FAQ

The film is a fictionalized account of the life of Margaret 'Molly' Brown. The story begins with Molly (Debbie Reynolds) at six months of age (the baby who played her was actually ten months old at the time) surviving a flood of the Colorado River and being raised by woodsman Shamus Tobin (Ed Begley). Sixteen years later, Molly moves to Leadville where she is wooed by miner John 'Johnny' J. Brown (Harve Presnell). The two eventually marry and, when Johnny strikes gold, they become fabulously wealthy and move to Pennsylvania Avenue in Denver, where Molly longs to be part of the elite '36'. Unfortunately, the '36' are not ready to accept the flamboyant, rough-talking Molly Brown.

The Unsinkable Molly Brown is based a 1960 stage musical of the same name with music and lyrics by American composer Meredith Willson and libretto by Richard Morris. The play was adapted for the screen by American screenwriter Helen Deutsch.

Chick-a-Pen makes a lot more sense if you're familiar with the stage version. There's an entire song sung by Johnny to Molly while they're courting called "Chick-a-Pen". The song got axed for the movie, but the name stayed. The source of the word is thought to be chinquapin, from the Virginia Algonquin chechinkamin, meaning 'chestnut'. It refers to a species of the Chestnut genus of the family Fagaceae (Beech family) and a related species, the golden chinquapin (Castanopsis chrysophylla), an evergreen that ranges into the Pacific states. There's also the so-called Chinkapin Oak (Quercus muhlenbergii), but its range does not extend anywhere near Colorado. The Western endearment Chick-a-pen seems to derive from the idea of calling a person a 'little nut'.

Johnny and Molly separate, he moving back to Leadville and she moving back to Europe. After some time apart, however, Molly relaizes that she loves and misses Johnny and takes the next boat home...the HMS Titanic. As noted by history, the Titanic sinks, and Molly is noted for being instrumental is saving several lives. She returns to Denver and is received as a celebrity. Even Gladys McGraw (Audrey Christie) is there to welcome her, but Molly only has eyes for Johnny who hasn't shown. In the final scene, Molly goes to her room to dress for the party that Gladys and Buttercup (Hermione Baddeley) are throwing for her. She notices that her bed has been replaced by the brass bed that Johnny purchased when they were first married. Suddenly, Johnny comes out from behind the door, and Molly runs into his arms.

Several actresses have played Molly Brown in various movies about the Titanic, including Tucker McGuire in A Night to Remember (1958) (1958), Thelma Ritter in Titanic (1953) (1953) (under the name Maude Young), Cloris Leachman in 'S.O.S. Titanic (1979)' (1979), Marilu Henner in 'Titanic (1996)' (1996), and Kathy Bates in Titanic (1997) (1997).