Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

It’s been about a week since I’ve seen Ship of Fools, Stanley Kramer’s 1965 film. Now, normally my memories of anything fade blissfully from my brain at a rapid pace, so my recollection of anything, including a film, becomes a little hazy, no matter how much I would like to give a solid rendering of my viewing experience. My experience with Ship of Fools is no exception, yet I don’t think it matters so much, as Ship of Fools is a movie that doesn’t seem to offer a whole lot on its end to really necessitate complete remembrance of it.

The movie could, derisively, be described as a black-and-white version of an episode of the Love Boat (of course, this is being said from someone who vaguely remembers the program when very young), except in this version, the setting is in the early 1930’s, and the boat is German, containing mainly German passengers, but with a couple of Americans (in the form of Hollywood supporting actors such as George Segal, Elizabeth Ashley, and Lee Marvin, as well as a star turn by Vivian Leigh). Also, while love is in the air for many of the passengers and crew, there is also the haunting specter of the Nazi party, as espoused by Jose Ferrer’s character.

The entire movie takes place on this ship, in a journey from Mexico to Germany. Besides the regular crew and passengers, the ship is forced to take on hundreds of Mexican peasants, who are being deported (forget if it’s to Cuba or Spain), apparently for something to do with some sort of workers grievances (I forget; it’s been a week and I forgot to take notes). One of the more political aspirations of this film is to show how the ship (and therefore... society?) treats people of different ethnic groups and classes -- while the Germans and Americans get all the fancy treatment, the poor Mexicans are all huddled on the decks, and actually have to sleep there. I don’t think any Mexicans or Spanish (except for the dance troupes that entertain the guests during the film) are depicted as ever hanging around first-class.

A few fairly interesting relationship stories are shown to us; the most fulfilling, screen-time-wise, involves the ship’s doctor (Oskar Werner) and a French activist (Simone Signoret) who is being deported, and is being sent to prison. Werner’s character, at this time, is unsatisfied with his life -- he plans to quit his job, and go back to his family practice in Germany. It is also suggested that he’s not particularly happy with his family life (with wife and two sons). And, in meeting this woman, he is meeting someone who he sees as having done something with her life, who is emotional and passionate, while he, himself, is a cold, logical, practical man. That contrast is made significant in a scene where Signoret’s character plays a joke on him by reading him a bedtime story. She is in fact reading from one his medical journals, but, instead of reading the text, she recites passages from D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterly’s Lover.

Another major relationship in the movie involves Segal and Ashley’s characters. Segal is a poor, struggling artist, who is also very much of the liberal, socially-concious variety -- which bugs his girlfriend, although she does her best to disguise it. Basically, Segal’s character appears of the mind that women must be the man’s shadow -- he says that she must be prepared to accept his art, his beliefs, everything else, yet isn’t willing to give that same courtesy towards her. Whenever she does dare to express her feelings about life -- and about his art -- the relationship is soured.

The most obvious thread in a film about a German ship in the 1930’s has to do with the fact that, at this time, Germany is under the sway of the Nazi Party. Jose Ferrer’s character is a card-carrying member, and makes speeches about how all undesirable people (such as the sick, elderly, Jews....) should be done away with. He’s also responsible for alienating other German passengers, when discovering their connections with Jewish people. Yet, even with all his scary talk, Ferrer’s character is an almost comical figure - he gets cranky when he is forced to bunk with a polite, easygoing Jewish salesman, and is carrying on a extramarital dalliance with a young, bosomy German girl. He’d almost be a pleasent amusement if he weren’t a Nazi -- of course, the point may well be that this guy isn’t really an evil man, but someone who, like many others, was hypotised by Hitler and his ideas. Ferrer plays him as someone less than authoritative -- more like a misguided buffoon who shouldn’t be taken seriously, although history proved that, unfortunately, many people did take him very seriously, resulting in a horrible price.

Ship of Fools isn’t a terrible movie by any means. It just wasn’t all that interesting to me. Maybe it was the wrong day for me, who knows. But the movie just didn’t seem to go anywhere. It was just two and a half hours on a ship. This movie was based on a novel, so I suppose the novel is probably a little more descriptive and has more depth -- Kramer probably intended to make a respectable adaptation of a bestseller, and he has succeeded. I just didn’t care for it all that much.

I think that perhaps if there were less storylines, we could get a better grasp of the movie overall. There are a lot of characters and little stories, and while many of them are fine, perhaps less is indeed more. I, for one, didn’t really get a lot of satisfaction out of Lee Marvin’s or Vivian Leigh’s segments, not compared to Werner and Signoret. Marvin’s acting is interesting -- his character is apparently an alcoholic former baseball player, but Marvin himself seems to be drunk half the time, so maybe the alcoholic part wasn’t actually in the script. While Leigh’s character does have some good moments, her storyline involving her and an attentive member of the crew isn’t all that special. However, I must say that there’s a bit of a gleeful pleasure I got in seeing Leigh belting a drunk Marvin repeatedly near the end of the film.

There are some good parts and interesting actors too, of course. One of the characters that I didn’t mention is a dwarf. The dwarf actually is a pretty good actor, and is the one who introduces and closes the film for us -- he tries to tell us that you might see a little of yourself in this ship of fools. The whole affair between the ship doctor and the French lady could make a movie of its own, as it has that bittersweet tragedy about it all. Another interesting thing is the fact that this movie was made during the end of the black-and-white era. 1965 is pretty late in the game for a major black-and-white movie, and by 1967 or so, virtually everything was in color -- only specific films like The Last Picture Show, Raging Bull, or Schindler’s List would be seen in black and white.

Overall, Ship of Fools is, while not foolish, a huge, heavy, overbuilt affair that may be good for those who like soap opera, but isn’t particularly brilliant. It gets three stars for what it does, but nothing more.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day