In Night and Ice
About In Night and Ice
Passengers board the Titanic at Southampton. On the night of the collision, diners in the Café Parisien are thrown aside when the ship hits the iceberg. There are not enough boats. Women and children are loaded, men are held back, and the wireless men send an SOS. Fire blows from the funnels, boilers explode, and the band plays, including "Nearer, My God, to Thee." As the radio room floods, the captain calls "Be British!" He saves a drowning man who then refuses the boat and goes down with the ship. A title card refers to a nurse saving a child heir, a nod to the Allison family.
Cast & crew
More about In Night and Ice
Mime Misu wrote and directed it, and plays the second wireless operator. Filming began in May 1912. Most scenes were shot in a glasshouse studio behind the Chausseestrasse offices. Some footage was made in Hamburg, possibly aboard the liner Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, whose Winter Garden stood in for the Café Parisien. The Berlin fire department supplied water for the sinking. Night scenes were tinted blue and a stoker shot was tinted red. Released 17 August 1912.
Themes
Background
Released four months after the Titanic sank on 15 April 1912, while the inquiry reports and the "Be British" stories were still in the papers.
In film history
The earliest Titanic film known to survive, made the same year as the sinking and before the later British and American versions.
Making
Continental-Kunstfilm started shooting within weeks of the April 1912 sinking, using a studio tank fed by the Berlin fire brigade and a docked German liner for the café.
Look
Willy Hameister and Emil Schünemann photographed studio sinking scenes and Hamburg shipboard footage. Night material was tinted blue.
Technique
A studio tank, tinted night scenes, and shots on a docked liner were used to stage the sinking four months after the event.
Music
Silent. The story shows the ship's band playing, including "Nearer, My God, to Thee."
Preservation
Thought lost until Horst Lange's print surfaced in 1998. Deutsche Kinemathek restored it for a Bonn premiere on 28 August 1998. Clips appear in the documentary Beyond Titanic.
Notes
- Otto Rippert plays the captain, Ernst Rückert the first officer, and Waldemar Hecker the first wireless operator.
- It is the second known Titanic film, after Saved from the Titanic (1912), and the earliest one that survives.
- The captain's "Be British!" and his carrying of a man follow newspaper reports about E. J. Smith.
- U.S. release titles included The Sinking of the Titanic and Shipwrecked in Icebergs. The German title is In Nacht und Eis; another German title was Der Untergang der Titanic.
- Willy Hameister and Emil Schünemann are credited as cinematographers.
- Presumed lost until February 1998, when archivist Horst Lange told a newspaper he had a print. Deutsche Kinemathek's restoration premiered in Bonn on 28 August 1998.
Scenes
- Diners in the Café Parisien are thrown from their tables when the ship strikes.
- The captain calls "Be British!" as the radio room floods, then goes into the water after a drowning man.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-in-nacht-und-eis)
Quotes
Be British!
