Titanic (movie, 1943)

Synopsis

The White Star Line , a British shipping company, is in serious financial trouble because of the construction of its latest ship, the Titanic . To ensure substantial profits, its president, Bruce Ismay, decided to launch the ship at full speed in the North Atlantic to win him the Blue Ribbon in disregard of the safety of passengers. He is putting pressure on the captain to encourage him to increase the speed of the liner. Only the first officer Petersen, a German, openly criticizes this idea.

On board are also many passengers: the billionaire John Jacob Astor and his wife, a ruined lord, a young Danish woman and the mistress of Ismay, etc. Petersen tries to seduce Ismay by Sigrid, the young Danish, who also falls in love with the lieutenant, to convince him to slow the race of the ship, without success.

When the Titanic hits an iceberg, the rich passengers behave in cowards and rush to the canoes while Petersen and third-class passengers behave bravely. Ismay and Astor, in particular, use several stratagems to try to find their place in a boat. In the end, when there are no longer canoes, the captain calls everyone to try to save his life on his own. Petersen persuades his fiancée to embark in a boat, and manages to save Ismay to answer for his actions in court. He himself is saved only at the last moment. Indeed, hearing the tears of a child, he starts to rescue him and swims with her to a boat, where he recognizes Sigrid.

In the post-sinking trial, Petersen delivers a speech denouncing Ismay and the misdeeds of British capitalism; yet, the president of the White Star is not sanctioned, and, conversely, Lieutenant Petersen is blamed.

Technical sheet

Unless otherwise stated, this data sheet is based on IMDb ¹ .

• Original title: Titanic
• Director: Herbert Selpin and Werner Klingler
• Scenario: Herbert Selpin and Walter Zerlett-Olfenius
• Production: Willy Reiber for UFA
• Music: Werner Eisbrenner
• Photography: Friedel Behn-Grund
• Editing: Friedel Buckow
• Country of origin: Germany
• Language: German
• Format: Black and white – 1.37: 1 – Mono – 35 mm
• Genre: Action , drama
• Duration: 85 minutes
• Release dates:
  • Paris , Stockholm , Florence : November 10 , 1943
  •  West Germany : February 7 , 1950

Distribution

• Sybille Schmitz : Sigrid Olinsky
• Hans Nielsen : 1 ^st Petersen officer
• Kirsten Heiberg: Gloria
• EF Fürbringer : Sir Bruce Ismay
• Karl Schönböck: John Jacob Astor IV
• Charlotte Thiele: Lady Astor
• Otto Wernicke : Captain Edward John Smith
• Franz Schafheitlin : Henderson
• Sepp Rist : Jan
• Monika Burg : Heidi
• Charlotte Tiedemann-Klein : Luise, young mother

Production

An ambitious and troubled shoot

The Titanic in 1943 is one of the blockbusters of Nazi propaganda intended by Joseph Goebbels , alongside other feature films such as The Baron Munchausen’s Fantastic Adventures of Josef von Báky ² . The filming takes place during the Second World War , in 1942 – 1943, in Berlin in the UFA Studios . The shots of the ship outside are shot on the ship Cap Arcona , at the time requisitioned as a floating barracks for the Kriegsmarine. By a certain irony of fate, this ship knows a later destiny even more tragic than the Titanic . Indeed, in May 1945, the liner is used, with two other ships, as transport of deportees and bombed May 3 by Royal Air Force planes . The sinking makes a number of casualties uncertain but above 5,000, only for Cape Arcona ^3 , 4 .

The film is experiencing a major problem in 1942 when its director, Herbert Selpin argues with screenwriter Walter Zerlett-Olfenius. In his anger, he violently criticizes the army in the presence of officers of the German navy, racing: “Ah, you, with your shitty soldiers, you shitty lieutenant with your army of crap ^5 , 6 ! ” . Arrested the next day for his antipatriotic behavior, he was found hanged with his suspenders in his cell on July 31, 1942 ^, 7 . Many people, however, according to historian David Stewart Hull, who believe that suicide is only the coverage of a running ⁸ . The shoot is finished byWerner Klingler . As for the screenwriter, when the news of Selpin’s suicide reaches the film crew, no one agrees to talk to him. Joseph Goebbels is forced to threaten them to suffer the same fate for the filming to resume normally. Similarly, the mention of the name is prohibited Selpin ⁸ .

The studios are kept where the first copies of the film are also destroyed during a bombing, but luckily the negatives are then stored elsewhere, which allows the film to survive ⁹ .

Propaganda and respect for history

The film, a true anti-British charge, seeks to demonstrate the responsibility of British and American financiers in the sinking of the Titanic and the 1,500 deaths that ensued, at a time when the Third Reich is grappling with the United Kingdom and the United States ^10 , 6 . The film closes with an unqualified condemnation of the avarice and greed of the English:

“The deaths of 1,500 people go unpunished … An eternal condemnation of England’s quest for profit ¹¹ . “

In the film, the disaster leader is the owner of the company Joseph Bruce Ismay , who asks the captain to sail at full speed across the Atlantic to win the famous Blue Ribbon ⁹ . However, this idea is false since the Titanic could not technically reach the speed of 27 knots necessary to break the record then held by the Mauretania ¹² . He is also reversed qu’Ismay sought to influence the course of the ship, with the exception of a possible speed test that has not occurred, the ship that sank yesterday ¹³ .

Similarly, the central figure is a German officer, Lieutenant Petersen, who is the first officer. This feature was actually exerted by William McMaster Murdoch , and no German belonged to the staff of the ship ¹⁴ . The historian Philippe Masson remarked in his book The Drama of the Titanic as bold and heroic behavior Petersen draws heavily on that of the second officer Lightoller ¹⁵. During the sinking, the Germanic lieutenant has a heroic behavior, having already opposed the speed of the ship during the crossing. It organizes the rescue of the passengers of third class. He saves a girl locked in her cabin. He eventually saves Ismay for it accountable for its crimes ^16 , 17 .

Overall, the British passengers are portrayed as incompetent and greedy, while the Germans are the heroes and victims of the sinking ⁶ . It is indeed about presenting the superiority of the “German race”. Thus, where the British rely only on technology, Petersen has kept some contact with nature, because of his fear of ice, especially ⁸ . In the same way, the family values advocated by the Third Reich are reflected in the film. The couple formed by Sigrid and Petersen are opposed to the rejected British models: Ismay travels with his mistress and uses the women for venal purposes, while Astor does not bother to try to save his wife ⁸ , which is moreover inexact ^18, 19 .

The film also boasts the sense of sacrifice of the Aryan race through the characters and Sigrid Petersen and through a couple of German passengers in third class that refuses to separate ⁸ . The reuse of the story is pushed to its climax here since this story is inspired by a real couple, the Straus , who preferred to die rather than to separate; Now, Isidor and Ida Straus were, ironic, jews ^20 , 21 .

Home

Broadcast

On April 30, 1943, Joseph Goebbels banned its projection in German cinemas. The country is indeed bombarded daily by planes of the Royal Air Force , and panic scenes are not, he said, not able to lift the spirits of the population ¹⁷ . Also, for unknown reasons, Goebbels asked that one of the actresses in the film, Jolly Bohnert, never appears in cinema ⁹ . Moreover, an article in the New German Review suggests that the film could also contain anti-Nazi elements: the fact that certain scenes whose propagandist purpose is obvious have no flavor is evoked as support for this thesis, as well as the choice of certain actors.Sybille Schmitz has been described as “foreign beauty” , which fits poorly with pro-German propaganda. The magazine finally considers the tendency of German heroes to rise against the British as a call to resistance ⁸ .

The film is however projected to Paris , Stockholm and Florence November 10, 1943, and the Netherlands ⁸ .

The film was finally screened in the Federal Republic of Germany in December 1949, but was removed from the screens in March 1950 as a result of British protests. It remains however projected in the German Democratic Republic in 1950 , where he made very good entries ²² . The film was published on DVD by Kino Video in 2004 ^{23 , 24 , 25} .

Reviews

The film has a troubled history, most critics concern his scenario considered caricatural ⁹ . However, although the film was not widely distributed in the early days, there were several positive reviews about it. The June 1965 film magazine states that it is “very badly filmed cinema”, and attacks the grotesque game of British characters. In contrast, the role of Sybille Schmitz is appreciated, including its appearance in the Grand Staircase that Hull magazine calls “the greatest appearance of cinema ⁶ “.

Posterity

If the film has generally been perceived as bad, some items are recognized for their quality ¹⁷ . For example, filmmaker Roy Ward Baker reused excerpts from panic scenes in his film Atlantic, latitude 41 ° ⁹ . Images were also used for the short film Telephone Time ^26 , 27 .

Notes and references