Ship of Fools (1965)

A varied group of passengers boarding a ship bound for post-war Germany represents a microcosm of 1930s society.

Director:

Stanley Kramer

Writers:

Katherine Anne Porter (novel), Abby Mann (screenplay)

Stars:

Vivien Leigh, Simone Signoret, José Ferrer

Won 2 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vivien Leigh	...	Mary Treadwell
Simone Signoret	...	La Condesa
José Ferrer	...	Siegfried Rieber (as Jose Ferrer)
Lee Marvin	...	Bill Tenny
Oskar Werner	...	Dr. Wilhelm Schumann
Elizabeth Ashley	...	Jenny
George Segal	...	David
José Greco	...	Pepe (as Jose Greco)
Michael Dunn	...	Karl Glocken
Charles Korvin	...	Capt. Thiele
Heinz Rühmann	...	Julius Lowenthal (as Heinz Ruehmann)
Lilia Skala	...	Frau Hutten
BarBara Luna	...	Amparo (as Barbara Luna)
Christiane Schmidtmer	...	Lizzi Spoekenkieker
Alf Kjellin	...	Freytag

Storyline

1933: An ocean liner belonging to a second-rate German company is making a twenty-six day voyage from Veracruz, Mexico to Bremerhaven, Germany. Along the way it will stop in Cuba to pick up a large group of Spanish farm laborers who are being shipped home and who will be housed like cattle in steerage. There it will also pick up La Condesa, a Spanish countess. It will stop in Tenerife, where the farm workers will disembark and where La Condesa will be sent to a German-run prison for her "traitorous" activities in Cuba. This voyage will be the last of three for the ship's doctor, Willi Schumann, who has a serious heart ailment and who thought he could find some meaning to his life through this job. Willi and La Condesa fall in love, with the ship's Captain Thiele, who is Willi's closest friend on board, believing the drug-addicted La Condesa is only using him to get her fixes. Willi and La Condesa have to figure out if there is a future for them after the voyage, as Willi's life also ...

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Plot Keywords:

german | ship | american | love | germany | 

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Taglines:

EXPLORER, MISTRESS, VAGRANT, LOAFER, ARTIST, TRAMP ... THEY ARE ALL AT THE CAPTAIN'S TABLE!

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German Spanish

Release Date:

October 1965 (Austria)

Also Known As:

Das Narrenschiff

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Stanley Kramer Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

149 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

As of 2016, Michael Dunn is the only Dwarf actor (3'11) ever to be nominated for an Oscar.

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Goofs

Tenny and Mrs. Treadwell, seated together in the dining room, order dinner. In the next scene at the captain's table, Tenny is shown in the background looking through the menu and Mrs. Treadwell is not seated at the table.

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Quotes

Jenny Brown: I think that David thinks a woman should follow three paces behind with slippers.
Mary Treadwell: Men usually do.

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Connections

Referenced in The Nanny: Ship of Fran's (1996)

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Soundtracks

Party Favors Waltz
(uncredited)
Music by Ernest Gold

User Reviews

An all-star cast en route to Germany as Hitler takes power

"Ship of Fools" it may be, but it is also a Ship of Stars: Oskar Werner, Vivien Leigh, Lee Marvin, Simone Signoret, Jose Ferrer, Elizabeth Ashley, George Segal, and Michael Dunn. Directed by Stanley Kramer, this 1965 film deals with a German ship heading to its port in Bremerhaven in 1933 and the lives of some of its passengers. Dunn speaks to the audience at the beginning and end of the film, telling us at first that it is a ship of fools and that we may find ourselves in some of the characters.

This is one of the best all-star casts ever assembled, right up there with "All About Eve" and "The Long, Hot Summer." The performances are as magnificent as the film is relentlessly depressing, with a Jewish man put at a table with a dwarf, while at the captain's table, another man preaches about the new Germany and extermination of Jews, the elderly, and those who are not fit. The optimistic Jew thinks Germany owes the Jews a great deal and vice versa, and with 1 million Jews there, certainly no one is going to kill all of them. A drug-addicted woman is being deported to an island, and the very ill ship's doctor falls in love with her and is tempted to give up his miserable life to care for her. A couple with a passionate sex life finds they are poles apart in every other way. A bitter, middle-aged woman comes to grips with her loneliness and tries to drink it away. And on and on, on the ship of fools. By the end of the film, looking at the Jew's beautiful family on the dock, the viewer is ready to reach for a razor blade.

Oskar Werner (Tyrone Power's son-in-law) gives a magnificent performance as a man discouraged about his life full of obligations, exhausted from ill health, and reaching out for one last chance at happiness. Simone Signoret, who falls for the doctor, is a warm and sympathetic countess, nervous about her future, her past dried up. Lee Marvin, as a southern drunk who wants to get laid, is perfection - Vivien Leigh herself was impressed with him. "What's this about the Jews?" he asks her. "I never saw a Jew until I was 15." "Perhaps you were too busy lynching Negroes to care about the Jews," she replies.

For Vivien Leigh, Scarlett is far behind her - 26 years behind her, in fact, with almost no vestige of her left due to Leigh's battles with manic-depression and the dissolution of her marriage to Laurence Olivier. As Scarlett herself would have said, "That girl doesn't exist anymore." Her character is the Blanche Dubois who didn't go to the asylum and some years later takes a cruise. Even the last gown she wears, as she dances the Charleston, is reminiscent of Blanche. It's a great performance as a beautiful woman who has seen better days and is disillusioned and bitter about men, love, and romance. Her big scenes at the end of the film - in the hallway and with Marvin - are fantastic.

I have to believe, though "Ship of Fools" is downbeat, that it leaves us with some hope. Dunn, as the dwarf philosopher, is too smart to stick around Germany once things heat up; perhaps his Jewish friend will see the light before it's too late. The Countess is a survivor; no reason she shouldn't survive the island. But for all of them, a certain way of life has ended, and they won't be going back.

One of the great films of the '60s.