Ship of Fools is a American drama film directed by Stanley Kramer , set on board an ocean liner bound for Germany from Mexico in Ship of Fools , which was based on Katherine Anne Porter 's novel of the same name , was highly regarded, with reviewers praising the cast's performance but also noting, at minutes, the movie's overlong for runtime. The title is also a reference to the popular trope and medieval satire and of the same name.
The action takes place almost entirely on board a passenger ship in , between Veracruz Mexico and Bremerhaven , Germany. Most of the scenes unfold on the First Class deck or among the upper middle-class passengers, but the ship is carrying displaced workers, far more than the ship is certified to carry and they're assigned to squalid conditions in steerage.
They are all being deported back to Spain by the order of the Cuban dictator, Gerardo Machado. Many passengers bound for Nazi Germany are happy, some are apprehensive, while others downplay the significance of fascist politics.
Passenger attitudes differ among those who feel "superior", who exclude and demean others, and the "excluded" passengers, who tend to be sympathetic and supportive of others. The ship's medical officer, Dr. Schumann, takes a special interest in La Condesa , a Spanish countess being deported from Cuba who has an opiate addiction which he reluctantly accommodates with prescriptions.
Under arrest, she is being transported to a Spanish prison in Tenerife for illegally hiding and helping arm agitators. The laborers in steerage , deported to Spain because of the low market price of Cuban sugar, cheer the activist Condesa as she boards the ship under police escort. The Condesa reveals to the doctor that she was motivated by seeing the impoverished conditions under which the 5, laborers lived, under patronage of the man with whom she lived in luxury, supported by their labor.
