JohnHowardReid BACKGROUND: "Titanic" was a pet project of Nazi Germany's evil propaganda minister, Dr. Goebbels. In the true story of the 15 April 1912 tragedy in which 1,503 people lost their lives, Goebbels saw a grand opportunity to denounce British opportunism, stupidity and greed. Goebbels had the script written by a fanatical Nazi, Zerlett- Olfenius. Direction was entrusted to Herbert Selpin who had successfully handled movie versions of other maritime disasters, despite the fact that Goebbels was well aware that Selpin had little love for the Nazi regime. However, Zerlett-Olfenius was entrusted with shooting the second unit work on location in the port of Gdynia in Poland. In May 1942, whilst Selpin shot the interiors in Berlin, Zerlett-Olfenius was detailed to direct the matching exteriors in Gdynia. When no footage at all arrived from Gdynia, the frustrated Selpin journeyed to that port to investigate. He confronted Zerlett- Olfenius and the two men had a bitter quarrel during which Selpin made many insulting references to the German armed forces. Zerlett- Olfenius reported Selpin to the Gestapo. Selpin was arrested and thrown into jail on a charge of treason. Unwilling to delay shooting and bring the matter to trial, the evil Goebbels ordered the prison guards to murder Selpin in his cell on the night of 31 July 1942. The propaganda minister then gave out that the treasonable Selpin had admitted his guilt by committing suicide. Werner Klinger was contracted to complete the film.However, Selpin had the last laugh after all. When Goebbels viewed the completed picture, he had enough wit to realize that its propaganda effects would be the exact opposite of what he and Zerlett-Olfenius had intended. Not only were the scenes of panic among the passengers uncomfortably akin to the contemporary reactions of German civilians under Allied bombing raids, but the instigator of the whole tragedy, Ismay, was shown to be a corrupt, self-seeking leader, reckless of people's lives in his own lust for power, money and "glory". A Hitler figure, in other words. "Titanic" was shown in Paris (in order to recoup at least part of its enormous cost), but in Germany it was not released at all until 1950.COMMENT:There are a number of movies dealing with the Titanic tragedy, but for sheer entertainment zing and gusto, this version is hard to beat. Not only are special effects absolutely marvelous and the scenes of shipboard panic and mayhem absolutely riveting, but the sets are superb, the costumes startling, and the acting dazzlingly charismatic. Nielsen hugs audience sympathy as the harassed Petersen, Miss Schmitz (despite a long dark wig that is a trifle disconcerting) transforms realistically from riches-into- rescuer, while the stunningly-gowned Heiberg limns the most decorative of high-class vamps and the evil-visaged Wernicke makes a human figure of the luckless Captain Smith. And a special clap to Jolly Marée who performs the sexiest dance number by which all others will now be measured.Selpin's driving, pacey direction, boosted by Behn-Grund's splendid camera-work nails home every hideously fascinating detail of this most terrible of maritime tragedies.

Goingbegging The story of this film project is almost as interesting as the story of the Titanic itself.At the height of the war, Goebbels started planning a massive movie spectacular that would present the Titanic story as a parable of Anglo-American capitalist greed, with a fictitious German officer heroically battling the cynical boardroom villains, out to secure the Blue Riband at any cost, to save their shipping line from bankruptcy. (This claim still pops-up from time to time, though there seem to have been other reasons for the undue haste to reach New York.)A surprisingly large budget was provided, and director Herbert Selpin got to work. The film required hundreds of naval personnel as technical advisors - a dream posting, well away from their units, in a film-colony atmosphere, with access to drink and women, of which they took excessive advantage. Selpin told them that their conduct was unprofessional as well as unpatriotic. A so-called friend reported him to Goebbels, who ordered him to retract his statement. He refused, and was found hanged next day.Now everything started to slide. Film people were disgusted at Selpin's fate, and morale never recovered. By the time the movie was finished, the Germans were losing the war, and Goebbels realised it would be a mistake to show scenes of drowning civilians, so no screenings were allowed. The film would only come to light many years later, as a historical curio.As this version was pure propaganda, we get all the Titanic clichés we expect (before they became clichés), with heavy emphasis on fine dining in gorgeous evening dress with a grand orchestra, while the freezing water pours into the engine-room and then rises steadily into the cabins. None of the performances stand out, and none of the actors seem to have moved on to bigger things, though their postwar careers would be dogged anyway by their association with the regime. But it is a tribute to the production values that several scenes are believed to have been directly reproduced in the British film 'A Night to Remember'.

secondtake Titanic (1943)Goebbels takes on the Titanic. And loses. In fact, the movie languished in hiding or in bad t.v. versions until 2005.This is the most expensive German film to date, and its technical competence pales next to American films of the same period. It uses the sinking of the Titanic as a vehicle to criticize the avarice of capitalist England, their enemy at the time. So along with the usual drama of love and chivalry and overconfidence, there is a story of stock trading and of racing the ship at top speed in order to break the record and raise the company's value per share.All of which isn't totally improbable, and as a weird Nazi view of the world it's pretty fascinating. In truth, it's not a bad film. But in truth, it's not something you need to bother with unless the political propaganda aspects sound appealing. Or unless you are just curious about different film versions of the events. The effects here are vivid and often very realistic until they show the ship from the water. The interpersonal acting is uneven and a bit stiff going, usually, with some caricaturing used as a way to avoid character development.If you want a classic older Titanic film for the pure drama of the disaster, I suggest the 1958 A Night to Remember (a British production) over the American 1953 Titanic which has star power but is boring by comparison. Of course, there is the 1997 version, in color, which has its own problems and dazzlements. But stop to at least imagine what the Nazi regime could possibly have been thinking, spending a ton of money on an unlikely movie just as the tide is turning against them in the war. And watch how terrific they paint the one German officer on the ship, telling the truth and saving lives like no one else. Propaganda, for sure, but not a horrible movie, as a movie, either.

marymorrissey this movie went along at a good clip... there were so many characters and stories that sometimes I got some of these English Frauleins confused with one another but they were all so lovely. One long suffering lovely reminded me of Margit Karstinsen.Movie reminded me of the George Kuchar's "La Verbotene Voyage" I wonder if he saw it too, but it's not likely he did, when he made his sudsy seafaring disaster film in the mid 80s. Lots of torrid goings on revolving around a central idea/ catastrophe/concept...The ending is so nice and dark I'm certainly not a Nazi but I didn't mind the moral that the capitalists are evil and above the law. it's capital that starves millions of people to death, irrespective of what the deal was with the titanic! I took it as the Marxist interpretation and not as so much anti English particularly. it was just kind of fun to see what a German movie about English speaking characters sounds like.I LIKED IT WAY BETTER THAN the 97 version with the ridiculous running around shooting while the ship is sinking over problems domestic and I loved when the cable channel introduced this film saying "nobody was king of the world in this version." at the same time this version delivered happy endings for some of the little lambs...instead of the drawn out tragedy of "my heart will go on and I will give the blue diamond (as in the almonds?) a dramatic trajectory..." cornball almond joy saccharine schmalz Hollywood poo.Well, I prefer, actually, being pandered to with a few people living happily ever after. Alright! Another plus size is that this film was made long before it was fashionable for hot actors to whisper all their lines with bedroom eyes 24/7.Anyway, the pacing was really great and it was quite involving so much was going on you really had no thought of the ship being doomed somehow even when the intrigue turns to the fact that icy cold disaster is in fact on the way.One day michael hinie should remake it and they can REWIND the sinking of the ship so we can feel COMPLICITOUS as we just dip in and dip out cathartically the water.