History Film / ANightToRemember

Before Creator/JamesCameron's ''[[Film/{{Titanic 1997}} Titanic]]'', there was '''A Night to Remember'', a 1958 black-and-white British movie about the 1912 sinking of UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic, based on Walter Lord's nonfiction book of the same title chronicling the maritime disaster that claimed the lives of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board.

Before Creator/JamesCameron's ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'' there was ''A Night to Remember'', a 1958 black-and-white British movie about the 1912 sinking of UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic, based on Walter Lord's nonfiction book of the same title chronicling the maritime disaster that claimed the lives of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Not that hundreds of woman and children don't die either.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nightto_3051.jpg
[[caption-width:350:"[[GallowsHumour I take it you and I might both be in the same boat later?"]]]]

Before Creator/JamesCameron's ''Film/{{Titanic}}'' there was ''A Night to Remember'', a 1958 black-and-white British movie about the 1912 sinking of UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic, based on Walter Lord's nonfiction book of the same title chronicling the maritime disaster that claimed the lives of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: While there's no fair way to deny most of the crew and officers acted heroically (no matter what [[Film/{{Titanic}} The Other Movie]] depicted) and while if even half Lightoller's autobiography is true the man was a certifiable hero, the movie takes it just a bit too far, showing him launching lifeboats he had nothing to do with and in places he couldn't have been.
* {{Homage}}: Several scenes from this film were remade/reworked in ''Film/{{Titanic}}''; most notably, just after the ship goes down we see a brief shot of a young man and a young woman struggling to both climb on top of a floating box.

Before Creator/JamesCameron's ''Film/{{Titanic}}'' there was ''A Night to Remember'', a 1958 British movie about the 1912 sinking of UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic, based on Walter Lord's nonfiction book of the same title chronicling the maritime disaster that claimed the lives of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board.

* NotQuiteSavedEnough: Among others, the Irish steerage passenger who dies of hypothermia just as the ''Carpathian'' is arriving and firing off its rockets.

Before Creator/JamesCameron's ''{{Film/Titanic}}'' there was ''A Night to Remember'', a 1958 British movie about the 1912 sinking of UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic, based on Walter Lord's nonfiction book of the same title chronicling the maritime disaster that claimed the lives of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board.

* BadassLongcoat: The officers on all three ships featured(the Titanic herself, the Carpathia and the Californian) all wear badass greatcoats. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], in that it was part of their uniforms and that it was a very cold the night the Titanic sank.

* DirtyCoward: J. Bruce Ismay is depicted in this fashion when he scurries into a lifeboat at first opportunity. It's one of the movie's few {{Critical Research Failure}}s (albeit one justified by the time), since contemporary reports indicate that Ismay, far from being a coward, strenuously worked hard to get people into the boats, helped launch them and only took a seat in one of the last boats to leave the ship having made sure that there were no women and children nearby.
** Massively debatable as he is often shown in the film helping, or at least trying to help, with the launch of the boats and getting the survivors into them. He only gets into the boats when there is no-one left to go on the side he was on, with First Officer Murdoch on the Starboard side, where he actually asks "Is there no-one else?" regarding a boat that was only leaving half-full (of which there were many on the actual sinking).
* DistressCall: The ''Californian'' ignores the SOS, but the ''Carpathia'''s radio operator is on the ball, gets to his equally diligent captain and the ship turns around to race to the ''Titanic''.

* ForWantOfANail: The appalling death toll could have been prevented if lifeboats were provisioned on the basis of passengers and if ships had to maintain a 24 hour radio watch - a ship big enough to hold hundreds of people was visible on the horizon but had turned their radio off.
** Then again, it was the ''Titanic'''s sinking that enabled those safety features to be codified in the first place. Had she not sunk, these features wouldn't have been added (or they wouldn't have been implemented as quickly) and there likely would have just been a worse sinking later.
** On top of that, the radio operators were in the employ of Marconi, not the ship itself. Hence the priority was in relaying paid personal messages rather than weather reports.

** The card sharps beginning to realise that they're in a tight spot. One of them sardonically remarks. "Well what shall we play now Gentlemen, Happy Families?"

* {{Homage}}: Several scenes from this film were remade/reworked in ''{{Titanic}}''; most notably, just after the ship goes down we see a brief shot of a young man and a young woman struggling to both climb on top of a floating box.

** In a later scene (that gets cut for broadcast more often than not), a crew member (possibly the above-mentioned waiter) makes it to the overturned Collapsible B with a child in his arms. With the last of his strength he gives the infant to Lightoller, pleading with him to take care of the child. Lightoller takes one look inside the child's hood, realises it's dead and sets it adrift in the ocean.
** It's actually two of the Irish steerage passengers who swim up with the child. The two of them survive after being pulled on board; but the child didn't, despite their heroic effort to save it.

* NotQuiteSavedEnough

* DownerEnding: Most of the cast end up dead. [[ForegoneConclusion But you knew that already]]

Before Creator/JamesCameron's ''{{Film/Titanic}}'' there was ''A Night to Remember'', a 1958 movie about the 1912 sinking of UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic, based on Walter Lord's nonfiction book of the same title chronicling the maritime disaster that claimed the lives of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board.

* ThrowItIn: The ominous creaking noises the ship makes as it founders were actually made by the set as it was tilted into position.

* EnforcedMethodActing: As there were no water tanks in studios big enough to accommodate the sets, outdoor scenes were shot in an open-air swimming pool. In ''November''; none of the actors wanted to have to jump in. Kenneth Moore wrote:
-->"I would have to set an example. I leaped. Never have I experienced such cold in all my life. It was like jumping into a deep freeze just like the people did on the actual Titanic. The shock of the cold water forced the breath out of my lungs. My heart seemed to stop beating. I felt crushed, unable to think. I had rigor mortis... without the mortis. And then I surfaced, spat out the dirty water and, gasping for breath, found my voice. 'Stop!' I shouted. 'Don't listen to me! It's bloody awful! Stay where you are!' But it was too late as the extras followed suit."

* StockFootage: Scattered throughout the film. The christening is a Stock Footage clip (the real ''Titanic'' didn't have one). Most interestingly, four clips--two shots of the ship sailing in calm waters, and two shots of a flooding engine room walkway--were recycled from the 1943 Nazi propaganda ''Titanic'' film.

* UpperClassTwit: Averted; the first-class passengers are portrayed as being [[IncrediblyLamePun in the same boat]] as the other passengers and crew.

* HistoryMarchesOn: ''Titanic'' is shown going down in one piece. Since the discovery of the wreck in 1985, it's generally accepted that the ship broke in two before it sank.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: While there's no fair way to deny most of the crew and officers acted heroically (no matter what [[{{Titanic}} The Other Movie]] depicted) and while if even half Lightoller's autobiography is true the man was a certifiable hero, the movie takes it just a bit too far, showing him launching lifeboats he had nothing to do with and in places he couldn't have been.

Before ''{{Film/Titanic}}'' there was ''A Night to Remember'', a 1958 movie about the 1912 sinking of UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic, based on Walter Lord's nonfiction book of the same title chronicling the maritime disaster that claimed the lives of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board.

Before ''{{Titanic}}'' there was ''A Night to Remember'', a 1958 movie about the 1912 sinking of RMSTitanic, based on Walter Lord's nonfiction book of the same title chronicling the maritime disaster that claimed the lives of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board.

Before ''{{Titanic}}'' there was ''A Night to Remember'', a 1958 movie about the 1912 sinking of [=RMS=] ''Titanic'', based on Walter Lord's nonfiction book of the same title chronicling the maritime disaster that claimed the lives of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board.

** And we can't forget the Strauses, who stay together to the bitter end. As she says to her husband when he refuses to leave the ship while other men are aboard, urging her to go: [[TogetherInDeath ''"We have been together this long. Do you think I will abandon you now?"'']]