Ship of Fools 1965

type: Movie

language: English

duration: 149 min

genre: drama

theme: psychological drama

director: Stanley Kramer

Score: 5 / 10

Ship of Fools is a 1965 American drama film directed by Stanley Kramer, set on board an ocean liner bound for Germany from Mexico in 1933. It stars a prominent ensemble cast of 11 stars — Vivien Leigh (in her final film role), Simone Signoret, Jose Ferrer, Lee Marvin, Oskar Werner, Elizabeth Ashley, George Segal, Jose Greco, Michael Dunn, Charles Korvin and Heinz Ruehmann. It also marked Christiane Schmidtmer's first U.S. production filmed in Black and white to Technicolor (The Wizard of Oz).

Plot

The ship's medical officer, Dr. Schumann, takes a special interest in , a Spanish countess being deported from Cuba who has an opiate addiction which he reluctantly accommodates with prescriptions. Under arrest, she is being transported to a Spanish prison on the Canary Island of Tenerife for illegally hiding and helping arm agitators. The 600 laborers in steerage, deported to Spain because of the low market price of Cuban sugar, cheer the activist Condesa as she boards the ship under police escort. The Condesa reveals to the doctor that she was motivated by seeing the impoverished conditions under which the 5,000 laborers lived, under "patronage" of the man with whom she lived in luxury, supported by their labor. While she manipulates the doctor to cope with her sense of doom, her activism is in sympathy with the doctor's humanitarian insistence that the laborers in steerage be treated like human beings rather than cargo. Their shared sympathies soon evolve into love, though both realize it is a hopeless passion. The doctor conceals having a heart condition.

Awards

Cast

More details

author	Abby Mann Katherine Anne Porter
award	Academy Award for Best Art Direction, Black and White Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
contentLocation	Atlantic Ocean
director	Stanley Kramer
editor	Robert C. Jones
events	antisemitism fascism seamanship
genre	drama
keywords	activism activist agitator aktion t4 american art anti-semitic baseball player blackball bremerhaven buy canary island canary islands caregiver civil guard count cry cuba disability divorce dwarf dwarfism estranged wife exploitation of labour exterminating the unfit at birth fade fight flamenco force garbage dump germany has been good for the jews and the jews have been good for germany heart attack heart condition help hide his party history of the jews in germany human being impoverish invalid iron cross kill all of us learn lynch market economy market price married mischievous children national greatness nationalism nazi nazism nothing nuremberg laws open opiate addiction opioid use disorder patronage pimp police escort procure revolutionary rocky relationship ship of fools shoah social exclusion spain spanish speaks directly to camera special interest steerage stereotypes of jews tenerife think time out too detrimental for his career travel world war i wwi
musicBy	Ernest Gold
nomination	Academy Award for Best Actor Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Art Direction, Black and White Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White Academy Award for Best Picture Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
producer	Stanley Kramer
productionCompany	Stanley Kramer Productions
publisher	Columbia Pictures Corporation
theme	psychological drama