Ship of Fools (1965) on Netflix
In 1933 an ocean liner carries first-class passengers and 600 deported laborers from Veracruz to Germany. Its medical officer, Dr. Schumann, is drawn to La Condesa, a countess being deported.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb7.0/107,831 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes60%
Trailer
Plot summary
Bound from Veracruz to Bremerhaven in 1933, a liner carries first-class passengers above and 600 field workers deported to Spain in steerage. Rieber, a German businessman, praises nationalism and eugenics at the captain's table. The medical officer, Dr. Schumann, becomes absorbed in La Condesa, a countess with an opium addiction who is being sent to a prison in Tenerife and who is cheered by the workers as she comes aboard under police escort. The Jewish passenger Lowenthal and Glocken, a dwarf, are seated at a side table and talk about their exclusion. David, an American painter, is discouraged by his lack of success, and Jenny, his companion, dislikes his unsellable art. Mary Treadwell, a divorced woman who hopes to find her youth again in Paris, is joined at her table by the former ballplayer Bill Tenny.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Ship of Fools (1965)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Vivien Leigh's paranoia during Ship of Fools caused outbursts that damaged her relationships with the cast, though Simone Signoret and Lee Marvin were understanding; in one scene she hit Lee Marvin with a spiked shoe hard enough to bruise his face.
- When filming ended, screenwriter Mann reportedly held a party for almost the entire cast and crew except Gila Golan, whose performance he was reputedly unhappy with.
- Katherine Anne Porter's only novel, the source of the film, was the culmination of a 20-year project drawn from her reminiscences of a 1931 ocean cruise she had taken from Veracruz to Germany.
