Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Friday, August 6, 2010

TITANIC (1943)


Not the 1997 blockbuster. And not the British version from 1958. (That was A NIGHT TO REMEMBER.) The sudsy 1953 Hollywood version w/ Barbara Stanwyck & Clifton Webb? Nope. This is the Nazi version that was completed in 1943, but unreleased til 1949. The NAZI version? Herr Goebbels & Co. crank out the expected GRAND HOTEL-on-a-boat variant, loaded with greedy British capitalists who put profit ahead of safety; rioting proletariat types in steerage; a substitute German officer for heroics; and a flavorsome assortment of German passengers to care about. The special effects are reasonably handled for the time (the large-scaled miniature ship is convincing while the smaller model looks like a toy with its lights on), but too many scenes are played out in airless cabins. This may have kept the budget in line, but you forget you’re at sea. Even so, the slow working 2nd unit had director Herbert Selpin comparing them to the German Army! An on-set informer didn’t get the joke and neither did the Gestapo. Selpin hung himself not long after. The film isn’t much worse than other Titanic pics, plus you get twice as many stories & characters as James Cameron offers in twice the time. And it's all about as accurate as INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS.

No comments: