When this TV production premiered, two decades had passed since Titanic (1953) and A Night to Remember (1958), two prominent films that chronicled the “unsinkable” ship’s demise in 1912. Director William Hale’s TV movie came on the heels of the 1970s disaster movie trend, but never resorts to the genre’s cheapest tricks. The cast is solid, portraying both real-life passengers as well as some fictionalized; impressive production values, especially for a TV movie. The filmmakers strike the right tone, but the film suffers from the fact that it offers nothing new ā and several characters just vanish once the iceberg appears.
1979-Britain-U.S. Made for TV. 109 min. Color. Directed byĀ William Hale. Cast: David Janssen (John Jacob Astor), Cloris Leachman (Margaret “Molly” Brown), Susan Saint James (Leigh Goodwin), David Warner (Laurence Beasley), Ian Holm, Helen Mirren.
Trivia: Originally shown as a 144 minute long two-parter, then cut to this version and released theatrically in some countries. The story was also told in another miniseries, Titanic (1996).
AVERAGE
None of the lies of Cameron’s bloared epic. An example being the’Oirish’ passenger claiming”we built it” Ulster protestants built her, not Catholics.
Who cares if the ship was built by Protestants or Catholics?
People who prefer truth to propaganda.
Brian Slack seems to think it matters… probably a dull-witted Orangeman… ignore his fatuous comment.