Yes, with tomorrow being the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic (Ooh: 100 years: is that the emerald, the ruby or the sapphire anniversary? Well, it sank into the deep blue sea, so I guess that would be sapphire! {Actually, it's the so-called: “Platinum Jubilee”; but a maritime disaster hardly seems the occasion for a “Jubilee”.}), there are lots of Titanic-sinking movies on TCM today. (Ha ha: They’re off by a day!) And this movie: The Unsinkable Molly Brown, is also a Titanic-sinking movie: You see, she survived the sinking of the Titanic, and is hence “unsinkable”. And that’s clever because so many people tragically drowned, but she didn’t! Get it? (It’s cute, right?*)
But that makes me wonder about something: Couldn’t they have then made other movies that are intersecting stories in Molly Brown’s tale, and treat them like sort-of concurrent or contemporary sequels of some sort? Then they could focus on someone who actually drowned when they went down with the ship, and call the movie: The Sinkable George Pilkington (or whatever the character’s name was). This movie could tell the story of how this guy was pushed around and bullied all his life in England, and how he was taken for granted and passed-over for promotions until he couldn't take it anymore, whereupon he decided to start a new life in America and paid his last dime for a ticket aboard the Titanic's maiden voyage, just to have it strike an iceberg and sink. (It could have been “the feel-bad movie of the year”! I guess it also could have been called: Someone Up There Doesn’t Like Me, but then it wouldn’t be a sequel.) And then, we could see at the end of this movie how Molly Brown saves a bunch of people, but poor old George has to stay behind, because he’s a man, and go down with the ship. It would be a heartwarming tale proving that chivalry is indeed not dead; or at least, it wasn’t until George drowned. (Oh, except that apparently the men only didn’t hog all the lifeboats because the captain of the Titanic threatened to shoot any man who didn’t yield his seat for a woman.)
Here’s the IMDB page for The Unsinkable Molly Brown:
* (I am, of course, kidding! This movie’s title is cute, and as it was made 52 years after the sinking of the Titanic, it’s hardly “too soon”. But you couldn’t make that movie today, I’ll bet: “offended” people would likely picket the theaters and the movie studio until they scrapped the project! Could you imagine if the 1997 movie Titanic had been called instead: The Unsinkable Rose DeWitt Bukater/Dawson? Or perhaps: The Unsinkable Rose Meets the As-It-Turns-Out Very Sinkable Jack? It would be chaos and pandemonium in the streets!)
