I’m very grateful to Kel of Red Fox Radio/PEGIDA Radio which has had me on as a guest on their programmes a few times, for suggesting this film for this weeks Friday Night Movie.

‘A Night To Remember’ tells the story of the sinking of the iconic ocean liner Titanic on her maiden voyage in April 1912. The loss of the Titanic, a ship that was said by it’s builders and operators to be ‘unsinkable’ due to its compartmentalised structure caused great loss of life. The disaster caused the deaths of 1500 of the estimated 2,224 passengers onboard. The subsequent inquiries into the sinking had a great influence on maritime safety. Following the Titanic sinking legislation was passed to ensure that there were sufficient lifeboats for every passenger and an international maritime distress frequency of 500KHz was imposed along with a duty that every ships radio room operator kept a silent watch for emergency radio traffic on 500KHz (and later 2182KHz) at specific points in every hour. The Titanic disaster was also the reason why the North Atlantic now has an Ice Patrol to check for rogue icebergs that detach from the Arctic ice sheet and drift southward.  As many will know the loss of the Titanic had immense cultural impact and shattered many people’s belief in the invincibility of technology.

Out of all the films that have been made about the Titanic this has got to be my favourite. It’s streets ahead in terms of cinematography and acting than the Leonardo DeCaprio version that many younger viewers may be familiar.

This is an excellent film, well written, well photographed and extremely well acted. I was delighted to find this version of the film available online and It’s been a pleasure to see it again. I hope you enjoy this movie as much as I did.