengers Isadore and Ida Strauss, John Jacob and Madeline Astor, and Benjamin Guggenheim are also seen in snippets. William Johnstone, the wise Judge Lowell of "As the World Turns", is very elegant in his few moments on screen, much like Eric Braeden (the ruthless Victor Newman of "The Young and the Restless") was in the 1997 epic version. Allyn Joslyn brings total disgust to the role of his social climbing passenger who hangs onto Johnstone's every word and seems ready to shine (or kiss) his boots at any moment. Try not to hold back in the scene where Ida Strauss makes her determination to stay with her husband public. It is a heart-breaker.Barbara Stanwyck said that when she was filming the scene on the lifeboat that with the life jacket on and the set freezing cold, she began to emotionally feel the pain of what had happened 40 years before. The character at this time is dealing with a tragic acknowledgment in regards to one of her children, just having had an emotional farewell with a husband whom up until now she has come to think she despised. Every version of the this film has been successful in bringing in some new element, even the 1997 T.V. mini-series and the much overrated Broadway musical of the same year. Frankly, I would like to see the story involving the Astors and the Strausses dramatized for historical purposes. But in the end, it is the tragedy of the lives who were lost that counts and the emotional impact it had on the people who witnessed it. Lucky to survive yes, but certainly a memory that would remain a nightmare. Neerer my God to thee, indeed.

MartinHafer There have been several stories about the sinking of the Titanic. However, "Titanic" (1953) is a bit different because it really doesn't focus on WHY the disaster occurred but instead focused on one particular fictional family and how this horrible tragedy impacted on them. This is NOT at all a complaint--just an observation on the style of film this is.The Sturges family is very wealthy--but they also are a mess. The mother (Barbara Stanwyck) is unhappy about her sterile rich life and its impact on her children. Her marriage is loveless and her daughter, in particular, has become spoiled and somewhat soul-less. So, without telling her two children, she is embarking with to a new life in America--back where she grew up with simpler values. The husband (Clifton Webb) apparently has just learned of her plan to leave him and he desperately works to get aboard the sold out ship. He is determined to bring his kids back to Europe and make them American royalty.When Webb and Stanwyck eventually meet up on the ship, she announces that she is leaving him. She doesn't love him and, in a final slap in his face, tells Webb that his son is NOT his biological son but another man's! At this point, Webb becomes VERY cold towards his wife--which is understandable. But, seeing him turn his back on the young boy is painful--and something the kid doesn't deserve--especially since he practically worships his father.As far as the daughter is concerned, despite her haughty and socially conscious manner, she meets a nice young man (Robert Wagner) and they slowly start to fall for each other. It NEVER goes as far as the romance in "Titanic" (1997) but is much more innocent and sweet. Yet, you know that their relationship is most likely doomed.So far, this is quite interesting and well acted. However, when the film ends, all these things come together so perfectly. It culminates with a marvelously tragic ending--one that really pulls at your heart. I thought the writing really took me by surprise--and when the boy and his father's stories cross, I felt myself trying to hold back the tears. It really packed a nice punch.Now as far as the special effects go, this film, because it's more about a family, aren't as important. Now I am not saying they are bad--by 1953 standards they're very nice. It just isn't the amazing spectacle that the 1997 film is--and could be because of improved movie making technology.Exceptional and so good that I want to see the British version, "A Night to Remember". I have already seen the newest version and the 1943 German version (which is amazing in MANY ways--especially in its anti-capitalism bent) and want to be able to see the full spectrum of films about this disaster.