Ship of Fools


2h 29m 1965
Ship of Fools

Brief Synopsis

Passengers on a steam ship in the '30s struggle with their tangled relations and the rise of Nazism.

Film Details

Genre
Drama
Adaptation
Release Date
Jan 1965
Premiere Information
New York opening: 28 Jul 1965
Production Company
Columbia Pictures
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter (Boston, 1962).

Technical Specs

Duration
2h 29m
Sound
Stereo
Color
Black and White

Synopsis

In 1933, a German ocean liner bound for Bremerhaven leaves Vera Cruz with a variety of well-off passengers and a group of Spanish laborers who are being repatriated. The Germans, including the anti-Semite Rieber, are privileged to sit at the captain's table, except for Lowenthal, a Jew, and Glocken, a dwarf. Later, the two outcasts are joined by Freytag, when he is found to be married to a Jewess. Dr. Schumann, the ship's doctor, who is suffering from a fatal heart condition, is tending La Condesa, a drug-addicted Spanish noblewoman being shipped to prison on charges of agitating for social reform, and they fall in love. Bill Tenny, an ex-baseball player, feels that his life is a failure because he could not hit an outside curve. David and Jenny, a young unmarried American couple, quarrel because David, a painter, is unhappy living on his wife's income. Mrs. Treadwell, an aging divorcée, flirts and drinks in a desperate attempt to forget her loneliness. Graf, an evangelist, causes a riot among the laborers when he preaches. Graf's nephew, Johann, has an abbreviated affair with a young prostitute who is traveling with a Spanish dance group led by her pimp, Pepe. Jenny consoles Elsa, a Swiss girl who despairs of ever being found attractive, and Lowenthal assures her of her desirability. All disembark at Bremerhaven, except for La Condesa, who had landed earlier at an island prison, and Dr. Schumann, who died of a heart attack after La Condesa's departure.

Film Details

Genre
Drama
Adaptation
Release Date
Jan 1965
Premiere Information
New York opening: 28 Jul 1965
Production Company
Columbia Pictures
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter (Boston, 1962).

Technical Specs

Duration
2h 29m
Sound
Stereo
Color
Black and White

Award Wins

Best Art Direction

1965
Robert Clatworthy

Best Cinematography

1965

Award Nominations

Best Actor

1965
Oskar Werner

Best Actress

1965
Simone Signoret

Best Costume Design

1965
Bill Thomas

Best Picture

1965

Best Supporting Actor

1965
Michael Dunn

Best Writing, Screenplay

1966

Articles

Ship of Fools


In 1962, the celebrated American short story author and essayist Katherine Anne Porter published her first and only novel. Twenty years in the writing, Porter drew upon a 1931 ocean cruise she had taken from Vera Cruz to Germany, and crafted a compelling allegory for a world populace drifting inexorably toward global conflict. David O. Selznick jumped into the bidding for the film rights before he had even finished the book, but he could not top the $400,000 tag that United Artists had placed upon the property. In the hands of socially-conscious director Stanley Kramer, scenarist Abby Mann, and a diverse, accomplished international cast, Ship of Fools (1965) became one of the finest ensemble pieces of the period, and remains a compelling viewing experience today.

The tone of the incipient voyage is set by the cynical dwarf Glocken (Michael Dunn), who serves a Greek chorus function by addressing the camera and apprising the audience of the "ship of fools" they are about to encounter. In addition to its wealthy patrons, the German vessel Vera has also taken on a complement of hundreds of indigent Cuban deportees who are being returned to Spain against their wishes.

The central narrative thread of Ship of Fools belongs to the ship's doctor Willie Schumann (Oskar Werner), a disaffected man fully aware of his terminal heart disease and thoroughly weary of his wife, family and all else that the world has to offer. His outlook begins to shift when he encounters La Condesa (Simone Signoret), a kept woman with a drug addiction, whose dalliance with Spanish revolutionaries bought her deportation and imminent political imprisonment. Initially, the doctor quite correctly surmises that La Condesa's interest in him was fueled by his ability to meet her narcotics habit, but their unforced affinity for one another spurs depth of feeling that neither believed themselves able to still muster.

Also preeminent on the passenger manifest is the wealthy divorcee Lucy Treadwell (Vivien Leigh), an aging Southern belle sadly still trying to play the coquette, and Bill Tenny (Lee Marvin), a loutish, hard-drinking baseball scout eternally bitter over the washout of his career in the majors. Rieber (Jose Ferrer), an overbearing entrepreneur and confirmed Nazi who shares anti-Semitic screed with anyone within earshot, has ironically been bunked with the unflappably amiable Jewish salesman Lowenthal (Heinz Ruhmann).

Lowenthal comes to bond with Glocken, who is likewise shunted off as undesirable to the far recesses of the ship's dining area. Kramer and Mann rendered Lowenthal in a far more sympathetic light than Porter, in order to make him the narrative's lightning rod for dramatic irony ("There are a million Jews in Germany! What're they going to do...kill us all?") Rounding out the spotlighted players are a politically conscious young draftsman (George Segal) and his materially oriented girlfriend (Elizabeth Ashley), who are desperate to discover if they possess anything other than sexual heat that will sustain their relationship.

Ship of Fools turned out to be Leigh's screen farewell, and given the precarious state of the British beauty's physical and mental health at the time of production, the accounting she gave for herself was that much more remarkable. While Kramer, who had coveted Leigh for the role of Mrs. Treadwell, was initially put off by the actress's demands, his respect deepened once he became aware of the depths of her problems. As he related to Hugo Vickers for Vivien Leigh (Hamish Hamilton), "She was ill, and the courage to go ahead, the courage to make the film-was almost unbelievable."

While her spiked-heel rebuff of a drunken Marvin is one of the film's great set pieces, the actress had a low tolerance threshold for Marvin's penchant for showing up for his takes with "stale-Scotch breath," as reported in Anne Edwards' Vivien Leigh (Simon & Schuster). "In spite of it, they had a mutual admiration for each other. 'God, you have talent!,' she lauded him after the playing of their last scene together." In her memoir Nostalgia Isn't What It Used To Be (Harper & Row), Signoret recalled the dinner parties that Leigh would throw in 1964. "At the end of these evenings the phonograph played the theme from Gone With the Wind [1939]; it made her sad, but she did it deliberately...Ship of Fools was her last film, and she's prodigious in it."

While a share of contemporary critics dismissed Ship of Fools as Grand Hotel (1932) afloat, the project was buoyed by the strong efforts of its players, and Ship of Fools garnered Oscars for cinematographer Ernest Laszlo and art directors Robert Clatworthy and Joseph Kish. An additional six nominations were deservedly earned by Werner, Signoret, Dunn, Kramer, Mann and costume designers Bill Thomas and Jean Louis.

Producer: Stanley Kramer
Director: Stanley Kramer
Screenplay: Abby Mann, based on a novel by Katherine Anne Porter
Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Film Editing: Robert C. Jones
Art Direction: Robert Clatworthy
Music: Ernest Gold
Cast: Vivien Leigh (Mary Treadwell), Simone Signoret (La Condesa), Jose Ferrer (Siegfried Rieber), Lee Marvin (Bill Tenny), Oskar Werner (Willie Schumann), Elizabeth Ashley (Jenny Brown).
BW-150m. Closed captioning.

by Jay Steinberg
Ship Of Fools

Ship of Fools

In 1962, the celebrated American short story author and essayist Katherine Anne Porter published her first and only novel. Twenty years in the writing, Porter drew upon a 1931 ocean cruise she had taken from Vera Cruz to Germany, and crafted a compelling allegory for a world populace drifting inexorably toward global conflict. David O. Selznick jumped into the bidding for the film rights before he had even finished the book, but he could not top the $400,000 tag that United Artists had placed upon the property. In the hands of socially-conscious director Stanley Kramer, scenarist Abby Mann, and a diverse, accomplished international cast, Ship of Fools (1965) became one of the finest ensemble pieces of the period, and remains a compelling viewing experience today. The tone of the incipient voyage is set by the cynical dwarf Glocken (Michael Dunn), who serves a Greek chorus function by addressing the camera and apprising the audience of the "ship of fools" they are about to encounter. In addition to its wealthy patrons, the German vessel Vera has also taken on a complement of hundreds of indigent Cuban deportees who are being returned to Spain against their wishes. The central narrative thread of Ship of Fools belongs to the ship's doctor Willie Schumann (Oskar Werner), a disaffected man fully aware of his terminal heart disease and thoroughly weary of his wife, family and all else that the world has to offer. His outlook begins to shift when he encounters La Condesa (Simone Signoret), a kept woman with a drug addiction, whose dalliance with Spanish revolutionaries bought her deportation and imminent political imprisonment. Initially, the doctor quite correctly surmises that La Condesa's interest in him was fueled by his ability to meet her narcotics habit, but their unforced affinity for one another spurs depth of feeling that neither believed themselves able to still muster. Also preeminent on the passenger manifest is the wealthy divorcee Lucy Treadwell (Vivien Leigh), an aging Southern belle sadly still trying to play the coquette, and Bill Tenny (Lee Marvin), a loutish, hard-drinking baseball scout eternally bitter over the washout of his career in the majors. Rieber (Jose Ferrer), an overbearing entrepreneur and confirmed Nazi who shares anti-Semitic screed with anyone within earshot, has ironically been bunked with the unflappably amiable Jewish salesman Lowenthal (Heinz Ruhmann). Lowenthal comes to bond with Glocken, who is likewise shunted off as undesirable to the far recesses of the ship's dining area. Kramer and Mann rendered Lowenthal in a far more sympathetic light than Porter, in order to make him the narrative's lightning rod for dramatic irony ("There are a million Jews in Germany! What're they going to do...kill us all?") Rounding out the spotlighted players are a politically conscious young draftsman (George Segal) and his materially oriented girlfriend (Elizabeth Ashley), who are desperate to discover if they possess anything other than sexual heat that will sustain their relationship. Ship of Fools turned out to be Leigh's screen farewell, and given the precarious state of the British beauty's physical and mental health at the time of production, the accounting she gave for herself was that much more remarkable. While Kramer, who had coveted Leigh for the role of Mrs. Treadwell, was initially put off by the actress's demands, his respect deepened once he became aware of the depths of her problems. As he related to Hugo Vickers for Vivien Leigh (Hamish Hamilton), "She was ill, and the courage to go ahead, the courage to make the film-was almost unbelievable." While her spiked-heel rebuff of a drunken Marvin is one of the film's great set pieces, the actress had a low tolerance threshold for Marvin's penchant for showing up for his takes with "stale-Scotch breath," as reported in Anne Edwards' Vivien Leigh (Simon & Schuster). "In spite of it, they had a mutual admiration for each other. 'God, you have talent!,' she lauded him after the playing of their last scene together." In her memoir Nostalgia Isn't What It Used To Be (Harper & Row), Signoret recalled the dinner parties that Leigh would throw in 1964. "At the end of these evenings the phonograph played the theme from Gone With the Wind [1939]; it made her sad, but she did it deliberately...Ship of Fools was her last film, and she's prodigious in it." While a share of contemporary critics dismissed Ship of Fools as Grand Hotel (1932) afloat, the project was buoyed by the strong efforts of its players, and Ship of Fools garnered Oscars for cinematographer Ernest Laszlo and art directors Robert Clatworthy and Joseph Kish. An additional six nominations were deservedly earned by Werner, Signoret, Dunn, Kramer, Mann and costume designers Bill Thomas and Jean Louis. Producer: Stanley Kramer Director: Stanley Kramer Screenplay: Abby Mann, based on a novel by Katherine Anne Porter Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo Film Editing: Robert C. Jones Art Direction: Robert Clatworthy Music: Ernest Gold Cast: Vivien Leigh (Mary Treadwell), Simone Signoret (La Condesa), Jose Ferrer (Siegfried Rieber), Lee Marvin (Bill Tenny), Oskar Werner (Willie Schumann), Elizabeth Ashley (Jenny Brown). BW-150m. Closed captioning. by Jay Steinberg

TCM Remembers - Stanley Kramer


In High Noon (1952), a sheriff stands alone as the clock ticks down toward a deadly showdown. A World War II veteran is forced to come to terms with his paralyzed body in The Men (1950). On the front lines of battle, an African American soldier is hounded by racist comrades in the groundbreaking drama, Home of the Brave (1949).

With these films, Stanley Kramer built his reputation as a producer of important films. He made movies with a conscience, movies with a message. Although his films were sometimes criticized as being too simplistic in dealing with tough subjects, Kramer still deserves a great deal of credit for tackling sensitive subject matter no other director or studio wanted to address. His exploration of timely social issues is what makes his cinema unique and his recent passing leaves us with no one to fill his shoes.

Kramer learned his craft within Hollywood's studio system. He began as a production assistant on So Ends Our Night(1941) and was soon writing and editing. By the late forties, Kramer broke away from the studio hierarchy and formed an independent production company. Outside of the Hollywood system, he could tackle social issues head-on while producing well-crafted and meaningful dramas. In The New York Times obituary for Kramer, the director was quoted in accessing his own career and it's most appropriate here: "I decided that somewhere between the films on outer space and Sylvester Stallone, there is a place for me. I was always associated with films that had an opinion. I don't believe films change anyone's mind, but I was spawned during the Roosevelt era, a time of great change, and I still believe in trying to get people to think."

For his directorial debut, Not As A Stranger (1955), Kramer signed up the all-star cast of Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Olivia de Havilland and Gloria Grahame to reveal the trials and tribulations of doctors and nurses balancing medical school with their personal relationships. In The Defiant Ones (1958) shackled Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier together as escaped convicts. As they flee the law they're forced to confront each other's racism and ultimately discover that beneath their skin color, they are not so different. On the Beach (1959) was Kramer's anti-atom bomb polemic in which Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Anthony Perkins and Fred Astaire survive an initial nuclear holocaust only to face a slow, painful death from fallout.

From the arms race to Biblical scripture, the following year Kramer turned his attention to the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 in Inherit the Wind(1960). This famous courtroom trial was a true-life clash of the titans as Fredric March and Spencer Tracy face off on the issue of Evolution versus Creationism. Although names are changed, March gave a grandstanding performance as William Jennings Bryan, the mouthpiece for conservatism, while Tracy played Clarence Darrow, a tireless fighter for progressive thought.

Kramer's films were more than just entertainment; his stories were political platforms for the Civil Rights Movement, disarmament and liberal thinking. For audiences who thought the director couldn't take on an issue greater than the Scopes Monkey Trial, Kramer's next film would prove to be even more controversial. Again, Kramer booked a cast of Hollywood's hottest names to bring mass appeal to his very serious film.

In Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) Spencer Tracy presides over a German war-criminal trial which delves into the atrocities of the Nazi regime. Burt Lancaster sits smugly on the stand as Ernst Janning, an unrepentant officer of the Gestapo, as Maximilian Schell mounts his defense. Montgomery Clift, as a Jew subjected to a sterilization experiment, nervously submits his testimony. Judy Garland and Marlene Dietrich each take the stand. Hollywood's greatest stars came out to shed light on one of the darkest moments of the 20th century. The Academy responded with 11 nominations, including for Best Picture, Director, Actor (Tracy), Supporting Actor (Clift), Supporting Actress (Garland), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography and Editing. Schell won Best Actor for his dynamic performance as Herr Rolfe.

However, Stanley Kramer wasn't "Mr. Message Film" all the time. In a lighter moment, he produced the surrealist anti-fascist fantasy, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T(1953) in which he enlisted the talents of Dr. Seuss. More famously, he pooled the greatest comics together for an insane Cinerama screwball farce - It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).

By Jeremy Geltzer & Jeff Stafford

TCM Remembers - Stanley Kramer

In High Noon (1952), a sheriff stands alone as the clock ticks down toward a deadly showdown. A World War II veteran is forced to come to terms with his paralyzed body in The Men (1950). On the front lines of battle, an African American soldier is hounded by racist comrades in the groundbreaking drama, Home of the Brave (1949). With these films, Stanley Kramer built his reputation as a producer of important films. He made movies with a conscience, movies with a message. Although his films were sometimes criticized as being too simplistic in dealing with tough subjects, Kramer still deserves a great deal of credit for tackling sensitive subject matter no other director or studio wanted to address. His exploration of timely social issues is what makes his cinema unique and his recent passing leaves us with no one to fill his shoes. Kramer learned his craft within Hollywood's studio system. He began as a production assistant on So Ends Our Night(1941) and was soon writing and editing. By the late forties, Kramer broke away from the studio hierarchy and formed an independent production company. Outside of the Hollywood system, he could tackle social issues head-on while producing well-crafted and meaningful dramas. In The New York Times obituary for Kramer, the director was quoted in accessing his own career and it's most appropriate here: "I decided that somewhere between the films on outer space and Sylvester Stallone, there is a place for me. I was always associated with films that had an opinion. I don't believe films change anyone's mind, but I was spawned during the Roosevelt era, a time of great change, and I still believe in trying to get people to think." For his directorial debut, Not As A Stranger (1955), Kramer signed up the all-star cast of Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Olivia de Havilland and Gloria Grahame to reveal the trials and tribulations of doctors and nurses balancing medical school with their personal relationships. In The Defiant Ones (1958) shackled Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier together as escaped convicts. As they flee the law they're forced to confront each other's racism and ultimately discover that beneath their skin color, they are not so different. On the Beach (1959) was Kramer's anti-atom bomb polemic in which Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Anthony Perkins and Fred Astaire survive an initial nuclear holocaust only to face a slow, painful death from fallout. From the arms race to Biblical scripture, the following year Kramer turned his attention to the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 in Inherit the Wind(1960). This famous courtroom trial was a true-life clash of the titans as Fredric March and Spencer Tracy face off on the issue of Evolution versus Creationism. Although names are changed, March gave a grandstanding performance as William Jennings Bryan, the mouthpiece for conservatism, while Tracy played Clarence Darrow, a tireless fighter for progressive thought. Kramer's films were more than just entertainment; his stories were political platforms for the Civil Rights Movement, disarmament and liberal thinking. For audiences who thought the director couldn't take on an issue greater than the Scopes Monkey Trial, Kramer's next film would prove to be even more controversial. Again, Kramer booked a cast of Hollywood's hottest names to bring mass appeal to his very serious film. In Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) Spencer Tracy presides over a German war-criminal trial which delves into the atrocities of the Nazi regime. Burt Lancaster sits smugly on the stand as Ernst Janning, an unrepentant officer of the Gestapo, as Maximilian Schell mounts his defense. Montgomery Clift, as a Jew subjected to a sterilization experiment, nervously submits his testimony. Judy Garland and Marlene Dietrich each take the stand. Hollywood's greatest stars came out to shed light on one of the darkest moments of the 20th century. The Academy responded with 11 nominations, including for Best Picture, Director, Actor (Tracy), Supporting Actor (Clift), Supporting Actress (Garland), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography and Editing. Schell won Best Actor for his dynamic performance as Herr Rolfe. However, Stanley Kramer wasn't "Mr. Message Film" all the time. In a lighter moment, he produced the surrealist anti-fascist fantasy, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T(1953) in which he enlisted the talents of Dr. Seuss. More famously, he pooled the greatest comics together for an insane Cinerama screwball farce - It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). By Jeremy Geltzer & Jeff Stafford

Quotes

Trivia

Vivien Leigh's last film.

Miscellaneous Notes

Voted Best Actor (Werner) by the 1965 New York Film Critics.

Voted One of the Year's Ten Best Films by the 1965 National Board of Review.

Voted One of the Year's Ten Best Films by the 1965 New York Times Film Critics.

Released in United States August 1, 1965

Released in United States Summer July 28, 1965

Released in USA on video

Vivien Leigh's last film.

Released in United States Summer July 28, 1965

Released in United States August 1, 1965 (New York City)