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A Night to Remember

A Night to Remember is the 1956 episode of the Kraft Television Theatre of Walter Lord's book published a year earlier. It was directed by future Oscar winner George Roy Hill. The episode was aired live on March 28, 1956 which attracted 28 million viewers, because of its success the episode was re-aired on kinescope on May 2, 1956, five weeks after its first broadcast.

Plot[]

The play opens with narration by Claude Rains telling of an 1898 novel that seemingly presaged the RMS Titanic tragedy and reviewing the history of the Titanic, its size, and capabilities. The production then turns to the events of the ship's final night.

Thomas Andrews, the 39-year-old naval architect who built the Titanic, works in his state room. J. Bruce Ismay, president and managing director of the White Star Line, boasts of plans for a speed run the following morning. Ismay pulls an iceberg warning from his pocket and hands it to the ship's captain, Edward J. Smith. It was the third warning Capt. Smith had received that day.

The Titanic Salon Orchestra plays as Capt. Smith dines with the first-class passengers. At 7:30 p.m., the captain receives a fourth warning of icebergs in the ship's path. Four decks below, 712 souls travel in steerage. A young Irish couple performs a jig.

In the wireless room, at 9:30 p.m., another ice warning places the Titanic directly within the area of danger. The wireless operator is distracted by stacks of messages passengers wish to send.

At 10 p.m., the captain retires to his cabin. At 10:30 p.m., the SS Californian spots an ice field and stops its engines to wait until morning before proceeding. At 11 p.m., the wire operator on the Californian sends a warning to other ships. The Titanicnowiki's wireless operator has difficulty understanding the message and replies, "Shut up. Shut up. I'm busy." In the first class smoking room, a small group remains, but otherwise quiet settles over the ship.

At 11:40 p.m., in the crow's nest, an iceberg is spotted directly ahead. A warning is sent to stop the engine, and the emergency doors are sealed. The Titanic strikes the iceberg. A number of passengers gather on the deck and discover pieces of the iceberg. Capt. Smith returns to the bridge and learns that the ship is taking on water. At 11:55 p.m., Thomas Andrews describes the damage to Capt. Smith and Ismay: The ship has suffered a 300-foot gash and will sink in no more than two hours. Capt. Smith orders the lifeboats readied and the passengers mustered, but no general alarm is to be sounded so as to avoid panic. The Titanic has only 16 lifeboats and four collapsibles, enough to hold only 1,000 of the 3,000 persons on board.

Capt. Smith directs the wireless operator to send out a distress call. The wireless operator on the nearby Californian is off duty and does not receive the call. In a further effort to attract the attention of the Californian, Capt. Smith orders the firing of rockets. An officer aboard the Californian sees the rockets and notices the Titanic listing. Captain Lord of the Californian is notified but goes back to sleep. At 12:36 a.m., a ship replies to the Titanicnowiki's distress call, but it is 58 miles away and will arrive too late.

In third class, the passengers are told there is no danger but that they should put on life jackets. The ship begins to list. At 12:15, the covers are removed from the lifeboats, and women and children begin boarding. At 12:42 a.m., the first lifeboat is lowered with only 20 persons, despite having a capacity of 40 persons. Another lifeboat is lowered with only 12 passengers.

The Titanic Salon Orchestra continues to play as the crew continues firing rockets with no response from the Californian. On one side of the ship, only women and children are permitted on the lifeboats. On other side, the rule is relaxed, and Henry Harper boards a lifeboat with his prize Pekingese dog. An elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Strauss, refuses to be separated and remains on board. Lifeboats continue to be lowered. At 1:30, an officer fires his gun to control entry onto the lifeboats. At 1:46 a.m., Ismay asserts that there is an unclaimed place on one of the final lifeboats and takes it for himself. Claude Rains, who narrated throughout the telecast, intones, "At the time President Ismay left his ship, there remained on board 1,643 passengers, among them 168 women and 57 children". A small group of women and children had been allowed to evacuate earlier, the remaining steerage passengers were finally permitted to head to the deck shortly before 2 a.m. The final lifeboat is lowered at 2:05 a.m.

The captain gives leave for crewmen to abandon their posts with the directive "every man for himself." At 2:15 a.m., the orchestra, directed by Wallace Henry Hartley, plays its final piece, the Episcopal hymn "Autumn". Many passengers jump into the freezing water in their life preservers. Andrews remains calmly aboard. The ship sinks at 2:20 a.m. with 1,502 souls, including many children from steerage.

In the closing narration, Rains reviews the iceberg warnings that were not heeded, the lack of sufficient lifeboats, and the failure of the Californian to respond to the Titanic<nowiki>'s pleas. Rains closes with these words: "Never again has man been quite so confident. An age had come to an end."

Cast[]

The production included a cast of 107 actors, 72 with speaking parts. Individual credits identifying the parts played were not provided either on screen or in advance press releases. On-screen credits simply listed the cast in order of appearance as follows:

  • Claude Rains [narrator]

Officers and crew of the Titanic

  • Clarence Derwent [as Capt. Edward J. Smith]
  • Don Marlowe
  • Eric Micklewood
  • Roger Evans Boxill
  • Richard Newton
  • David Cole
  • Victor Thorley
  • William Becker
  • John Heldabrand
  • Frank Leslie
  • John Wynne Evans
  • Peter Forster
  • Stanley Lemin
  • Dermot McNamara
  • Leonard Stone [as Seaman informing Captain Smith of the flooding in the mailroom]
  • Robert Brown
  • Neil North [as Second Officer Charles Lightoller]
  • Roger Hamilton

First class passengers

  • Millette Alexander [as Mrs. Madeleine Astor]
  • Peter Pagan [as John Jacob Astor]
  • Anthony Kemble-Cooper [as Henry Sleeper Harper]
  • Cavada Humphrey
  • Joanna Roos
  • Edgar Stehli [as Mr. Isidor Straus]
  • Valerie Cossart [as Mrs. Emily Ryerson]
  • John Boruff [as Arthur Ryerson]
  • Patrick Macnee [as Thomas Andrews]
  • Woodrow Parfrey
  • Ruth Matteson
  • Tom Charles
  • Jerome Kilty
  • Larry Gates [as Colonel Archibald Gracie]
  • Peter Turgeon [as Hugh Woolner]
  • Clifford David
  • Geoffrey Horne
  • Wesley Lau
  • Hugh Dunne
  • Margo Lorenz
  • June Evert
  • Alfreda Wallace
  • Frank Schofield
  • Guy Sorel
  • Mary K. Wells
  • Al Markim
  • Elizabeth Eustia
  • Jim Lanphier
  • Jean Cameron
  • Roger Plowden
  • Dorothy Rice
  • Ellen Clark

Third class passengers

  • Sandy Ackland
  • Helena Carroll
  • Tirrell Barbery
  • Liam Gannon
  • Svea Grunfeld
  • Michael Ingram
  • Gina Petrushka
  • Herman Schwedt
  • Walter Burke
  • Dan Morgan
  • Michael Gorrin

Stewards

  • Marcel Hillaire [as Maitre d'hôtel]
  • John Mackwood
  • Basil Howes [as Alfred, Thomas Andrews' steward]
  • Victor Wood [as Henry Samuel Etches]
  • Chrisse Hayward [as Stewardess]
  • Drew Thompson
  • George Cathrey

Officers and crew, SS Californian

  • Frederick Tozere [as Capt. Stanley Lord]
  • Roy Dean
  • Tom Martin
  • Bradford Dillman
  • Norman Morris

Other passengers on Titanic

  • Helen Ludlam
  • Gertrude Dallas
  • Elinor Wright
  • Laura Prikovits
  • Kate Wilkinson
  • Erlamond Trexler
  • Anita Webb
  • Billie Boldt
  • Ann Chisholm
  • Denise Morris
  • Lydia Shaffer
  • Claudia Crawford
  • Eddie Applegate
  • Cornelius Frizzell
  • James Pritchett
  • Mort Thompson
  • Arthur Joseph
  • Jeanne Palmer
  • Jonathan Anderson
  • Joe Hardy
  • Ulla Kazanova
  • Elizabeth Dewing
  • Katherine Hynes
  • Mary Brown
  • Mavis Neal
  • Diana Kemble
  • Martine Bartlett
  • Christine Linn
  • Emile Belasco
  • Patricia Carlisle
  • Remo Pisani
  • Patti Bosworth
  • Merle Ashley

Awards[]

The program was nominated in five categories at the 9th Primetime Emmy Awards: best single program of the year; best teleplay writing (George Roy Hill and John Whedon); best direction (George Roy Hill); best live camera work; and best art direction (Duane McKinney). It won the Emmy for live camera work.

It also won two Sylvania Television Awards, as the year's best television adaptation and also for best technical production.

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

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