{"id":78326,"date":"2024-04-05T10:44:47","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T15:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=78326"},"modified":"2024-04-05T10:44:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T15:44:49","slug":"have-you-seen-atlantic-1929","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=78326","title":{"rendered":"Have You Seen… ‘Atlantic (1929)’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By JOHN BILLINGER<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiger Media Network<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This April marks the 112th anniversary of the Titanic disaster. Most people these days know more about the Titanic from the 1997 James Cameron film than from the actual disaster. But what these people probably don\u2019t know is that James Cameron isn\u2019t the only person to have made a film about it. There are enough Titanic films and media to fill the ocean. From actual films, TV miniseries, docudramas, lego stop motion videos, plays, horrible Italian animated films, even the Nazis made their own Titanic film. Last year in April, I reviewed the 1958 film \u201cA Night To Remember,\u201d<\/a> but this year, I\u2019m not messing around. We\u2019re going to look at four films made about the Titanic throughout the month. It\u2019s \u201cTitanic-a-thon\u201d…yeah, the title needs a little bit of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Believe it or not, the first film made about the Titanic was released only one month after the Titanic sank. On April 15th, 1912, the sinking of the Titanic made such big headlines, that only 29 days later, you could watch a movie about it. The film was called \u201cSaved From The Titanic.\u201d Keep in mind, that most films back then were 10 minutes long, so it\u2019s not like it was a full production. It also starred actual Titanic survivor Dorothy Gibson. Unfortunately, all known copies were destroyed in a fire a few years later, so it\u2019s now a lost film. There were also two other films made in 1912 that were either about or featured the Titanic. The German film \u201cIn Nacht und Eis\u201d and the French film \u201cThe Obsession\u201d. Neither of these we\u2019re going to cover, instead, we\u2019ll look at \u201cAtlantic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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The film\u2019s original poster <\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cAtlantic\u201d was produced in 1929, and was not only the first full-length film made about the disaster, it was also the first film about the Titanic with sound. Well, technically it\u2019s about the Titanic. The producers originally wanted it to be more clear that it was the Titanic, and the original title was Titanic. However, the White Star Line (the owners of the Titanic) threatened to sue the production team, so the ship in the movie was redubbed the Atlantic, and that also became the title. Nice that they either ignored (or completely forgot) that the name Atlantic was already the name of another White Star Liner that sank back in 1873, where the vast majority of people died, but I guess the wounds of that tragedy had healed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the plot of Atlantic, there\u2019s not really much to summarize. We mostly follow a group of passengers. One of them is cheating on his wife, then there\u2019s this old couple, and then there\u2019s this young couple. Then the ship hits an iceberg, and they all go through the drama of what they should do. That\u2019s pretty much all I can glean from the film because it\u2019s actually hard to understand what they\u2019re saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film has not aged well in both its craft and its content. It was one of the earliest sound films, and I can assume that it was probably not well preserved, so the sound deteriorated. So the dialogue is really hard to understand. I had to rewind a couple of times just to make out what they were saying, and even then, I had a hard time understanding it. But combine that with the awkward performances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of acting in early talkies might come across as stagy or over the top, but that\u2019s because they were just coming off of the silent films. But what really doesn\u2019t do the actors here any favors is how the director instructed them to say their lines. The director, E.A. Dupont, was afraid that audiences would have a hard time understanding what they were saying if they spoke normally, so he had the actors speak their lines as slowly as possible, with long pauses in between. As a result, the drama they were trying to convey comes off as more comedic and awkward than what they were probably intending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the film is set in what appears to be the first-class lounge. The script came from a play called \u201cThe Berg,\u201d so naturally, they wanted to do most of the action in the lounge where I presume the play is set. We do get scenes set in the Bridge, the Dining Room, the Boat Deck, and the Engine Room. These scenes were shot aboard the P&O Company ship RMS Mooltan, however, there are rumors which persist to this day that it was also shot on another ship. That ship is the White Star Liner RMS Majestic, which is questionable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the left is the staircase from the film. In the center is the Grand Staircase of the RMS Majestic. Are they the same staircase?<\/strong><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Almost the sole reason why people think it was shot aboard the Majestic is because there are a few scenes (really just long shots) that are set aboard a large staircase. This staircase is really close in appearance to the grand staircase that was aboard the Majestic. Now, since the White Star Line threatened to sue the production team, it\u2019s doubtful that they would\u2019ve allowed them to shoot on their flagship. However, supposing that this staircase in the film is a set, it would\u2019ve been expensive to build. Perhaps too expensive for a film with a budget of $250,000. It\u2019s also worth noting that the Majestic\u2019s sister ships, Berengaria and Leviathan, were both owned by different companies (long story) and could\u2019ve had similar staircases on board. So it\u2019s possible they might\u2019ve filmed the scenes on those. Given how poorly documented some of these film productions from that time were, it\u2019s unlikely a conclusive answer will ever be found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the film\u2019s accuracy to the Titanic, it\u2019s there but it\u2019s definitely a bit removed. For example, possibly to avoid lawsuits, the names of the characters, such as the Captain, were changed. But they clearly wanted to be more contemporary rather than doing a period piece. The fashion in the movie resembles more of the Roaring Twenties than the pre-war Edwardian period you would\u2019ve seen on the Titanic. The sets don\u2019t even look like any of the areas that were on the Titanic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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