“Ship of Fools” is a drama film about a diverse group of passengers aboard a cruise ship traveling from Germany to Mexico in 1933. Director Stanley Kramer (“It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” 1963) put together a tightly directed and engrossing film which seems shorter than its two-hour-and-thirty minute running time. A great screenplay by Abby Mann helped, which was adapted from the 1962 novel by Katherine Anne Porter.
Kramer got some good performances out of the cast. This includes Vivien Leigh as a aging widow that we cannot help but imagine is an old Scarlett O’Hara (this was Leigh’s final film before her passing in 1967), Lee Marvin plays a washed-up baseball player, George Segal & Elizabeth Ashley are a couple trying to decide whether or not to break up, Simone Signoret is a criminal headed to prison, Jose Ferrer is a Nazi sympathizer, Oskar Werner is the ship’s doctor with quite a bed-side manner, Jose Greco is the head of a Spanish dance group, Werner Klemperer (of “Hogan Heroes” fame) is one of the ship’s officers, along with co-stars Charles Korvin, Barbara Luna, Gila Golan, Stanley Adams, Karen Verne, Michael Dunn, and Henry Calvin, well known as Sgt. Garcia on Walt Disney’s television show “Zorro” (1957-1959).
The watchable movie “Ship of Fools” was not always smooth sailing but was successful at the box office for producer Stanley Kramer, Stanley Kramer Productions, and Columbia Pictures. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won two: Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography, Black & White. “Ship of Fools” was filmed in both Black & White and in Technicolor.
Ship of Fools (1965)
cinema
My Review
“Ship of Fools” is a drama film about a diverse group of passengers aboard a cruise ship traveling from Germany to Mexico in 1933. Director Stanley Kramer (“It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” 1963) put together a tightly directed and engrossing film which seems shorter than its two-hour-and-thirty minute running time. A great screenplay by Abby Mann helped, which was adapted from the 1962 novel by Katherine Anne Porter.
Kramer got some good performances out of the cast. This includes Vivien Leigh as a aging widow that we cannot help but imagine is an old Scarlett O’Hara (this was Leigh’s final film before her passing in 1967), Lee Marvin plays a washed-up baseball player, George Segal & Elizabeth Ashley are a couple trying to decide whether or not to break up, Simone Signoret is a criminal headed to prison, Jose Ferrer is a Nazi sympathizer, Oskar Werner is the ship’s doctor with quite a bed-side manner, Jose Greco is the head of a Spanish dance group, Werner Klemperer (of “Hogan Heroes” fame) is one of the ship’s officers, along with co-stars Charles Korvin, Barbara Luna, Gila Golan, Stanley Adams, Karen Verne, Michael Dunn, and Henry Calvin, well known as Sgt. Garcia on Walt Disney’s television show “Zorro” (1957-1959).
The watchable movie “Ship of Fools” was not always smooth sailing but was successful at the box office for producer Stanley Kramer, Stanley Kramer Productions, and Columbia Pictures. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won two: Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography, Black & White. “Ship of Fools” was filmed in both Black & White and in Technicolor.