Review of Ship of Fools

In 1933, a German passenger vessel leaves Veracruz, Mexico to navigate to Cuba, Tenerife, Spain and Bremerhaven, Germany as final destination along twenty-six days. The Captain Thiele (Charles Korvin) is a good friend of the ship's doctor Wilhelm Schumann (Oskar Werner), who has a serious heart problem. The first-class passengers are the lonely American Mary Treadwell (Vivien Leigh); the bigoted Siegfried Rieber (Jose Ferrer) that woos the futile Lizzi Spoekenkieker (Christiane Schmidtmer); the rude American player Bill Tenny (Lee Marvin); the aspiring painter David (George Segal) and his girlfriend Jenny (Elizabeth Ashley) that financially supports him; the gypsy dancer Pepe (Jose Greco) and his troupe of prostitutes posing of dancers; the dwarf Karl Glocken (Michael Dunn); the Jew Julius Lowenthal (Heinz Ruehmann); the German Freytag (Alf Kjellin) that was married to a Jewish woman; and a weird couple that treats their dog as a son.

In Cuba, Spanish sugar farm laborers embark to travel to Tenerife and are left in steerage. La Condesa (Simone Signoret) also embarks accused of treachery and soon Dr. Schumann and she fall in love with each other. Along the journey, the best and the worst of each passenger is disclosed.

"Ship of Fools" is a messy soap opera about impossible love, prejudice and other things. The story has several senseless subplots, most of them boring or silly, basically trying to show the basis of the Nazi Party. The outstanding cast deserved a better screenplay. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Nau dos Insensatos" ("The Ship of the Unwise")