It was one of the most expensive films ever made, plagued with set problems, cost overruns and a mercurial, egomaniacal director.
It was "Titanic." No, not that one.
In his new book, "The Nazi Titanic"[1] (Da Capo Press), Robert P. Watson reveals a little known chapter of the Third Reich, when film buff Joseph Goebbels tried to produce the ultimate propaganda movie for Adolf Hitler.
Hoping to establish a "Hollywood on the Rhine," Goebbels had created a Nazi film department in 1930. Over the next decade, he devoured American films, created incentives for German filmmakers to hew to the cause and freed cinemas and actors from many national restrictions. From 1933-45, his Ministry of Propaganda produced more than 1,000 films.
Dr. Joseph GoebbelsPhoto: AP His two "most ambitious," both ham-fisted, pieces of anti-Jewish propaganda were released in 1940: "Der Ewige Jude" (The Eternal Jew), and "Jud Suss" (Suss the Jew). While the former flopped, the latter, about an innocent German girl raped by a Jewish man, was "one of the most commercially successful anti-Semitic propaganda films in history, with an estimated 20 million viewers."
But Goebbels realized the Nazis needed less on-the-nose messaging and was thrilled to receive a script from a German screenwriter named Harald Bratt. It was a telling of the sinking of the Titanic that blamed Great Britain for the tragedy.
"The epic film would not only open a propaganda front against the British, demonstrate Germany's superiority to Hollywood and help Nazi Germany win the war," Watson writes, "but, to Goebbels' mind, also establish him as the world's greatest film producer and further ingratiate him to Hitler."
To direct the film, Goebbels hired Herbert Selpin, a hard-drinking man of great ego and extravagance — nicknamed "The Hedgehog" because of his "diminutive size and prickly demeanor" — who might have fit in very well in Hollywood.
Selpin had several successful films under his belt — the flight of many in Germany's creative community due to Hitler's rise factored into his ascent — and was generally apolitical.
Production on the film began in September 1941. A "fanatically loyal Nazi" named Walter Zerlett-Olfenius, a war hero and former intelligence officer regarded by Selpin as the country's greatest screenwriter, was hired to rewrite the script, heightening the action, drama, romance and propaganda.
The film's villain was Bruce Ismay, who in real life was the British chairman of the company that owned the Titanic.
In the film, he demanded that the ship ignore potential danger in order to achieve the world's fastest trans-Atlantic crossing, thereby increasing the company's value.
The fictional hero was a "brave German" named Petersen, the "lone German among the all-English crew" and, coincidentally, the only one with the foresight and compassion to place safety over profit.
Goebbels gave the film a huge budget, equivalent to $180 million today.
Even so, Selpin made "outrageous demands," including an 87-day shoot and the building of massive sets. Goebbels not only agreed to all but responded to the director's request for a large cast by reassigning soldiers from the war to serve as extras.
The official "Titanic" poster and a scene from the movie.Photo: Courtesy of Everett Collection (2) For the sinking of the ship, Selpin found that small models looked unrealistic and requested the building of a replica of the Titanic "at least 20 to 30 feet in length," which could only be filmed in a nearby lake and required 25 trucks to transport.
Goebbels was so accommodating that when Selpin demanded that the sinking be filmed at night, the request was granted, even though the lights would put them at greater risk of targeting by British air forces.
But the complexity of the new apparatus, combined with bad weather and other technical factors, led to endless delays. Goebbels, himself under enormous pressure from Hitler to finish the film, grew impatient.
Selpin failed to recognize Goebbels' growing trepidation, continuing to make ever more outrageous requests, including complete control over the Nazi sailors being used in the film. Goebbels granted every one, but with an increasing sense of worry.
But after months of delays, the model proved to be ineffective. Now the director made "his most outlandish demand yet; this time he wanted a full-size luxury ocean liner as a stand-in for the Titanic." Goebbels ordered the Ministry of Propaganda to find a suitable ship.
Christened in 1927, the Cap Arcona had been Germany's attempt to build a ship as great as the Titanic.
It luxuriously carried wealthy passengers and ordinary Germans to South America until the war, when it became a barracks and training school.
Now Goebbels had it redesigned to replicate its former glory, and put it under Selpin's control. Despite Germany facing military losses on many fronts, the navy was ordered to offer any assistance Selpin requested.
Around this time, though, the film began falling apart.
'Goebbels realized the entire project…was a catastrophic mistake. [It was] a film about helpless people on a sinking ship commandeered by a foolish leader [that] mirrored the situation in Germany.'
- Robert P. Watson
As Selpin traveled to meetings with Goebbels to provide updates, the cast, crew and sailors — instead of fixing up the ship and rehearsing scenes — got hopelessly drunk. An increasingly frustrated Selpin, fed up with political interference, returned to find a stalled mess.
He resumed filming only to have hungover actors forgetting their lines while naval onlookers, ogling the film's actresses, would interrupt scenes to try for a kiss.
On May 15, 1942, Selpin snapped.
During a nasty fight with Zerlett-Olfenius, he screamed about "you and your s–t soldiers," and called elements of the Nazi war machine "cowardly and pathetic."
Selpin had crossed the line and had done so to the wrong man. Zerlett-Olfenius was not just a screenwriter and war hero, but a spy, assigned to monitor Selpin for the Nazi regime.
For Goebbels, this was almost the final straw.
He summoned Selpin to Berlin and made a formal accusation, reading Selpin's remarks back to him including that he had called "a lieutenant colonel a donkey, a group of pilots 'a bunch of a–holes and braggarts,' and naval personnel 'sh–ters on their submarines.' "
Goebbels gave Selpin a chance to "recant and correct the charges."
Selpin, who had been "increasingly despondent" and was also likely drunk, refused to do so. He was arrested and charged with treason and disloyalty.
Watson quotes an eyewitness account of what happened next as follows:
"Near midnight on Friday, July 31, 1942, two guards went to Selpin's cell and proceeded to tie his suspenders to the bars of the window high in the ceiling. They brought in a bench. They told Selpin to stand on it and grasp the bars, then tied the suspenders around his neck and took the bench away.
"When the unfortunate man would no longer hold on, he was strangled to death."
Goebbels hired a replacement to finish the film, which was completed in October and ran just under 90 minutes long.
When Goebbels finally saw the film, simply titled "Titanic," it was clear that Selpin and his replacement had created the perfect propaganda film — for Britain.
"Goebbels realized the entire project . . . was a catastrophic mistake," Watson writes, as it was "a film about helpless people on a sinking ship commandeered by a foolish leader [that] mirrored the situation in Germany."
Goebbels initially banned the film but relented the following year to allow it to be shown outside Germany, where it became a smash hit.
Still, following those limited runs, he ordered the film locked away. Other than a brief release in West Germany in 1955, it was forgotten until 2005, when it was rediscovered, restored and re-released.
The Cap Arcona, meanwhile, came to a horrific end. The Nazis turned it into a floating concentration camp and had planned to destroy the ship and everyone on board.
Instead, the British air force did the deed. The vast majority of the prisoners, numbering into the thousands, were killed, and bodies continued to drift ashore for the next 25 years.
Watson reports in an appendix that despite much confusion, some people in the British air force surely knew who was on those ships, although the pilots flying the bombers most likely did not. The British military took responsibility for the deaths, but the British government has never issued an apology.
As for the film itself, Watson reports that the finished product, "despite its political message," is impressive, with "elaborate props and sets, innovative cinematography techniques" and "many of the ingredients for critical acclaim."
One later film about the same doomed voyage was 1958's "A Night to Remember," which still receives credit among many as the best film of all time about the disaster. (It has a score of 100 on Rotten Tomatoes.)
"Interestingly," writes Watson, "for the climactic scene of the ship sinking, [the director] chose to use the footage shot by Selpin because of its quality and realism."
References
- ^ "The Nazi Titanic" (www.amazon.com)
Source → Hitler�s Titanic movie about a heroic German was a disaster
