Ship of FoolsBased on the hefty novel by Porter, this adaptation weighs in at 149 minutes and is rather heavy weather. It interweaves stories of a cross-section of people on board a ship sailing from Vera Cruz to Bremerhaven in 1933 and is full of heavily ironic and symbolic allusions to the rise of Nazism. The film's interest lies in the excellent cast, including Ferrer as an anti-Semite, Signoret on drugs, Werner a 'good German', Marvin a drunken ex-baseball player and Leigh as a sad divorcee, in her final screen role (she died 1967). The dwarf Dunn was nominated for an Oscar in the role of Glocken.
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