Voyage of the Damned (1976)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

An ambitious effort to tell the true story of SS St.Louis in May-June 1939 on a cruise to Cuba with only Jewish German passengers as a Nazi propaganda display in all its polyphonic complexity, has above all succeeded in rendering and making the horrible sadness about it real. Sam Wanamaker takes the lead as the most desperate of them all, who, when it becomes clear that they were sent to Cuba only to be returned to certain death in Germany, tries to kill himself jumping over board, while Max von Sydow stands for some uprightness and honor in a hopeless situation, Oskar Werner and Faye Dunaway make a nice couple of some refinement and elegance but with their integrity sadly lost, Orson Welles dominates the corruption in Havana, Ben Gazzara is the indefatigable fighter for some human rights where there are none, and we have the tragedy of the steward (Malcolm McDowell) and his tragic love, and of course the Nazi villains, apart form other outstanding actors like James Mason, Julie Harris, Maria Schell, Wendy Hiller, Jonathan Pryce, Katharine Ross, Denholm Elliott as Admiral Canaris and many others. Still the film is not overloaded with stardom, but they are all almost discreet, dwarfed by the overwhelming tragedy of the drama situation. What adds very much to the quality of the film is how the music is composed - the very sensitive and adequate but still discreet music of Lalo Schifrin is contrasted with very typical and catchy dance music of the times, Cuban rumbas, Glenn Miller, Strauss waltzes and things like that, illustrating the grotesqueness of the cruel Nazi practical joke on ordinary and innocent Jewish Germans who are kept completely unknowing of what grim play they are being used in. The film is very conscientiously made in an evident effort to strike at the completeness of the indescribable sadness of the inhuman fake luxury cruise, which effort definitely has succeeded.

Stanley Kramer's "Ship of Fools" was an entertaining story of a congeries of disparate characters aboard a German cruise ship in the 1930s. It must have been a success because this negligible film is a shameless and bathetic rip off. This time, the entire ship's passenger list is Jewish and they suffer crisis after crisis. The fact that German Jews in 1939 were actually suffering those crises makes this blatantly commercial attempt at exploitation a cheapening of the historical experience.It really IS a rip off. I mean, that's not rhetoric. Oskar Werner plays a doctor in both movies. Jose Ferrer is cheerfully villainous in both. There is a liaison between a member of the crew and a desperate passenger in both. There is a costume party in both. There's the familiar rabid Nazi commisar whose job is to keep an eye on party loyalty among the crew. It reminds me of the way cars are remodeled year by year, a bit of new chrome here, a set of new tail lights there, all in an attempt to cash in on novelty.Nice cast, though. Not just expensive Hollywood actors -- in fact, no leading stars at all -- but a lot of competent supporting players, some of whom have made careers out of gracing the screen for a few moments with superb performances. Orson Welles is on hand, as are Max von Sydow, Malcolm MacDowell, Lee Grant, and the endless list of recognizable faces that these kinds of films require. The budget must have been sizable. Faye Dunaway appears in a costume that looks like a copy of John Singer Sargent's Madame X. Add a black choker. The wardrobe is emblematic of the whole enterprise. Copy something and then add a few disguising touches.But it's still tragedy played for lower middle-brows who will weep generous tears as the director manipulates their sentimentality and rakes in the shekels. The director is Stuart Rosenberg. I can't imagine how he managed to turn out a magnificent movie like "Cool Hand Luke." This stuff is all in your face.I don't like propaganda movies in general regardless of their source region. They don't really convert anyone or change already existing sentiments. Most attitudes follow the usual bell-shaped curve, with the overwhelming majority of people occupying the middle part -- ignorant or indifferent or genuinely moderate -- with a few extremists at either end. But I suspect that movies like this, carrying the heavy burden of an "important" social message, will reach respondents that form a rarer U-shaped curve. Those who are already sympathetic to the message will applaud it. Those who aren't, will dismiss it bitterly as the kind of propaganda they've come to expect from Hollywood. So, if it isn't going to improve our souls, what is its purpose, aside from commercial success? A rite of intensification for those of us who agree with its message. The people who made the movie know which side the angels are on, and so do we. It allows us to despise those who don't. I'm afraid movies like this generate as much hatred as empathy.I'd watch "Ship of Fools" again any time, but not this. It shows nothing that we didn't know or guess before. The fact that it resembles a genuine historical incident is irrelevant. I don't mean to seem, well, carried away but I do wish there had been some understatement here. I suppose it would be too much to ask for a little poetry too.

Phenomenal and grossly under-rated film dealing with 937 Jewish people allowed to flee the terror of Nazi Germany in 1939 by going on the St. Louis which was bound for Havana.The truth be told, the Nazis had no intention of allowing the boat to land successfully. Rather they were going to use this trip to show that no one wanted the Jews and therefore when they would destroy them, no one would care or have the right to care.The picture has a terrific cast in this ill-fated adventure.For a second time, Oskar Werner, so memorable as the Dr. Willie in "Ship of Fools," plays another doctor, but this time a Jewish one. Along with his wife,Faye Dunaway, they are passengers. Of course, it's hard to fathom Miss Dunaway as Jewish.Sam Wanamaker and Lee Grant are a couple fleeing from persecution by the Gestapo. Grant's acting in a pivotal scene by cutting off her hair was Oscar made,and while she received the only acting nomination in the film, she lost to Beatrice Straight's "Network." It should also be noted that Straight's time on the screen was even more brief that Grant. Grant's brief performance was probably her best, even better than in "Shampoo," the film that gave her the supporting Oscar the year before.While the boat is drifting along, we see the players in Cuba either desperately trying to help the unfortunate Jews or corrupt officials in the Cuban government who played along with the Nazis for their own selfish economic interests.Wendy Hiller and Luther Adler have their moments as an elderly Jewish couple. It's also hard to conceive Hiller as Jewish until she rips her garment in the traditional way when a death occurs. Hard to envision a Jewish funeral at sea with the Nazi swastika swerving on the ship.Ben Gazzara is brilliant as a Jewish operative desperately trying to free the passengers. He goes all over the world and uncovers nothing more than frustration. Only a last minute reprieve saved the passengers from returning to Germany. Many of those however wound up perishing in countries invaded by Germany during the war.This brilliant film serves as a reminder to the moral decay of the 1930s and that nations did little to stop the Nazi menace from the killing of 6 million innocents.It is amazing that this film does not rank up there with "Ship of Fools," or even "Schindler's List."

Usually, it seems like whenever a movie has a giant cast, then that's the movie's only strength. "Voyage of the Damned" did have more to it than simply its cast. Faye Dunaway, Oskar Werner, Orson Welles, Max Von Sydow, Jonathan Pryce, Malcolm McDowell, Lee Grant, James Mason, and a bunch of other big names star in this true story of a ship that left Nazi Germany bound for Cuba. The passengers were German Jews who believed that they were on their way to freedom in Cuba, but realized when they arrived that there was never any plan to set them free.Maybe the cast does overshadow the plot, but it's still worth seeing. The movie is out of print, so you might have trouble finding it. Portland's Movie Madness has a copy, in case you ever come to Portland.