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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
TITANIC (1943)
Corrupt board members manipulate the stock market for personal enrichment, endangering the
public in the process. A theme for contemporary America, no? But this is a 1943 film about the
sinking of the Titanic 30 years earlier. And what's more, it's a product of Nazi Germany.
The story is, by now, as familiar as they come, thanks in part to many screen retellings - most
recently, of course, James Cameron's bloated sob-fest. Unlike Cameron's version, this film is
direct and concise, narrowing its focus mostly to the story of the ship itself, and the corporate
greed that destroyed it. If Cameron's version used the doomed cruiser as a vehicle for a love
story, this version sails into the board room: The cost of
constructing the ship was enough to drive stock in White Star Lines so low that its board
members purchased shares in the hopes that a successful - and speedy - first voyage would drive
the price back up, making them all wealthy. The primary villain here is White Star President
Bruce Ismay, played as somewhat of a caricature by E.F. Fürbringer. His ignominy is complemented
by the wealthy, frivolous, and jewel-bedecked British and American passengers who stroll the
ship's upper decks. Any film with such villainy requires a correspondingly noble hero, and this
role is filled, naturally, by the doomed ship's sole German crew member. (The other decent,
righteous characters in the film are invariably German.) These performances are functional, at
best, and irredeemably hammy, at worst.
It's easy to hate this film, with its obvious nationalist agenda, its hypocrisy, and its Nazi pedigree.
Most sickening is the way it excoriates the English for being careless with life. But
trying to leave aside, for a moment, the film's political origins, what remains is a crisp, efficient
version of the well-known story, with an interesting emphasis on corporate and capitalist guilt.
There's nothing superlative or excellent here, but it does provide another side to the disaster, a
side worth remembering. And you have to wonder whether there might not have been another
subtext: Director Herbert Selpin was arrested by the Gestapo for making anti-military remarks
(and subsequently committed "suicide"). It's tempting to imagine that the idea of people blindly
following an authority with little regard for life might have been intended to criticize more than
English or American greed.
DVD Extras: Aside from the press clippings and stills gallery, the film has a few
interesting extras. An early promotional film for the Titanic's sister ship, the Olympic, gives us a
direct window into what the Titanic itself might actually have been like. Also included is an early
newsreel of the Titanic disaster. This is mostly staged aboard the Olympic, thus becoming, in
effect, the earliest adaptation of the story. These sepia-toned films make for sharp, melancholy
viewing. We'll never watch the real thing, but this could be as close as we'll get. Then there is the
original trailer for the film (which remains untranslated), and this reminds us of what's really
missing from the DVD package: historical context for the film itself. (The press clippings alone
give an extremely spare and static account). For American (or British) audiences, other versions
could have served as vehicles for the newsreel and the promotional film. Most
viewers will be drawn to this film because of its origins, and the DVD package is mostly silent
about the film's background - you get more information from the DVD's back cover than you do from
the extras. Even a single, solitary film historian, droning in front of a bookcase, would have done
nicely. Arthur Vaughan
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