“Ship of Fools” it may be, but it is also a Ship of Stars: Oscar Werner, Vivien Leigh, Lee Marvin, Simone Signoret, Jose Ferrer, Elizabeth Ashley, George Segal, and Michael Dunn. Directed by St...

“Ship of Fools” it may be, but it is also a Ship of Stars: Oscar Werner, Vivien Leigh, Lee Marvin, Simone Signoret, Jose Ferrer, Elizabeth Ashley, George Segal, and Michael Dunn. Directed by Stanley Kramer, this 1965 film deals with a German ship heading to its port in Bremerhaven in 1933 and the lives of some of its passengers. Dunn speaks to the audience at the beginning and end of the film, telling us at first that it is a ship of fools and that we may find ourselves in some of the characters. This is one of the best all-star casts ever assembled, the performances are as magnificent as the film is relentlessly depressing, with a Jewish man put at a table with a dwarf, while at the captain’s table, another man preaches about the new Germany and extermination of Jews, the elderly, and those who are not fit. We have to believe, though “Ship of Fools” is downbeat, that it leaves us with some hope.. But for all of the passengers, a certain way of life has ended, and they won’t be going back. One of the great films of the ‘60s.