Dr Who and the Titanic by Karis Youngman
There are no archive films taken of the Titanic’s departure from Southampton, or of the disaster. Yet the story was too dramatic, too tragic, and too full of myths to be ignored by filmmakers.
Films about the Titanic began to be made soon after the event. According to the British Film Institute, the earliest newsreel reactions to the tragedy set out to pierce together the story for a public hungry for the moving image. Lavish dramas immortalised the heroes and villains, from the rich and famous such as John Jacob Astor, Bruce Ismay and the Unsinkable Molly Brown; to the ordinary people such as Wireless operator Jack Philips and Captain Edward J Smith.
Actress Dorothy Bigson was a Titanic survivor. She had travelled first class on the ship and was in one of the lifeboats. One month later, she co-wrote and starred in a silent movie entitled Saved from the Titanic.
The first surviving European dramatisation is a German film made in 1912. Entitled In Nacht und Eis, it lasted 36 minutes and had a live piano accompaniment. The film starred Otto Rippert.
In 1929 saw the first full length feature film entitled Atlantic, based on Ernest Raymond’s play, The Berg. A talking picture; it was memorable for the fact that the name of the ship was never mentioned. Use of the name of the name Titanic had been forbidden by the White Star Line. This was one of the earliest British sound films and the first to be produced in several languages – English, German and French.
Alfred Hitchcock’s first Hollywood project was a film based on the Titanic. He described the idea as a ‘marvellously dramatic subject for a motion picture’. Although some filming took place, it was never completed.
An extremely unusual film on the Titanic was produced in 1943. It was a propaganda film made by the Nazi government and championed by Goebbels. Starring Sybille Schmitz and Hans Nielsen, it was made with a anti-British viewpoint and a fictional Aryan hero. The film aimed to portray British society as class ridden and ruled by plutocrats. Goebbels regarded it as a dagger aimed at the heart of Britain. Possessing a budget of 4 million Reichsmarks, it was one of the most ambitious and expensive movies of the period. Even the story behind its creation lived up to the reputation of the ship.
There were tales of betrayal, murder and massacre. Military personnel were moved from the fighting in order to become extras, and there were innumerable delays. The original director Selpin, died in custody after criticising the regime. His friend and scriptwriter betrayed him. It is uncertain whether Selpin was executed or committed suicide.
Eventually, Goebbels banned the film. He decided that the final scenes of people screaming and panicking would not help German morale. The Allies were bombing Germany and civilians were suffering.
In the last days of the war, the ship used for the filming was used for an attempt to hide the horrors of the concentration camps. Many concentration camp internees were forced to march long distances to reach the German coast, where they were forced to board the ship. The SS had filled the hold with gas canisters making it a floating bomb. Believing it to be a troop ship, the RAF bombed it. Internees were faced with death by burning or death by drowning. Those who did try to swim to land were shot by German troops using machine guns. Very few survived to tell the tale.
After the war, actress Sybille Schmitz was shunned as a collaborator.
Ten years later, the first Hollywood version of the tragedy appeared. Starring Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Wagner; it included a mix of real and fictional characters. The key role was that of Barbara Stanwyck who played a first class passenger fleeing her husband. The film was originally named Nearer My God to Thee, before being named Titanic.
In 1958, the film A Night to Remember was released. Based on Walter Lord’s book and the earlier TV movie, it moved the focus of attention to the experiences of crewmen especially those of Charles Lightoller, who was responsible for the launch of the lifeboats. The film set out to evoke the horror of that night, and many regard this as the most definitive screen portrayal. Some of the final scenes actually reused footage from the Nazi propaganda film. Kenneth More played the central role of Charles Lightoller. It also starred Robert Ayres and Honor Blackman.
1964 saw the release of the film The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Debbie Reynolds took the title role. It was based on the musical version of Molly Brown’s life story.
Raise the Titanic took a very different slant. Based on Clive Cussler’s novel, this 1980 film told the story of fictional attempts to raise the boat. It was one of the most expensive films ever made – and a total flop at the cinemas. Producer Lew Grade later commented ‘Raise the Titanic? My God, it would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic’.
An IMAX exploration of the wreck was shot in 1991 during a visit by Soviet and Canadian scientists. Apart from scenes of the wreck, the scientists looked at environmental processes underwater and took core samples from the sea bed.
It was in 1997 that the ultimate romantic/disaster movie was filmed. Titanic starred Leonard DiCaprio as Jack Dawson and Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater. It focused on two characters from different social classes who fell in love during the voyage. This part of the storyline was fictitious and was the first time that a film about the Titanic had included a hero from the third class section of the ship.
Scene from Titanic 1997 (Photo copyright Fox UK)
Jack Dawson was a real character – he was a coal trimmer on the Titanic. The filmmakers took the name from his headstone in Fairview Lawn Cemetery.
Much of the filming was undertaken on a specially built set with a model of the liner outlined against windows facing onto the sea off the Mexican coast. The filmmakers and actors commented that the ship was very claustrophobic especially in steerage.
The film was notable for its combined use of CGI, green screen, models and real life acting. Some scenes were shot against green screens, then superimposed onto scale models of the room. A full size replica of the ship was built, which showed just one side of the ship. Images had to be reversed if the script called for action on the opposite side.
The film proved highly popular, breaking box office records. It won 11 Academy awards and launched the Hollywood careers of Leonard DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
A 3D version was released in April 2012.
James Cameron, director of Titanic, was also involved in a factual documentary, Ghosts of the Abyss. He returned to the site of the disaster and filmed the wreck using special lighting systems and underwater cameras.
Titanic II is a disaster movie made as a DVD. The story is set in April 2012 focusing on the launch of a luxury cruise liner, Titanic II. It’s maiden voyage takes the same route as its predecessor 100 years earlier, but from the US to the UK. During the voyage, a large glacier in Greenland collapses creating a tsunami. An iceberg crashes into the ship, putting pressure on the turbines, which explode and cause an enormous fire. There is another tsunami which causes the ship to capsize and drowns most of the passengers.
Television
There have been numerous TV documentaries, films and mini series. A Night to Remember was first filmed for TV, while The Unsinkable Molly Brown was a mini series starring Marilu Henner . The first programme on the Time Tunnel documentary TV series was based on the Titanic. The event has featured as part of the plot line for two drama series, Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey.
Even Doctor Who has had an adventure on the Titanic. A special Christmas episode, Voyage of the Dammed, involved a luxury spaceship called Titanic II taking passengers on a tour of space. The owner of the ship seeks to destroy it and all its passengers. Robot ‘angel’ servers use their halos as killing weapons. The ship crashes into the Tardis, forcing Dr Who to take action.
In 1979, David Janssen and Choris Leachman starred in a made for TV movie, SOS Titanic.
No Greater Love was a romantic film based on Danielle Steel’s novel in 1996.
An unusual slant was taken by a Channel 4 documentary, Titanic the Mission. This provided an opportunity for young engineers to recreate various artefacts from the ship such as an anchor, panelling, stained glass and a third class cabin. All the items were later donated to the Ulster Folk and Transport museum, Belfast.
The anniversary of the disaster in 2012 witnessed several new TV series. Titanic Blood & Steel concentrated on the manufacture of the ship while BBC TV ran a series focusing on A History of the Titanic in 30 Pieces – 30 objects which have a link to the ship ranging form tools used to items owned by people who escaped the disaster.
ITV ran a dramatic mini-series based on the Titanic. Written by Julian Fellowes, it linked action, mystery and romantic narratives involving fictional and historical characters. 89 actors were involved including Timothy West, Celia Imrie and Linus Roache.
Filming was undertaken on a purpose built set with a 60m promenade deck, a 50m boat deck with four working lifeboats, 75m of interior corridors and numerous cabins, offices and stairways. Director Jon Jones commented “it is jam packed with a warren of rooms arranged to allow a sense that we have the run of the ship. Once you enter the studio it is like boarding the ship, you get a real sense of the space. We want to get to grips with how it really was to be confined in a tiny cabin in steerage – or effortlessly ensconced in a first class stateroom.’
To deliver the water sequences, the production team built a massive water tank on the outskirts of Budapest. The 900sq m tank had a sliding immersible section of the ships deck and interior, and a huge 360° green screen backdrop.