S.O.S. Titanic

S.O.S. Titanic is a 1979 television movie that depicts the doomed 1912 voyage from the perspective of three distinct groups of passengers in First, Second, and Third Class, and respectively. The script was written by James Costigan and the film was directed by William Hale.

First Class passengers include a May-December couple, John Jacob Astor IV and his new wife Madeleine Talmage Force; their friend, the notorious "unsinkable" Molly Brown; another pair of honeymooners, Daniel and Mary Marvin; and Benjamin Guggenheim, returning to his wife and children after a scandalous affair.

Perhaps the most moving plot line is the tentative shipboard romance of two cautious, reflective schoolteachers, Lawrence Beesley (played by David Warner, who would go on to appear in the 1997 film Titanic) and the fictional Leigh Goodwin (played by Susan Saint James). Both are saved.

In steerage, the plot focuses on the experiences of ten or so Irish immigrants, who are first depicted approaching the ship from a tender in the harbor of Queenstown, Ireland. These characters, all based on real people, include Katie Gilnagh, Kate Mullens, Mary Agatha Glynn, Bridget Bradley, Daniel Buckley, Jim Farrell, Martin Gallagher, and David Chartens. During the voyage, Martin Gallagher falls for an unnamed "Irish beauty." Although a stewardess and the ship's master of arms initially try to hold the young steerage passengers below decks, all of the women in the group are saved. All of the men, with the exception of Buckley, drown.

Themes

One of the film's major themes is class disitnctions to fortel this event. Second Class passengers Beesley and Goodwin discuss their ambiguous position "in the middle" and debate whether class distinctions are uniquely British. Goodwin briefly encourages Beesley to pursue his apparent attraction to a young Irish beauty in Third Class, but he rejects this advice. The Third Class passengers, mostly from poor backgrounds, show no resentment at their meager accommodation -- Katie Gilnagh comments that sleeping four-to-a-room is far more comfortable than the situation she knew in her overcrowded childhood home -- but on the night of the sinking, they struggle to evade the efforts of ship's personnel to keep them below decks and away from the lifeboats. Led by Jim Farrell, the successfully sneak up to the First Class restaurant, where Farrell persuades the Sergeant-at-Arms to allow the women -- but only the women -- to pass up to the boat deck.

Another major theme is the gay, hectic atmosphere aboard ship. Young Mary Marvin comments to her husband that many of the First Class passengers are honeymooners, and that she does not want to land, but simply to go on sailing and dancing forever. In much simpler surroundings, the Third Class passengers also engage in music, dancing, and whirlwind romances. Meanwhile, Beesley and Goodwin toy with the possibility of embarking on an illicit affair in an empty cabin but decide not to. Goodwin comments that shipboard romances, like shipboard friendships, are meant to end with the voyage.

A third theme is who deserved, or accepted, responsibility for the wreck of the RMS Titanic. Captain Edward J. Smith, a veteran White Star captain nearing retirement, is depicted as a masterful leader who nevertheless failed to slow down in spite of being well aware that he was traveling into ice-laden waters. Shipbuilder Thomas Andrews radiates an almost saintly quality, seeing to the final details of construction and repairs himself, tenderly looking after passengers and crew, and even conversing with a young stewardess about their common hometown of Belfast. He fully understands the implications of the collision, and his knowledge that he cannot save the ship clearly breaks his heart. Meanwhile, White Star Line owner J. Bruce Ismay wavers between a stance of command and an unwillingness to take responsibility for the sinking. Identifying himself as a passenger, he defiantly boards a lifeboat, only to experience a nervous breakdown aboard the RMS Carpathia. Ismay is the only one of these three men who survives, and it is clear that he will never fully recover from the sinking.

Goofs

S.O.S. Titanic is not as historically accurate as A Night to Remember (1958). The shots of the sinking ship during the last moments are taken from that film, although they were coloured to match the 1979 footage. The stock footage of the launching from A Night to Remember also incorporated in the opening scene, showing the launch of the Queen Elizabeth. As the Titanic sank beneath the waves, it frequently shows people scrambling about on a water swept deck even though when the camera shows the ship in full, you can see that that part of the ship is already under water. An example is when Captain Smith is shown standing next to the telemotor even though the bridge submerged long ago.

Another sketchy part of the film is when it shows the band playing on the sloping decks. In one part, the band is playing away with a piano on wheels (?) and then depicts the band again, moments before the ship sinks, with a different piano, which then slides down the deck and crashes into the water.

As the propellers rear rapidly out of the water, all funnels still visible, there is an explosion and in the next scene only the very stern is seen and the Titanic rapidly sinks with an explosion erupting from the sea after the sinking. Such a rapid sinking would not have been possible.

Locations

• Several of the scenes on the exterior decks, as well as those in the ship's wheelhouse, were filmed on board the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California.
• Some interior scenes were filmed at the Waldorf in London.

Historical Inaccuracies

The film does correctly portray the band playing ragtime tunes on deck during the sinking. Most historians agree that the then popular style is most likely what the band would have played on deck in the dark, improvised and confusing conditions. While the exact tunes played during the sinking will never be known, the ones heard in the film are mostly Scott Joplin's works.

Version History

SOS Titanic was originally shown on two nights on ABC television beginning on September 29, 1979. Combined, the two parts ran 150 minutes.

In 1980, the film was edited to 103 minutes and released in Europe.

The European version was released on DVD globally. The full version has never been commercially available, although it is shown on TV occasionally.

Main cast

Actor	Role
David Janssen	Colonel John Jacob Astor IV
Beverly Ross	Madeleine Astor
Cloris Leachman	Margaret "Molly" Brown
Susan Saint James	Leigh Goodwin
David Warner	Lawrence Beesley
Geoffrey Whitehead	Thomas Andrews
Ian Holm	J. Bruce Ismay
Helen Mirren	Stewardess Mary Sloan
Harry Andrews	Captain Edward J. Smith
Jerry Houser	Daniel Marvin

External links