Unjustly forgotten in the wake of the Oscar-winning 1997 film directed by James Cameron, this 1953 fictionalization of the legendary sea disaster is a fine movie in its own right -- highly dramatic and unusually graphic for its time. As with Cameron's film, the ill-fated ocean liner's maiden voyage is the backdrop for a more personal story. Clifton Webb, the erstwhile Mr. Belvedere, portrays a wealthy, elegant snob whose marital strife is exacerbated during the trip when his wife (Barbara Stanwyck in one of her juiciest roles) stuns him with the revelation that he is not the real father of their son (Harper Carter). |