Ship of Fools

[Flopper]

Ship of Fools is a 1965 film that appeals to the intellect and the emotions, no action or adventure here. An eclectic group of passengers board a cruise ship bound for prewar Germany, who form a microcosm of 1930s society. One passenger, a mysterious countess is headed for a German prison camp. The charming ships doctor harbors a debilitating heart condition. Then there's the American divorcée who vainly attempts to outrun time itself, the Jewish salesman and philosopher convinced that Nazism is just a passing fad, the boorish German anti-Semite, the young couple who find love and a lot more, the Texas business man who learns he just might not be gods gift to women. During their weeks at sea, this ship of fools forges bonds and rivalries, and unearths secrets. Stanley Kramer takes a seemingly boring melodrama and turns it into fascinating character study. Abby Man does a wonderful job of bring to life Katherine Anne Porter's overly long novel. The cast includes Vivien Leigh, Jose Ferrer, Lee Marvin, Simone Signoret, Oskar Werner, Elizabeth Ashley, George Segal, Michael Dunn, Charles Korvin and Heinz Ruhmann.

If you decide to take the cruise, it's available on Amazon Prime Video and appears on TCM occasionally.

 

[strollingbones]

love this movie...the classics are so much better than todays blood and gore movies or stupid ass...romance movies

 

[Flopper]

love this movie...the classics are so much better than todays blood and gore movies or stupid ass...romance movies

I totally agree. Movies about people done right are far better than movies featuring worlds, cities, trains, planes, and people exploding. It takes real acting, intelligent screen plays and directing to create movies like "Ship of Fools" where the audience connects with characters. Michael Dunn, the dwarf and Heinz Ruhmann, the Jewish salesman who are outcasts on the cruise are wonderful. One of the highlights on the move is when Viven Leigh rejects Lee Marvin's crude attempts at seduction and Marvin is totally shocked as to how this women could reject him. The movie is filled with scenes such as this that are sure to engage audiences.

Michael Dunn's opening lines of the film, "My name is Karl Glocken, and this is a ship of fools. I'm a fool, and you'll meet more fools as we go along. This tub is packed with them: emancipated ladies, ball players, lovers, dog lovers, ladies of joy, tolerant Jews, dwarfs - all kinds. And who knows, if you look closely enough, you may even find yourself on board."

and his closing lines,

"Oh I can just hear you saying - 'what has all this to do with us?'... Nothing." as he chuckles and walks away off the boat. Abby Mann who wrote the screen play did a wonderful job, putting a smile on the face and a tear in the eye of audiences.

It's a shame we don't have more movies like this.

 

[whitehall]

It was on Turner Classic yesterday. It had a European feel to it and it seemed that the obnoxious Lee Marvin character was the European cliche of Americans.

 

[Flopper]

It was on Turner Classic yesterday. It had a European feel to it and it seemed that the obnoxious Lee Marvin character was the European cliche of Americans.

Yes, it did have a European feel to it probably due to being set on a German ship with an international cast. However, it was a US production directed and produced by Stanley Kramer and based on the novel by Kathrine Ann Porter, both Americans.

Lee Marvin's charter represents the popular stereotype of Americans between in the 30's to 50's in Europe, loud, arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless, and ignorant. That's has changed dramatic with European exposure to just about every facet of American life through the media, personal contact, and American propaganda. However, in the 1930's much of the European view of Americans was shaped by US novels, principally westerns, gangster stories, and detective stories, films by Charlie Chapman, 3 Stodges, Laurel and Hardy, and Marx Brothers. American classics were never that popular in Europe. Thus this American stereotype was was common in Europe.

I thought Lee Marvin's performance and the two outcasts, the dwarf and eternally optimistic Jewish salesmen were the highlight of the movie. Jose Ferrer overacted his role as the boisterous Nazi.