Titanic - on the Screen

Quick Facts – RMS Titanic left Southampton, England on April 10th, 1912, her destination - New York City - it was her maiden voyage. Titanic would never reach its destination.

Titanic was 882 feet long and 175 high (from keel to top of funnels) – she weighed 46,000 tons – cost to build: $7.5m - top speed was 23 knots – Fuel: 825 tons of coal a day.

Titanic could hold up to 3,547 passengers and crew, on her fateful voyage the ship carried 2,224 passengers and crew – there were 13 honeymooning couples on board – she carried 20 lifeboats, enough for 1,178 people – there were 3,650 lifejackets on board.

Ticket prices: Third Class £3, Second Class £12, First Class £30, First Class Parlour Suite £870 (in today’s money about £50,000).

Titanic struck an iceberg at 11.40pm on April 14, she was 375 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada. The iceberg ripped open 5 of her 16 watertight compartments, the ship flooded with water and sunk below the waves at 2.20am on April 15, over 1000 people were still on board.

1,517 people lost their lives. It is the most famous maritime disaster in history.

Titanic (1943) directed by Herbert Selpin, starring Sybille Schmitz, Hans Nielsen, Kirsten Heiberg, Charlotte Thiele and Ernst Fritz Furbringer. 85mins.

The first big movie about the Titanic disaster was made in Germany during World War II, I mean what are the odds? Titanic was one of the most expensive German films ever made at the time, it's premiere had to be postponed when Allied bombing blew up the theatre preparing to show the film.

IMDB rating 6.5

Titanic (1953) directed by Jean Negulesco, starring Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Wagner, Audrey Dalton, Thelma Ritter, Richard Basehart, Brian Aherne (as Capt. Smith). 98mins.

The first American movie about the disaster.

Won an Oscar for Best Screenplay and nominated for Best Art Direction.

Barbara Stanwyck found filming the end of Titanic very emotional - "I looked up at the faces lined along the rail - those left behind to die with the ship. I thought of the men and women who had been through this thing in our time. We were re-creating an actual tragedy and I burst into tears. I shook with great racking sobs and couldn't stop."

IMDB rating 7.1

A Night to Remember (1958) directed by Roy Ward Baker, starring Kenneth More, Ronald Allen, Honor Blackman, Robert Ayres, Anthony Bushell, Michael Goodliffe, Keneth Griffith, David McCallum and Laurence Naismith (as Capt. Smith). 123mins.

Based on the bestselling book by Walter Lord and still considered by some to be the best movie about the Titanic disaster.

A Night to Remember was the most expensive British movie of the 1950s. It won a Golden Globe Award for Best English Language Foreign Movie.

When the film extras refused to jump in the water during the sinking, the film's star Kenneth More decided to set an example and dived in, "Never have I experienced such cold in all my life. It was like jumping into a deep freeze. The shock forced the breath out of my body. My heart seemed to stop beating. I felt crushed, unable to think. I had rigor mortis, without the mortis. And then I surfaced, gasping for breath, found my voice. 'Stop!' I shouted. 'It's bloody awful! Stay where you are!'"

IMDB rating 8.0

S.O.S. Titanic (1979) directed by William Hale, starring David Janssen, Cloris Leachman, Susan Saint James, David Warner, Ian Holm, Helen Mirren, Ed Bishop and Harry Andrews (as Capt. Smith). 180mins.

A made for TV movie shown on two nights on ABC TV, it was later edited to 109mins and released to European theaters in 1980.

Many scenes were filmed on board the RMS Queen Mary.

IMDB rating 6.1

Raise the Titanic (1980) directed by Jerry Jameson, starring Jason Robards, Richard Jordan, David Selby, Anne Archer, M. Emmet Walsh and Alec Guinness. 115mins.

The American military are looking for a very rare mineral that can be used to power a sound beam which can knock out enemy missiles entering US air space. They discover that a shipment of the mineral was on board the Titanic sailing to New York in 1912.

Based on the best-selling novel by Clive Cussler.

Raise the Titanic was a disaster of its own making, costing an estimated $40m, one of the most expensive movies ever made, it grossed just $7m in the U.S.

The giant model of the Titanic used at the climax was 55ft long and cost a staggering $5m to build.

The producer Lew Grade quipped about the cost that it would have been cheaper to "lower the Atlantic".

IMDB rating 4.3

Titanic (1996) directed by Robert Lieberman, starring Peter Gallagher, George C. Scott (as Capt. Smith), Catherine Zeta-Jones, Eva Marie-Saint, Tim Curry, Roger Rees, Harley Jane Kozak and Barry Pepper. 173mins.

A TV mini-series shown on two nights. It was rushed into production to cash in on the hype over James Cameron's movie.

The two-part series was full of historical inaccuracies listed in detail at Wikipedia.

IMDB rating 6.0

Titanic (1997) directed by James Cameron, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bill Paxton, David Warner, Victor Garber, Jonathan Hyde, Suzy Amis, Bernard Hill (as Capt. Smith). 194mins.

Titanic, along with Ben-Hur (1959) and Return of the King (2003) have each won 11 Oscars, more than any other film. Titanic's Oscar Awards were for Best Picture, Best Director (James Cameron), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Music (James Horner), Best Song ("My Heart Will Go On"), Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Editing, Best Costume Design and Best Visual Effects. It was also nominated for Best Actress (Kate Winslet), Best Supporting Actress (Gloria Stuart) and Best Make Up.

Titanic cost a massive $200m to make and many people in the industry thought James Cameron had gone loopy spending so much money on a film about the Titanic disaster, they predicted that it would be a colossal failure, the biggest disaster in film history.

Instead the film opened at no.1 in the charts in December 1997 and stayed no.1 for months and months and months eventually the film grossed $600m in the U.S. and a jaw-dropping $1.8 billion worldwide. Becoming the most successful film of all time. An all-time record beaten by Cameron's next film, Avatar in 2009 (which grossed a mind-blowing $2.8 billion worldwide).

Titanic was re-released in 2012 converted for 3D. The conversion to 3D cost $18m and took 60 weeks to produce.

IMDB rating 7.5

Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) directed by James Cameron, starring Bill Paxton as himself. 59mins.

A documentary featuring Cameron and a group of scientists travelling down to the wreck of the the Titanic in deep sea submersibles.

It was the first Walt Disney movie produced in 3D, premiering at IMAX screens.

Ghosts of the Abyss cost $13m to make and has grossed $22.1m wordwide.

IMDB rating 6.8

Titanic (2012) directed by Jon Jones, starring Linus Roache, Celia Imrie, Toby Jones, James Wilby, Steve Waddington, Geraldine Somerville, Peter McDonald, Ruth Bradley and David Calder (as Capt. Smith).

A TV miniseries in four parts of 45mins each.

Produced to mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

Shot entirely on Digital Video.

IMDB rating 4.8