Here's some interesting information about a never-made Titanic film, involving some of Hollywood's greatest movie makers. David O. Selsnick brought from England Alfred Hitchcock to direct a Titanic film based on Hanson Baldwin's RMS TITANIC short story. Hitchcock wasn't very enthusiastic about making a Titanic film, and was reported to say he would just start with a closeup of a single rivet and then track the camera backwards for two hours, revealing the entire ship. In other words--no drama! (Wish he could have seen A Night to Remember, or Cameron's Titanic!). Another giant filmmaker with a Titanic film on his agenda was Howard Hughes. It has been reported that either Selsnick or Hughes was planning to purchase the Leviathan and sink her during the filming! Hughes was preoccupied with his aviation accomplishments, and a memo from David O. Selsnick to one of his staff now preserved in the Ransom Library at the University of Texas in Austin, said he would try to give more attention to his Titanic film after he finished "the Civil War movie" (Gone With the Wind!) Neither Selsnick nor Hughes made their Titanic movie, and we end our story with a letter from Daryl Zanuck of 20th Century Fox in December, 1952 writing to David O. Selsnick about the rights to the name "Titanic." It seems even though Alfred Hitchcock didn't like the idea of directing a Titanic movie, he had registered the name "Titanic" with one of the film unions. Howard Hughes had done the same, and Zanuck had just finished his Titanic movie starring Clifton Webb under the name "Nearer My God to Thee" (Harper Carter, who played Norman Sturgis, showed me his script which was still titled "Nearer My God to Thee"). Zanuck wrote Selsnick that he had gotten a release of the name "Titanic" from Hitchcock and Hughes for free, and now he (Selsnick) was holding out for money for the name. Zanuck said he knew Selsnick had paid only $350 for the rights to Baldwin's short story, so thought in the spirit of the Christmas holidays, he should give Zanuck the name for free! I guess the spirit of Christmas won Selsnick over, because in April, 1953, Zanuck released his Titanic film under the name "Titanic". The Selsnick files about his Titanic movie are fascinating to read. They are in the Ransom Library on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. Robert H. Gibbons
