The tone of the incipient voyage is set by the cynical dwarf Glocken (Michael Dunn), who serves a Greek chorus function by addressing the camera and apprising the audience of the "ship of fools" they are about to encounter. In the hands of socially-conscious director Stanley Kramer, scenarist Abby Mann, and a diverse, accomplished international cast, Ship of Fools (1965) became one of the finest ensemble pieces of the period, and remains a compelling viewing experience today. Selznick jumped into the bidding for the film rights before he had even finished the book, but he could not top the $400,000 tag that United Artists had placed upon the property. Twenty years in the writing, Porter drew upon a 1931 ocean cruise she had taken from Vera Cruz to Germany, and crafted a compelling allegory for a world populace drifting inexorably toward global conflict. ![]() In 1962, the celebrated American short story author and essayist Katherine Anne Porter published her first and only novel. Schumann, who died of a heart attack after La Condesa's departure. All disembark at Bremerhaven, except for La Condesa, who had landed earlier at an island prison, and Dr. Jenny consoles Elsa, a Swiss girl who despairs of ever being found attractive, and Lowenthal assures her of her desirability. Graf's nephew, Johann, has an abbreviated affair with a young prostitute who is traveling with a Spanish dance group led by her pimp, Pepe. Graf, an evangelist, causes a riot among the laborers when he preaches. Treadwell, an aging divorcée, flirts and drinks in a desperate attempt to forget her loneliness. David and Jenny, a young unmarried American couple, quarrel because David, a painter, is unhappy living on his wife's income. ![]() Bill Tenny, an ex-baseball player, feels that his life is a failure because he could not hit an outside curve. Schumann, the ship's doctor, who is suffering from a fatal heart condition, is tending La Condesa, a drug-addicted Spanish noblewoman being shipped to prison on charges of agitating for social reform, and they fall in love. ![]() Later, the two outcasts are joined by Freytag, when he is found to be married to a Jewess. The Germans, including the anti-Semite Rieber, are privileged to sit at the captain's table, except for Lowenthal, a Jew, and Glocken, a dwarf. In 1933, a German ocean liner bound for Bremerhaven leaves Vera Cruz with a variety of well-off passengers and a group of Spanish laborers who are being repatriated.
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