Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'A Night to Remember' (1958)
This week, the most interesting DVD to appear on release lists is:
“A Night to Remember” (1958)
With James Cameron’s epic 1997 mega-production of “Titanic” due to rise again on April 4 in eye-popping 3D, Criterion is offering a timely, spiffed-up rerelease of the highly regarded and historically accurate British dramatization of the maritime disaster, “A Night to Remember” (due out on DVD Tuesday).
Drawn from the meticulously researched book of that title by Walter Lord and directed by acclaimed British director Roy Ward Baker (“Don’t Bother to Knock”), “A Night to Remember” was released in 1958, just five years after Hollywood’s romanticized and highly mythologized “Titanic,” which starred Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb.
Lord’s book hewed rigorously close to the truth and proved extremely popular among readers eager for an accurate picture of the 1912 disaster that claimed the lives of more than 1,500 of the huge ocean liner’s 2,200 passengers.
Baker’s film adaptation, told with almost documentary-like detail, offers a more even-handed yet still dramatic portrayal of the R.M.S. Titanic’s sinking from the viewpoint of 2nd Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller, the most senior ship’s officer to survive the disaster.
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