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Ship of Fools

  • 19651965
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 2h 29m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
6K
YOUR RATING
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Ship of Fools (1965)
Home Video Trailer from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Play trailer3:32
1 Video
80 Photos
  • Drama
  • Romance
  • War

A varied group of passengers boarding a ship bound for pre-WWII Germany represents a microcosm of early 1930s society.A varied group of passengers boarding a ship bound for pre-WWII Germany represents a microcosm of early 1930s society.A varied group of passengers boarding a ship bound for pre-WWII Germany represents a microcosm of early 1930s society.

IMDb RATING
7.0/10
6K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Stanley Kramer
  • Writers
    • Katherine Anne Porter(based on "Ship of Fools")
    • Abby Mann(screenplay by)
  • Stars
    • Vivien Leigh
    • Simone Signoret
    • José Ferrer
Top credits
  • Director
    • Stanley Kramer
  • Writers
    • Katherine Anne Porter(based on "Ship of Fools")
    • Abby Mann(screenplay by)
  • Stars
    • Vivien Leigh
    • Simone Signoret
    • José Ferrer
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 83User reviews
    • 29Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Won 2 Oscars
      • 5 wins & 13 nominations total

    Videos1

    Ship of Fools
    Trailer 3:32
    Ship of Fools

    Photos80

    Gila Golan in Ship of Fools (1965)
    Christiane Schmidtmer in Ship of Fools (1965)
    José Ferrer in Ship of Fools (1965)
    George Segal in Ship of Fools (1965)
    Elizabeth Ashley in Ship of Fools (1965)
    Lee Marvin in Ship of Fools (1965)
    "Ship Of Fools" Vivien Leigh 1965 Columbia
    George Segal and BarBara Luna at an event for Ship of Fools (1965)
    Buddy Hackett and his wife Sherry Cohen At the "Ship of Fools" Premiere
    Vivien Leigh and Lee Marvin in Ship of Fools (1965)
    Vivien Leigh and Lee Marvin in Ship of Fools (1965)
    Vivien Leigh and Lee Marvin in Ship of Fools (1965)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Vivien Leigh
    Vivien Leigh
    • Mary Treadwellas Mary Treadwell
    Simone Signoret
    Simone Signoret
    • La Condesaas La Condesa
    José Ferrer
    José Ferrer
    • Rieberas Rieber
    Lee Marvin
    Lee Marvin
    • Tennyas Tenny
    Oskar Werner
    Oskar Werner
    • Dr. Schumannas Dr. Schumann
    Elizabeth Ashley
    Elizabeth Ashley
    • Jennyas Jenny
    George Segal
    George Segal
    • Davidas David
    José Greco
    José Greco
    • Pepeas Pepe
    • (as Jose Greco)
    Michael Dunn
    Michael Dunn
    • Glockenas Glocken
    Charles Korvin
    Charles Korvin
    • Capt. Thieleas Capt. Thiele
    Heinz Rühmann
    Heinz Rühmann
    • Lowenthalas Lowenthal
    • (as Heinz Ruehmann)
    Lilia Skala
    Lilia Skala
    • Frau Huttenas Frau Hutten
    BarBara Luna
    BarBara Luna
    • Amparoas Amparo
    Christiane Schmidtmer
    Christiane Schmidtmer
    • Lizzias Lizzi
    Alf Kjellin
    Alf Kjellin
    • Freytagas Freytag
    Werner Klemperer
    Werner Klemperer
    • Lt. Huebneras Lt. Huebner
    John Wengraf
    John Wengraf
    • Grafas Graf
    Olga Fabian
    Olga Fabian
    • Frau Schmittas Frau Schmitt
    • Director
      • Stanley Kramer
    • Writers
      • Katherine Anne Porter(based on "Ship of Fools")
      • Abby Mann(screenplay by)
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

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    Storyline

    Edit
    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 includes a wife and sons back in Bremerhaven. Among the other motley crew of passengers are: Mary Treadwell, a middle-aged American divorcée who is trying to recapture her youth; Tenny, a middle-aged American ex-baseball player who laments never having made it big in the game; David and Jenny, a young American couple who say they are in love but who have to overcome their fundamental differences in social standing and life outlooks; Rieber, a middle-aged German Nazi sympathizer who is traveling with a young woman companion and who lords his beliefs over the other German passengers, who in turn are either so self-absorbed with their own lives and/or just don't care to notice what is happening in Germany with the Nazis; and Lowenthal and Glocken, a German Jew and a German dwarf respectively, who are "paired" as the outsiders among those in first class. Their encounters, plus those with a rambunctious pair of children, two German teenagers who are coming into their sexual being but are having problems overcoming issues they face, and a troupe of gypsy entertainers whose women are pimped out by their leader, lead to an interesting voyage. —Huggo
    • prologue and epilogue
    • farm laborer
    • walking cane
    • roommate
    • homoeroticism
    • 155 more
    • Plot summary
    • Add synopsis
    • Taglines
      • EXPLORER, MISTRESS, VAGRANT, LOAFER, ARTIST, TRAMP ... THEY ARE ALL AT THE CAPTAIN'S TABLE!
    • Genres
      • Drama
      • Romance
      • War
    • Certificate
      • Not Rated
    • Parents guide

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Vivien Leigh was subject to bouts of depression and alcoholism and was abrasive to fellow actors. There was a rocky start to her relationship with Lee Marvin, complaining about his stale alcohol breath. Eventually, the two became highly unlikely good friends.
    • Goofs
      Although set in 1933, the hairstyles and costumes are decidedly mid-1960s.
    • Quotes

      Rieber: Lowenthal, you know it is a historical fact that the Jews are the basis of our misfortunes.

      Lowenthal: Of course.

      Rieber: You agree?

      Lowenthal: Of course. The Jews and the bicycle riders.

      Rieber: The bicycle riders? Why the bicycle riders?

      Lowenthal: Why the Jews?

    • Connections
      Edited into Spisok korabley (2008)
    • Soundtracks
      Heute abend geh'n wir bummeln auf der Reeperbahn
      Music by Ernest Gold

      Lyrics by Jack Lloyd

    User reviews83

    Review
    Top review
    7/10
    A World Going to Hell in a Hack...err Steamer
    About 1490 or so a German writer named Sebastian Brandt wrote an allegorical novel about the condition of mankind and types of men in their follies called DER NARR SHIFF (I believe that is the German title) which translates to "The Ship of Fools". At that time in Europe many humanists wrote such allegories, the most famous one being Erasmus' IN PRAISE OF FOLLY. Today Erasmus is still remembered, while Brandt is studied only by students of the German language and it's literature.

    The title SHIP OF FOOLS was picked up by Katherine Anne Porter, who (for most of her literary career) was an excellent short story writer. At the tail end of that career she decided to tackle the larger target of a complete, complex novel. As one can see from the comments on this thread some people think she did superbly with her story and characterizations, while others think she flubbed it. I've never read the novel, but judging from the film version (and suspecting it is a watered down treatment, like most novels into films) it must be an above average work.

    To me this is a film that actually stands out for individual moments by the cast. Michael Dunn ferociously lecturing Heinz Ruhlmann about the extreme anti-Semitism of the other passengers (not only the irritating neo-Nazi Jose Ferrer, but most of the other passengers) that has caused them (Dunn and Ruhlmann) to be banished to an isolated table for their meals. Ruhlmann, a kindly, nice man (who manages to make Ferrer's bigotry seem funny and stupid at one point) responds, "There are one million Jews in Germany. Are they going to kill us all?" The dialog is fairly sharp in these vignettes. Werner Klemperer, as a ship's officer, responding from signals from Vivien Leigh for some type of shipboard sexual encounter, discovering that Leigh is simply using him for a matter of trivial amusement. He tells her off in a fine little speech, which may have been the best delivered dialog of his career on film (and is years away from his Col. Wilhelm Klinck on HOGAN'S HEROES). Ferrer is half gregarious and half a bigoted swine, and totally untrustworthy. In the coming war unlike Herr Schindler, if Ferrer made a list it would be to turn Jews over to the authorities so he could get their possessions. His comment about how he is not anti-Semitic, he adores Arab people is almost as good as his spirited moment of pure entertainment when he sings a comic German song for the passengers. Even the minor actors on the screen have good moments. Witness the now forgotten Henry Calvin (a few years earlier he had been one of the "Laurel & Hardy" imitations in Walt Disney's BABES IN TOYLAND). Here he is one of the Cuban peasants transported by the ship to pre-Civil War Spain. His moment is when he tells off the racist Captain and his officers who have looked down on these steerage passengers, referring to the Captain as a pig. One can keep going on, especially with the sympathetic Oscar Werner and Simone Signoret, and with Dunn again, the only one of the passengers and crew who is intelligent.

    For the point of the story is that this world of the 1930s is headed (as the reader knows) for disaster that will engulf everyone. The café society will not survive it. The Cuban immigrants will soon be killed by Republican or Fascists in Spain. The Captain and his crew will be drafted into Hitler's navy, and probably die in the Bismarck or some other ship. Marvin will be drafted, and even if he should survive the war he will find the segregation of his United States slowly eroded in the decades following the war. Ferrer will probably be starving in the ruins of Dresden or Berlin (if he is not killed in a bombing), wondering what happened to that prosperity the Nazis promised in a world without Jews. Every character in the story is facing the conclusion of the standards that gave them some degree of stability - some like Vivien Leigh and Simone Signoret are already going to pieces. In some ways, at the end, Werner and Dunn may be the only lucky ones. Werner is lucky because he will die before the war comes. Dunn...well since he is the clearest in terms of reality of all the characters, he will probably leave Europe before 1939, settle in the U.S. sitting out the war there, and only return afterwards to gaze at the ruins the others wrought.
    helpful•60
    15
    • theowinthrop
    • Apr 26, 2005

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 1, 1965 (West Germany)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • German
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
      • Das Narrenschiff
    • Filming locations
      • Hollywood, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Stanley Kramer Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $4,000,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 29 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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