Saved from the Titanic (1912)

Directed by

Étienne Arnaud

Genre

documentary film, silent film, disaster film

Country

United States

Runtime

10 min

Rating

4.8 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This is a silent short film from 1912. It shows a survivor of the Titanic disaster telling her story to her family and fiancé. The actress playing her had actually survived the sinking.

somberhistoricalurgentauthenticstraightforwardmelancholicdocumentary-like

What happens

Saved from the Titanic is a 1912 American silent short film starring Dorothy Gibson, an American film actress who survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912. Premiering in the United States just 31 days after the event, it was the earliest dramatization of the tragedy. Gibson had been one of 28 people aboard the first lifeboat to be launched from Titanic and was rescued about five and a half hours after leaving the ship. On returning to New York City, she co-wrote the script and played a fictionalized version of herself. The plot involves her recounting the story of the disaster to her fictional parents and fiancé, with the footage interspersed with stock footage of icebergs, Titanic's sister ship Olympic and the ship's captain, Edward Smith. To add to the film's authenticity, Gibson wore the same clothes as on the night of the disaster. The filming took place in a Fort Lee, New Jersey studio and aboard a derelict ship in New York Harbor. The film was released internationally and attracted large audiences and positive reviews, though some criticized it for commercializing the tragedy so soon after the event. It is now regarded as a lost film, as the last known prints were destroyed in the Éclair studio fire in March 1914. Only a few printed stills and promotional photos are known to survive. It is Gibson's final film, as she reportedly suffered a mental breakdown after completing it. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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