MovieChat Forums > Titanic (1953) Discussion > Distorted class distinctions

Distorted class distinctions

posted 16 years ago by hobnob53
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Though I generally like 1953's Titanic -- the first Titanic film I ever saw, as a kid -- over time I've grown more and more bothered by its phoniness and even insulting view of the class differences aboard the ship.

In the film, the upper class's largely negative view of the lower -- so accurately shown in A Night to Remember, and even (up to a point) in the '97 Titanic -- is barely seen. Only the obnoxious, social-climbing Mr. Meeker (Allen Joslyn) is depicted as at all class-conscious. All the wealthy people are good, kind, generous sorts, the steerage simple, honest folk, all happily sailing along together. Few of the attitudes about class distinctions, and certainly none of the discrimination that in fact existed, are shown or even hinted at.

On the contrary, Mrs. Uskadum gets right up to the first class dining room (or outside it anyway) to have Sturges (Clifton Webb) go over those mysterious papers with her -- which would not likely have been permitted. And how do a bunch of college kids from Purdue afford to travel first class in 1912? At least the priest (Richard Basehart) appears to be traveling second class, but even that would seem to have been financially out of reach for a poor parish priest from Boston.

Most insulting of all is the depiction of the steerage passengers when the ship hits the iceberg. They're all shown huddled together belowdecks, too fearful and ignorant of the danger to leave even as the crew tries to make them go to the boat deck -- to the point where it's up to the noblesse oblige instincts of Sturges, Sandy et al to go down and force them to go to the lifeboats.

Of course, in reality the third class passengers tried everything to get up to the boat deck and were blocked at every turn by crew who wouldn't let them pass. This film shows them as ignorant immigrants too stupid and terrified even to save their own lives were it not for the heroic efforts of their betters to get them to move. (The movie also implies that all the women and children got off, with a few dramatic exceptions, which was certainly not the case.) A Night to Remember depicts the terrible truth all too well, and even the dopey, over-the-top 1997 Titanic is fairly accurate on this score.

The more I view this movie -- which basically I do enjoy -- the more put off I am by this whitewashing of a dark, even evil, aspect of the tragedy, and the insulting portrayal of the rich as unambiguously good and helpful and the poor as decent but fundamentally dumb cattle who even require a social superior to tell them to abandon a sinking ship!

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] hobnob53 15 years ago

That's true -- much of the treatment of steerage passengers was more in the way of neglect and not giving a damn as opposed to actively keeping them below...although some of that did occur. But even when they reached the boat deck -- usually too late anyway -- no one helped them. This discrimination is made plain by the fact that, not just in numbers, but proportionally, more Third Class passengers died than Second or (certainly) First.

Regardless of the specifics, this '53 Titanic certainly did everything it could to whitewash White Star as well as the attitudes and conduct of the ship's "important" passengers. Producer-co-writer Charles Brackett was himself a conservative, upper class type who naturally had an affinity for his own kind, which is clearly reflected in the (Academy Award-winning) script.

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[–] jamdonahoo 15 years ago

Why do people continue to promote the myth of third class passengers being prevented from the lifeboats? The facts show that while third class passengers had a lower survival, third class men had twice the survival rate as second class men and third class women had a higher survival than first class men. I guess that the facts never stand in the way of prejudice and ignorance.

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[–] TorontoJediMaster 15 years ago

There were some instances of crewmen holding back Third Class passengers. Daniel Buckley, an Irish immigrant recalled such an instance. However, there were other instances of crewmen leading small parties of women and children up to the Boat Deck.

As Walter Lord stated, Third Class seemed to suffer more from neglect and lack of a firm policy than any deliberate malice. As this film showed, there were indeed instances of Third Class huddling together, unwilling to really try to go up. There was no organized attempt by the crew to get the 3rd Class passengers up to the Boat Deck. Some crewmen -on their own initiative- helped. Others, likely not realizing just how serious the situation actually was, tried to prevent them from leaving Third Class spaces. No officers were sent down to make sure that Third Class people were being sent up to the Boat Deck. Many of the Third Class passengers didn't speak (or read) English and thus couldn't understand directions or even read printed signs. Plus, the ship was huge and the Third Class spaces were generally towards the bow or stern, far from the midships Boat Deck. What's telling though, is that once they reached the Boat Deck, Third Class women and children were allowed into the lifeboats the same as anyone else. Even Third Class men could get in if any male passengers were allowed in.

As Walter Lord said...Third Class seemed to be neglected to death.

As for the Purdue students being in First Class; not all First Class cabins were the ultra-expensive parlour suites. Some, down on D and E deck were much smaller and cheaper. If they could afford to go to England to play Oxford, then they could afford the difference in price between a Second Class and First Class cabin. As they were representing their school, it's possible that the school was paying for much -if not all- of the trip. It's feasible that Purdue may have booked them into Second Class, but the students had the means to pay the difference to upgrade to First Class.