Truly Dreadful Film

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Good grief, what were editors Tom Priestley and Desmond Saunders doing when they compiled Voyage of the Damned? The film ended up being two and a half hours, and it easily could have been ninety minutes. Each scene was painfully slow; each shot could have been cut shorter or eliminated to get to the meat of the movie quicker.I could say that without the slow pacing of the film it would have been entertaining, but not only is that a useless "what if", but it wouldn't be true. Most of the acting in this film is extremely over-the-top, from the leads to the extras in the background. It's a true story about the "good will" voyage in 1939, during which Germany sent 937 Jewish refugees to Cuba, and the disasters the political climate took on the passengers. As in all disaster movies, there's an all star cast with equally brief screen times, giving the audience a taste of their various plights to make them endearing. Faye Dunaway, Oskar Werner, Lee Grant, Sam Wanamaker, Lynne Frederick, Wendy Hiller, Luther Adler, Julie Harris, Maria Schell, Nehemiah Persoff, and many others make up the passenger list; Max Von Sydow, Helmut Griem, and Malcom McDowell are the featured members of the crew. In Cuba, other movie stars provide cameos, including Orson Welles, Ben Gazzara, Katharine Ross, Denholm Elliott, Jose Ferrer, and James Mason. The basic premise of the story is interesting from a historical perspective, about the bigwigs in Cuba, the United States, and Germany, but those portions of the film are brief compared to the different families' on the ship screen time. With exception to the absolutely adorable romance between Lynne Frederick and Malcom McDowell, everyone else on board irritated me to no end. As sweet and darling as the young couple were, they didn't take up two and a half hours and therefore couldn't save the movie. The characters who were supposed to evoke the most sympathy, like Lee Grant who earned an Oscar nomination, were the most annoying. There were many scenes that were written to make the audience cry, and I didn't even get a lump in my throat. In short, this movie is incredibly boring and overrated. If you insist on watching it, make sure you have something else handy, like a doodle pad or someone entertaining to talk to, because you'll need it.

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.

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.

This has all the feeling of a 1980s disaster movie with its big name all star cast . Alas British audiences will be distracted by the opening sequence where a cruel Nazi is played by the legendary Leonard Rossiter . These type of casting choices can sometimes ruin a movie and iut's not helped by having cameos by megastars like Orson Welles and James Mason in blink and you'll miss them roles . That said the cast do seem more interested in giving good performances rather than enjoying themselves which isn't always the case with movies with a large cast of big names . Special mention should go to Paul Koslo was very prolific in 1970s B movies and who appeared in some utterly pathetic movies in the 80s and 90s , while the always excellent Johnathan Pryce shows us what he can do in an early role . Max Von Sydow as Captain Schroeder gives the best performance in the movieAll the cast do their best but it's really the script that is at fault . I did mention Von Sydow's acting performance as Schroeder , but you often feel his character is written as a litery point illustrating party member = bad , non party member = good , this point feels too forced and unsubtle . Remember it's when people become indifferent that bad things happen , not when they join a political party . I don't want to mention this but Erwin Rommel was a member of the Nazi party and he was the most respected German general by the allies because of his code of chilvary while many Wermacht non party members committed war crimes every bit as brutal as their SS counterparts so don't be fooled that everything is as black and white as seen here , as the caption at the end shows Schroeder himself was questioned about crimes against humanity after the war There's a couple of other flaws with the script . Aaron Pozner is shown being beaten to a pulp by some SA brownshirts in 1939 which is strange considering the SA were liquidated by Hitler in 1934 and lets be blunt in saying that the movie is at least half an hour too long . This is often a problem with a great number of movies featuring anti semitism 1933-45 in that by showing us mans inhumanity to man they often feel the need to labour the point home of the cruelty of the regime and the victims fear when in fact less would been more . It could also be that this is always not a very good subject to base a movie around especially when there's documentaries like THE WORLD AT WAR that shows the very real horrors of what the Nazis did to their victims