S.O.S. Titanic
| S.O.S. Titanic | |
|---|---|
DVD cover for S.O.S. Titanic
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| Genre | Drama History |
| Written by | James Costigan |
| Directed by | William Hale |
| Starring |
David Janssen Cloris Leachman Susan Saint James David Warner Ian Holm |
| Music by | Howard Blake |
| Country of origin | United States/ United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Roger Gimbel William S. Gilmore (co-executive producer) |
| Producer(s) |
Lou Morheim Neville C. Thompson (associate producer) |
| Location(s) | RMS Queen Mary - 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach, California Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England The Waldorf Hotel, Aldwych, Strand, London, England |
| Cinematography | Christopher Challis |
| Editor(s) | Rusty Coppleman |
| Running time |
Original TV Cut 144 Min. Edited DVD & European Version 109 min. |
| Production company(s) | EMI Films |
| Distributor | ABC |
| Release | |
| Original release |
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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. The script was written by James Costigan and directed by William Hale (credited as Billy Hale). It is the first Titanic film released in color.
First Class passengers include a May–December couple, John Jacob Astor IV (David Janssen) and his new wife Madeleine Talmage Force (Beverly Ross); their friend, the notorious "unsinkable" Molly Brown (Cloris Leachman); another pair of honeymooners, Daniel and Mary Marvin (Jerry Houser and Deborah Fallender); and Benjamin Guggenheim (John Moffatt), 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 (David Warner, who would go on to appear in the 1997 film Titanic) and the fictional Leigh Goodwin (Susan Saint James). Both are saved.
In steerage, the plot focuses on the experiences of eight Irish immigrants, who are first depicted approaching the ship from a tender in the harbor of Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland. These characters, all based on real people, include Katie Gilnagh (played by Shevaun Bryers), 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."
One of the film's major themes is class distinctions. 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, do not show any resentment at their meager accommodation—Katie Gilnagh comments that sleeping four-to-a-room is far more comfortable than the situation she experienced 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, they successfully sneak up to the First Class restaurant, where Farrell persuades the Master-at-Arms to allow the women—but only the women—to pass up to the boat deck.
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