The big model used in the sinking scenes was 35 feet long. The pool in which they filmed was only 15 feet deep, so the model was constructed in sections. As each section sank out of view, they removed it so that it wouldn't hit bottom.
The character shown reading quietly in the First Class Smoking Room, is William Thomas Stead, a respected editor and writer who was seen reading in exactly the same place as the ship was sinking. On March 22, 1886 Stead wrote an article titled "How the Mail Steamer Went Down in Mid-Atlantic, by a Survivor," in which a steamer collides with another ship and due to a shortage of lifeboats many people die. Stead wrote "This is exactly what might take place and will take place if liners are sent to sea short of boats."
The creaking noises heard during the sinking weren't sound effects. They were sounds created by the set as it was winched up to create the tilting deck effect. The noises were picked up by the microphones. Roy Ward Baker thought they added a huge amount of realism, as they did indeed sound like the groaning noises a sinking ship would make, so he kept them in.
The footage used during the launching sequence of the Titanic is that of the 1938 launching of the Cunard Liner Queen Elizabeth, as no footage of the Titanic's launching actually existed. Despite the nearly thirty year difference in the two launchings, the substituted footage worked perfectly in conveying what a ship launch in the period was like.
The line "Still here, Miss Evans?" is a reference to Edith Evans, who died during the sinking after volunteering to leave an overcrowded lifeboat.
The lookout Frederick Fleet, up in the crow's nest during the collision, was portrayed by Bernard Fox, who went on to be in another Titanic movie, Titanic.
The role of the young Lucas child was played by Stephen Lowe, the 5 year-old son of Arthur Lowe who would become one of British TV's most memorable comedians for his role in Dad's Army.
The Shaw Savill Shipping Line agreed to allow exterior scenes to be taken on one of their ships, MV Dominion Monarch but shortly before filming was to begin, permission was withdrawn. The matter had come to the attention of the chairman of the line, Basil Sanderson. He was the son of Harold Sanderson, who had been the chairman of the White Star Line from 1913 to 1927 and was himself married to the daughter of J. Bruce Ismay. He did not want the matter reopened. Neither did the rest of the shipping companies, all of which refused co-operation. This led to the decision by Sir Frederick Rebbeck, chairman of Harland and Wolff, to also refuse any co-operation. The company issued a statement deploring the fact that a film company was seeking to make money out of the tragedy: "Too many people from the shipyard lost their lives that night and too many others as well. Why should we help to make an entertainment out of it." Producer William MacQuitty managed to get permission from the firm of Ship Breaking Industries to film on an old steamship, RMS Asturias, which was waiting to be broken up. It was repainted in the White Star Line colors by art students.
The shot of the Titanic leaving port is actually an early moving picture shot of the RMS Mauretania-the sister ship to the Lusitania.
The Titanic's Fourth Officer, Joseph Boxhall (portrayed by Jack Watling in the film), served as technical advisor to the film.
There was no tank big enough at Pinewood Studios to film the survivors struggling in the water to climb into lifeboats, so it was done in the open-air swimming bath at Ruislip Lido in London at 2:00 am on a cold November morning. Kenneth More recalled that when the extras refused to jump into the water, he realized he would have to set an example. But when he jumped into the water, he recalled: "I leaped. Never have I experienced such cold in all my life. It was like jumping into a deep freeze just like the people did on the actual Titanic. The shock of the cold water forced the breath out of my lungs. My heart seemed to stop beating. I felt crushed, unable to think. I had rigor mortis... without the mortis. And then I surfaced, spat out the dirty water and, gasping for breath, found my voice. 'Stop!' I shouted. 'Don't listen to me! It's bloody awful! Stay where you are!' But it was too late as the extras followed suit."
This is regarded as the largest British production of the 1950s. It was also the most expensive film made by the Rank Organization.
This is the last Titanic film to be made exclusively in the United Kingdom, the birthplace of the real Titanic. S.O.S. Titanic did film in the UK (at Shepperton Studios, The Waldorf Hotel), but also filmed in the United States aboard the (former British) RMS Queen Mary. Titanic written by British screenwriter Julian Fellowes, features a British cast but was filmed in Hungary.
This was the last feature length Titanic film to be made in black and white.
When Helen Melville Smith (Captain Smith's daughter) came to the set and met Laurence Naismith, she was overcome with emotion because of his striking resemblance to her father.
Wireless Operator John Phillips mentions several time throughout the sinking that he has been in contact with a ship called the Olympic. The Olympic was the Titanic's older sister ship, entering service in 1911, and an almost identical copy of the Titanic. She was the first in a trio of sister ships built by the White Star Line to counter their rival company the Cunard Line and their new luxury ships the Lusitania and the Mauretania. Unlike the Titanic and the Britannic, (the third sister ship that was sunk by a mine during the First World War), the Olympic went on to have an illustrious career as a passenger liner and served proudly during the First World War as a troop transport gaining the nickname "Old Reliable". After nearly twenty five years of service the Olympic was taken out of service in 1935 and scrapped in the late thirties. Unfortunately on the night of the sinking the Olympic was five hundred miles away from the Titanic and unable to arrive to her aid in time.