SnoopyStyle It's 1939 Germany right before the war. The Nazis have sent the MS St. Louis off to carry 937 Jewish refugees to Cuba as propaganda. The passengers range from the rich, to the poor, and the fearful prosecuted. The ship itself and its services are luxurious. Captain Schroeder (Max von Sydow) is not a party member and works to help the passengers. Nazi operative Otto Schiendick is inserted into the crew and ferments dissent. Upon arrival in Cuba, only 28 are allowed to disembark while the others' visas are invalidated retroactively. Schroeder tries to find sanctuary in America and Canada to no avail, and is forced to return to Europe.The cast is stuffed and overloaded with class A actors. The movie is trying to follow too many people. It leaves the intensity low and the story scattered. It moves too slowly and is too long. It's a great historical epic of human failings. It's too bad that the movie isn't better. The subject matter deserves it.

Robert J. Maxwell 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.

Neil Doyle There is such a thing as too much of a good thing--but nobody seemed to realize this when overloading the ship with star names and then giving them little to do. Although based on a true incident, VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED gives the subject a sprawling Hollywood treatment and does what "Ship of Fools" did to Katherine Anne Porter's intriguing novel.At least MAX VON SYDOW gets to be dynamic as the captain and has the appropriate amount of star footage, but others--like JAMES MASON, JULIE HARRIS and WENDY HILLER--are gone before they can do much.However, the film's chief fault is the running time--well over two hours without ever building up the tension when the fate of the passengers should be pumping up audience interest in the outcome. The story takes a dramatic turn when the Jewish passengers are denied entry into Cuba and must return to their homeland unless the captain can come up with a better plan.FAYE DUNAWAY makes a stunning impression and LEE GRANT got an Oscar nomination for her strong supporting role, but others in the large cast come and go in an indifferent manner--except for OSKAR WERNER, who seems to be doing a repeat of his role in "Ship of Fools" as the ship's doctor and is as earnest as ever.Too bad the storyline couldn't have been trimmed to give the film a tighter length. As it is, it just seems to make its point of man's inhumanity to man without subtlety. Just misses being a more significant film.

JasparLamarCrabb A true gem particularly when one considers the potentially campy casting of Faye Dunaway, Max Von Sydow, Malcolm McDowell, Jose Ferrer and the late model Orson Welles. Nevertheless, VOTD is surprisingly heartfelt as it tells the hopeless story of German Jews set a drift on a luxury liner during WWII. No country will have them although Cuba makes a half-hearted and ultimately politically corrupted attempt.Dunaway is terrific as the socialite wife of once distinguished doctor Oskar Werner. Von Sydow plays the ship's captain and he gives a strong performance. Jonathan Pryce, James Mason, Ben Gazzara, and Wendy Hiller are in it too. Sam Wanamaker is excellent as the ship's angriest passenger who gives his wife Lee Grant a real run for her money. Katherine Ross has a highly disposable cameo as a hooker. Directed, with surprising flair, by Stuart Rosenberg.