Before James Cameron s 1997 blockbuster, the Hollywood — Titanic of 1953, and the 1958 British film A Night to — Remember, there was the Nazi German film Titanic. Begun in — 1942, this production nearly sank as decisively as ... more »the doomed
ocean liner, after the film s director, Herbert Selpin, was
overheard making remarks damning the German army.
Reported to the Gestapo, Selpin was arrested and later found
hanging in his prison cell, the victim of an arranged suicide.
In April, 1943, the film was banned by the Berlin censors
because of its terrifying scenes of panic, all too familiar to
German civilians undergoing nightly Allied bombing raids. After
extensive cutting, Titanic was released in occupied Paris and a
few army installations. It wasn t until late 1949 that it was seen
in Germany, though it was banned, a few months later, in the
Western sectors.
Technically, this Titanic is an excellent catastrophe film; its
shots of the ship sinking were later used by the 1958 British
film without credit. Somewhat true to the facts though peppered
with fictional good Germans both on and below deck
the film ends with a trial scene that acquits the White Star
Line management, followed by a final slide denouncing
England s eternal quest for profit. These packed a powerful
propaganda punch; cut from the postwar prints, they have
been restored for this Kino Classics edition.« less