Lusitania The Movie

[Jim Kalafus]

Ren- The Naish's story, 'though interesting, would not have the makings of a gripping on-board love story

She left several accounts which agree on the point that he was miserably ill most of the voyage and that she seldom left the cabin other than to eat. However, their life before the disaster DOES have the makings of a cute turn of the century love story type film (probably on the Lifetime Network) and her experiences during and after the sinking and her lucid accounts would lend themselves well to a sub plot.

 

[Dave Gittins]

I had a dig round the Internet for a movie but only came up with an animated film from 1918. It was made by Winson McCay, who is evidently considered a big cheese in the field. It's around on DVD.

 

[Matt Endacott]

I've had many possible ideas that could go into a Lusitania movie. I think the best story to go with, would be that of Chrissie Aitken. The teenage girl who boards the Lusitania with her ill father and her little brother, Jarvie.
As many, she didn't notice the the ship was sinking until she noticed she was starting to loose balance in her cabin. She was asked to go up on deck. It was at this point she had no idea where her father & brother were. On deck, she is given a life belt from a kind sailor. She is then pushed into a lifeboat, screaming for her family. The lifeboat began lowering with a major tilt, and instead of waiting for it to tip, she leapt out and into the water, where she was helped onto a raft of drift wood.
It is here, a love story could be wound in, Chrissie is helped on by a man she befriended earlier on the voyage, but now it's starting to end up as Titanic did, or they could go for the storyline of Chrissie being the only member of the family to survive. It's really too hard.
maybe in years to come, as Titanic slowly becomes a forgotten movie, Lusitania might hit the screen & cast light on another story.

 

[Geoff Whitfield]

Matt, Only problem there is that Chrissie Aitken didn't have a little brother! Her elder brother was James Jarvie Aitken - Jarvie was James's son, therefore Chrissie's nephew.

 

[Jim Kalafus]

Dave: There is a 1915/1916 movie by the title of The Lusitania preserved, clips from which (general panic on deck, a lifeboat dumping its passengers from a heght of about 5 feet above the water) can be seen in Brownlow's Hollywood documentary series from the 1970's. There was also Rita Jolivet's Lest We Forget, of which only 1 reel survives in private hands. I am going to read through Kenneth Brownlow's books today to see if he gives an archival reference for the Lusitania film he used in his TV series.

 

[Matt Endacott]

Jim,
Can any pics or info on this movie be seen on the net? Also, was there any mention with it to a 1930's, early 1940's film?
I've been looking into it a bit and found a few notes on the movie. I found it on a nitpickers site (one of those sites where people post flaws in movies) and it said that in the Lusitania movie, at the end, when the New York Times is handed down onto the table, the title reads "LUSITANIA SUNK, 1,000's dead" and has a picture of a ship with 2 funnels.
Sounds like a pretty poor movie though.
Has anyone heard of it?

-Matt

 

[Ren-Horng James Wang]

I don't know if this is the same movie, but there is a very brief scene in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942) with the exact same newspaper. Not only is the photograph wrong, but in that very same scene is the newspaper boy shouting "America declares war!"

On the whole the movie isn't bad. It's just historically and geogra inaccurate.

The Lusitania disaster is also briefly mentioned in "Wilson" (1944) but rather disappointingly glossed over in a cabinet meeting.

I can't seem to find any other movies from the era that mention the Lusitania, though.

On a side note, is it possible somehow to view these much earlier films? "Lest We Forget" looks pretty interesting to me.

Ren-Horng (James)

 

[Matt Endacott]

Done a little bit more searching, and found another movie on the Lusitania named "Triple Cross" , made in 1967!
It is totally false. I've read a preview which mentions a man put in prison during World War Two and escaping to England where he boards the "GERMAN" Luxury liner LUSITANIA which is sunk off America by a British mine!
The story, obviously isn't focused on the ship though, it seems the sinking is acted out very swiftly, no lifeboat chaos or major tilting of the deck, it seems just like a faster version of Titanic!
PLUS - the sinking is carried out at night
There is also short mentions of planes rescuing the survivors!
I'm not intending on renting it....

 

[Jim Kalafus]

There is also the MGM Jerome Kern musical biopic "Till The Clouds Roll By" in which, early in his career it looks like he is going to get the big break he needs, befriended by Charles Frohman etc, goes to pier to bid Frohman farewell, cut to Lusitania poster, cut to next scene of Jerome (Robert Walker) looking all depressed for obvious reasons. It's an awful movie on every level except for the music.

Similarly awful, and probably the featuring the same prop newspaper previously mentioned, is the MGM musical in which Gene Kelly plays a "heel" who slams his hand inside of a steamer trunk to avoid military service (I think it is For Me And My Gal) in an earlier sequence there is the cliche "Lusitania Torpedoed" newspaper cover insert shot.

There are some stills from "Lest We Forget" over at Ren's site, which I donated, but only one shows the sinking sequence.

Kenneth Brownlow's Hollywood series, done for British television, has been on video for about 20 years and can be found for rental with relative ease. The Lusitania clip appears in the "Hollywood Goes To War" episode, but less than a minute is used. Just enough to leave one curious about the rest of the movie. If The Library of Congress has it in their film archive, being that it is pre-1923, they WILL copy it for you but it will cost you quite a bit.

Lest We Forget is a mostly "lost" film. What survives is one deteriorated reel.The most common still from the movie is the one showing her, Edith Cavell style, refusing to be blindfolded before her execution. I tend to suspect that there is a last minute rescue by her "wounded countryman" boyfriend.

 

[Chris Nicholson]

One problem with making a Lusitania movie. The sinking. A major reason Titanic was so popular was because of the sinking which showed every little thing going underwater and major advances in the plot because they had such a slow sinking. In a Lucy movie since the ship went down in like 15 minutes or so the whole thing would be really fast and confusing with almost no time to do anything with the story plot like in the Hindenburg movie.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

I don't know about that Chris. That flick they had with the Britannic didn't have a very long sinking sequence, but the writers got very creative with everything leading up to it. There's no reason why the same couldn't be done with the Lusitania.

Now if only they would get the history right....

 

[Matt Endacott]

Exactly,
The sinking itself could take the same time as the real one, as most of the excitement could happen whilst in the water, the lifeboats, people struggling. The only reason Titanic did this quickly was no one could survive in the water that long, who knows, this may make the Lusitania film popular some day!

 

[richard chappell]

I am trying to find out the author and i.s.b.n. but there is a book called "Lusitania, a novel" which could, if treated with care make a good basis for a film. It focuses on life aboard the U20, The ship and of course, the politics of the time. Best of all, no Jack or Rose in sight! (praise be!)

 

[Jim Kalafus]

His last name was Butler, one of two authors by that name to write a Lusitania book. Lusitania: The Novel was competently plotted and probably would adapt fairly well as a miniseries.

 

[Mary S. Lynn]

I think it all has to do with the subject of..WAR...and war movies in general. 20th century WAR movies (I, II, Korean, Viet Nam Somalia, Bosnia, Iran, Iraq..ad infinitum) tend to be a dime a dozen. Millions were spent on WAR footage - real or duplicated. The list of WAR movies is too long to name. From Sgt. York to the soon-to-be released Jessica Lynch made-for-TV movie, thousands of hours of WAR movies/documentaries have been released. I think we desensitize ourselves to the umpteen- whatever WAR movies to which we have been exposed. There is always a WAR CAUSE, which seems to overshadow any personal portrayals - true or otherwise. You can only absorb so much "blood & guts" before you become oblivious to it. We hone in on special effects at the expense of the personal stories. Titanic was different and special for a number of reasons. The disaster occurred during a time of peace. It basically "just happened". It was advertised as "the largest moving object on earth made by the hand of man". The circumstances of the sinking were intriguing. (No bombs, blood, torpedoes, etc.) It occurred just as world-wide communications was beginning to have a real effect. The attention to ostentatiousness and wealth had been in effect since the previous century, and that mind-set was very evident to the poor and moderate majority. Many of these wealthy Americans made their fortunes from the ruins of the Civil War, and they adopted the British class system. The times of a non-WAR 1912 Western World were condusive to admiration and jealousy and hope...and a real interest in the personal lives of the "rich and famous". Just my thoughts.