Book to Film - A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

Sunday 15 March, 2pm A NIGHT TO REMEMBER (Dir: Roy Ward Baker UK 1958 123mins)

Forget Jack, Rose, and that treacly Celine ballad: Roy Ward Baker’s A Night to Remember, based on Walter Lord’s meticulously researched 1955 non-fiction book, is widely regarded by historians as the definitive film about the Titanic disaster. Survivor Richard Norris Williams even described it as “restrained in its realism but vivid in portrayal.” Lord himself had a lifelong fascination with the ill-fated ship, spending several years interviewing more than sixty survivors in his spare time. Tightly structured and concise, his book charts the desperate last hours of the Titanic through a broad cross-section of the ship’s souls, from the boiler rooms to the first-class suites.

Baker’s film, the second adaptation of the book following a 1956 version for live TV, sticks closely to the facts as they were known at the time and follows a richly drawn ensemble led by Kenneth More as Second Officer Charles Lightoller. Shot in stark black-and-white by Geoffrey Unsworth, the film avoids melodramatic embellishment in favour of documentary-like realism and a quietly moving, stiff-upper-lip stoicism. As the majestic Ship of Dreams gradually descends into the icy Atlantic, the disaster is hauntingly realised through visual effects that remain impressive nearly seventy years later.

Produced by William MacQuitty (who had personally witnessed the Titanic’s launch as a boy), the production was a feat of technical discipline. Every detail, from the ship’s elegant interiors to the mad chaos on the decks during the final plunge, is rendered with precision and respectful authenticity. Although a box-office disappointment on its original release, A Night to Remember is now widely recognised as both a foundational work of the 1970s disaster-film cycle and one of the finest disaster films ever made (it's also a clear influence on James Cameron’s 1997 film, for which Walter Lord served as a consultant).

This session will be presented by Damien Spiccia who will host a discussion after the screening.

Walter Lord’s non-fiction book is available in paperback, Kindle and Audible.

Doors/Bar 1.00pm

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Host or Publisher The Backlot Perth