As Titanic and a Night to Remember were both based upon the same historic event, there will inevitably be similarities. At the same time, there is a lingering suspicion that certain ideas and scenes from ANTR were copied in the more recent film. However, in many cases, the subtlety of the original is abandoned in its entirety.
Although its executive director was an American, ANTR is an archetypal British film that has many characteristically British quirks. For example, the scene in which a group of Third Class passengers are confronted with a locked grill on their way up to the boat deck and smash it with an axe has a deliberately humorous aspect, insofar as the po-faced steward says something to the effect of ’ere, mate, you can’t do that — its company property! This scene is utterly perverted in Cameron’s version, insofar as was we are supposed to believe that the poor, down-trodden steerage passengers are deliberately locked below decks so that they can die.
In fact, taking the comparison further, it will be noted that in ANTR the same group of Third Class passengers are among the heroes of the film; we follow them on their fateful journey from “Ireland” (which looks suspiciously like somewhere in Buckinghamshire) and are “with them” on their escape to the safety of the boat deck — willing them to live. In Cameron’s version, one of them (risibly) gets shot by one of the ship’s racist, incompetent and mentally unstable officers! It is almost laughable.
