Titanic (1943) – full review!

A German (language with subtitles) propaganda film that makes outrageous assertions about the tragic history of this famous (titled) White Star Line ship initially thought to be unsinkable. In fact Werner Klingler had to assume directorial duties of this fictionalized historical drama when Herbert Selpin who co-wrote the screenplay with Walter Zerlett-Olfenius made some critical comments about his own country’s navy and shortly thereafter disappeared. He was found hung (an attempted suicide?) after others had told the Gestapo the enforcers of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.

The final product claims that the shipbuilder’s president Bruce Ismay (played by E.F. Fürbinger) was engaged in an unsuccessful and financially devastating (to him) company stock grab attempt against persons unknown while on the Titanic’s maiden voyage and that the phantom manipulator was actually another passenger aboard at the time American millionaire John Jacob Astor (Karl Schönböck). But what’s even more audacious is its claim that the ship’s sole voice of reason – the only one to advise its captain of the dangers inherent in traveling so fast (26.5 knots) through the icy waters where there are sure to be icebergs – is its lone German crewman a fictional 1st Officer named Petersen (Hans Nielsen). Of course Captain Smith (Otto Wernicke) is controlled by his own greed as Ismay has promised him a financial reward for making record time to New York in his quest to earn the Blue Ribbon. Vampyr actress Sybille Schmitz plays the only other virtuous passenger aboard Sigrid Olinsky who Petersen initially disdains as a wealthy aristocrat before he learns that she’s lost everything; he then suddenly accepts and even falls in love with her as she selflessly helps the other passengers board the too few lifeboats.

The other elements of the story and the tragedy are remarkably similar to those in James Cameron’s blockbuster and Academy Award winning Titanic (1997) including a shipboard romance between two of the other characters. However the special effects are primitive and/or nonexistent in comparison. Plus this film ends with a trial whereby Petersen has just finished his damning testimony of the events but Ismay is exonerated because the review board concludes that the captain had ultimate responsibility for the ship.

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