A movie of the Titanic tragedy that is even worse than James Cameron's billion dollar turd. Who'da thunk it? At least this one comes in at under 90 minutes (probably thanks to Joseph Goebbels, who objected to the scenes of panic and destruction in the middle of the war). Yes, this is a film made in Nazi Germany when the film industry was under the command of Joseph Goebbels. And, yes, as you might expect it's pretty much a propaganda film. That aspect of it does provide some interest. The protagonist of the film is Hans Nielsen, a fictional (I assume) German first officer who insists to the head of the White Star Line company that the Titanic is not ready, as well as reminding him and his captain that they are moving too fast through iceberg-infested waters. If only the idiotic, slimy, capitalist Brits would listen to Hans! At least the Germans were avenging Hans' humiliation by bombing the bejesus out of England at the time the movie opened. Unfortunately, what little interest is provided by the propaganda element isn't enough to make the turgid melodrama worth sitting through. Not unlike Cameron's Titanic, romance abounds on the doomed ocean liner, including one between Hans and actress Sybille Schmitz. I knew Schmitz's name from the fact that Rainer Werner Fassbinder based the character of Veronika Voss on her. Schmitz doesn't look like Voss, though, and it took me a long while to figure out why she looked so much like some kind of ghoul. Ah! I did know here from somewhere: she co-starred in Carl Dreyer's Vampyr as the young woman who is possibly becoming a vampire. There are a couple of other romances, too, one between two workers on the ship and also a flirtation between some peasants on the lower deck. The film really doesn't care about any of these people, though. Most of the "action" in the film, like at least the first half, is taken up by long discussions of how much money various passengers have and what their social status might be. When the ship finally starts to sink, it improves slightly, but, since it's all but unwatchable up to that point, I just wanted it to end.