A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

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")

This Soaper is a stirring story dealing with a dramatic as well as tragic voyage ; displaying a stellar cast formed by Hollywood actors and notorious German players . It's an enjoyable but overlong screen rendition based on Katherine Anne Porter novel of the same name . In 1933 (during election of 1933, in which the National Socialist German Workers Party received 43.9% of the overall vote, an increase of 10.8% on the previous election) , a varied and vast group of passengers on a ship en route from Mexico to Germany represent society at large in that era . Carrying hundreds of Spanish refugees , German (Heinz Ruhmann was not Jewish but he was a very rabid anti-Nazi and anxious to play the part) and Jewish people that seemingly are destined to certain doom . The crew is German , including Capt. Thiele (Charles Korvin) , Lt. Huebner (Werner Klemperer) and doctor Schumann (Oskar Werner features most memorable acting) who falls in love with one of the passengers , the neurotic Contessa (Simone Signoret) . Furthermore , the once famous but now a disappointed and despairing divorcée named Mary Treadwell (Vivien Leigh's last film , she replaced Katharine Hepburn who was first choice for the aging Southern belle, but because of Spencer Tracy's bad health she opted to continue to care for him), a punchy as well as forceful baseball player (Lee Marvin) and a wise dwarf (Michael Dunn) . A young American woman, Jenny (Elizabeth Ashley) , is traveling with the man she loves, David (George Segal) . The passengers have mixed emotions about their voyage , some are happy about freedom , some are sad to leave their homeland, some become involved into illicit loves and some are angry about their next fates . Some of the crew (Jose Ferrer) , those that sympathize with the Nazis , are also angry that authorities would allow Jews to sail to freedom and are bigotries about having to share place with their inferior passengers .This is a penetrating drama with all-star-cast gives superb interpretation and realized in ¨Grand hotel¨ at sea style . Special mention to the extraordinary couple acting as illicit lovers magnificently played by Simone Signoret and Oskar Werner who would make a similar film 11 years later ,¨Voyage of the damned¨ by Stuart Rosenberg , also was about a boatload of refugees heading back to Germany before the outbreak of the Second World War ; it would prove to be Werner's final film . The picture is overlong and a little boring ; being occasionally interesting . Picture almost dissolves into separate stories but ship's captain and doctor hold it together . It deservedly won Academy Award for art direction (Robert Clatworthy , Joseph Kish) and cinematography (Ernest Laszlo) .This old-fashioned motion picture was well produced and directed by Stanley Kramer . He directed 14 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances .He was a notorious producer and director who gave big successes . Kramer formed his own production company in 1947, in conjunction with Carl Foreman . He had a reputation for being frugal, working well within his budgetary limitations . Many of his films reflected social or political concerns and were often controversial . Stanley was consequently tagged as a "message film maker" and "Hollywood's Conscience" . Among his most popular films are : The pride and the Passion¨, ¨On the beach¨, ¨ Judgment at Nuremberg¨, ¨Ship of fools¨, ¨World is mad , mad ,mad¨ and ¨Guess Who's Coming to Dinner¨ . Rating : Acceptable and interesting drama . Worthwhile watching

Big topic producer, director Stanley Kramer deals with the calm before the storm in this cruise as microcosm of 30's social and political upheaval. Kramer known for getting fine performances (On the Beach, Judgement at Nurembourg) from large all star casts does not disappoint here and Ship of Fools is mostly smooth sailing.A ship sets sail from Mexico en route to Germany with a diverse passenger list from all walks of life stretching from royalty on the upper deck to humble peasants in steerage. Most carry steamer trunk sized emotional baggage as well and in the course of the cruise a storm of venal interplay that also involves crew members makes for choppy seas.Kramer and his writer Abby Mann much of the time sacrifice character for symbolism to magnify the impending cataclysm of WW ll; typified by the bellicose Aryan played by Jose Ferrer extolling the superiority of the Fatherland as he surreptitiously attempts to undermine the presence of a German Jew on the voyage with petty plots to humiliate him. But in spite of Kramer's renowned heavy hand at focusing on the societal implications there are some touching, tragic, comic and personal relationships beautifully rendered by an outstanding cast. Oskar Werner, Simone Signoret, Vivien Leigh (in her last film role) Lee Marvin and Michael Dunn are standout in the major roles while Charles Korvin and Werner Klempler register memorable brief scenes.Ship of Fools is more of a 30's than 60's film with it's large all star cast (think Grand Hotel) with little room for derivation and improvisation that would inform the style of the era it was about to enter. It lumbers at times with some characters, such as the insipid bickering between young American lovers played by George Segal and Liz Ashley but overall Ship of Fools quality acting makes it worth boarding.

Alec Wilder, discussing the songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein said that he felt almost obligated to don Evening Dress before listening to them and the same may be said about the movies of Stanley Kramer; this is a guy who doesn't do confections or soufflé's, only Social Significance. When we speak of the Lubitsch 'touch' we envisage a snowflake fashioned from gossamer, if there were, God forbid, a Kramer 'touch' it would surely be a sledgehammer rampant on a field of moral tracts. Viewers who had read the best-selling novel by Katherine Ann Porter - best known for the short story rather than the novel - would have known what to expect but what of the good burghers of Upper Sandusky or Peoria who might, quite reasonably, take a gander at the title and figure Marx Brothers - Stateroom - on hard-boiled egg. Never fear, Kramer has it covered, step forward Michael Dunn to top-and-tail it via pieces direct to camera. Given that he is, as he is allowed to say himself (AH, those far-off days of non-PC, where are they now) a dwarf, there's an impish part of me that thinks as a Talking Head this is ridiculous given that there's not much else of him. Be that as it may he tells us that this is, indeed, a ship of fools and even manages to make it sound as though it means something. The cruise ship in question is en route from Vera Cruz to Bremerhaven and the passengers are mostly German returning to their homeland (there's a nod somewhere in there to the reverse traffic in 1945 when Nazi war criminals were fleeing to the relative safety of South America but don't reach for it, you'll risk nosebleed. Porter set her novel in 1932 but Kramer moves it forward one year because, wait for it, kiddies, 1933 was the year Hitler became Chancellor, now, how about THAT for SIGNIFICANCE. What we have here, of course, is a Microcosm, a Grand Hotel with a keel, of you will - or even if you won't, and the movie Grand Hotel came out in 1932. You could, of course, do this sort of stuff all day but sooner or later you have to get around to the cast. In what was destined to be her last film Vivien Leigh draws top billing but is blown away by Simone Signoret with second billing and a shade more screen time. In fact with about eighteen minutes tops on screen Signoret leaves everyone dead in the water and you don't know how good it feels to be able to use this phrase in a context that is actually applicable, she even makes Osker Werner look good. Lee Marvin gives the impression he's in another film altogether whilst George Segal and Jose Ferrer phone it it. Ironically for a guy who doesn't do frivolous Kramer throws in an ending right out of musical comedy as the remaining passengers (Signoret disembarked en route) walk down the gangplank in Bremerhaven to the accompaniment of an OOM-PAH Band. You couldn't make it up. Ten out of ten for Signoret, six for everything else.