Ship of Fools (1965)

Ship of Fools
Directed by Stanley Kramer
Written by Abby Mann from a novel by Katherine Anne Porter
1965/USA
Stanley Kramer Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Bill Tenny: [Drunk] You know what I think?

Glocken: No.

Bill Tenny: I think you’re a sawed-off intellectual.[/box]

Omnibus story

The year is 1933.  The ship is German departing Mexico with a final destination of Bremerhaven, Germany.  The first-class passengers are of various nationalities, with a predominance of Germans.  Many Spanish sugar workers are being shipped back to Spain since sugar prices have dropped and live in deplorable conditions on an open deck. Dwarf Karl Glocken (Michael Dunn) addresses the audience and says that all the passengers are fools.  Can we recognize ourselves among them?

There are several stories being told simultaneously.  One involves a drug-addicted Countess (Simone Signoret) who is being sent to prison in Tenerife for defending workers on the plantation owned by her husband.  Oskar Werner is the ship’s doctor who treats and falls in love with her.  Vivien Leigh is an aging divorced socialite who makes a strange dinner partner for boozy ex-baseball player Lee Marvin.  Jose Ferrer plays an loud and obnoxious early Nazi party member.  Prejudice plays a major supporting role with the Jewish outcast being one of the most affable and positive member of the cast of characters and particularly touching.

Casts of thousands and many stories to keep track of are hard to pull off but I thought this worked surprisingly well.  It helped that the stars involved were all on the top of their game.  Recommended.

Ship of Fools won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Cinematography, Black-and-White and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White.  It was nominated for Best Picture; Best Actor (Werner); Best Actress (Signoret); Best Supporting Actor (Dunne); Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White.