Ship of Fools (1965)

The year is 1933. Hitler is now in power. A cruise ship is making its way to Germany.

The passengers include numerous German citizens as well as Americans (including Lee Marvin and Vivien Leigh, in her final film appearance).

It's kind of a long film with several interconnected story lines. A reoccurring theme explores the German character's feelings and attitudes about the changing political climate of the country.

Among the Germans aboard is Jose Ferrer's character, an obnoxious publisher who won't stand to eat with anyone who is a Jew.  Lee Marvin's character (a washed-up American baseball player) observes this behavior and asks someone "What's he got against the Jews?".

Oscar Werner plays the German ship's doctor, and he's good. All throughout the film he's politically agnostic, and later he's suspected of being Jewish. But the truth is never truly revealed to us. Instead, we learn that he longs for something more in life, and he longs to be with Simone Signoret's character, a humanitarian that he admires and adores.

The movie ends by showing all of the characters leave the ship, and the audience is left to wonder what is to become of them all throughout the 1930s and beyond. It's assumed that some of the Americans are just there in Germany for a short visit - Lee Marvin leaves the ship and quickly tries to meet a pretty young blond woman. And we assume that some of the Germans will grow to support the emerging Nazism, including an old woman (who previously showed sympathy to Jews) who greets and hugs her awaiting son - who is wearing a Nazi armband.

A very patriotic and proud German Jew (Heinz Rühmann) views the coming years optimistically, and is oblivious to any of the horrors that will emerge from Hitler's dictatorship. The ship's philosopher, Michael Dunn, says to him at one point "you might be the biggest fool on this ship".

With George Segal, Lilia Skala, Jose Greco, Elizabeth Ashley.
Director: Stanley Kramer

Writers: Katherine Anne Porter (novel), Abby Mann (screenplay)

Little Man, What Now? (1934)

An interesting episodic film from the early 1930s. Margaret Sullivan and Douglass Montgomery are a young couple in Weimar Germany. Margaret's expecting. Times are hard. Hitler is never mentioned by name, but there are scenes where we see people gathering for rallies.

Throughout the the film the two move from place to place and interact with some interesting characters who only appear in one or two scenes. These supporting characters (played by some great 1930s character actors) are either villainous or angelic, the latter helping them in desperate moments. An alternate title for this film might be "A Series of Unfortunate Events" (I made that up). I couldn't help cheering the couple on throughout; the are good decent people, and make such a cute, lovable couple.

There is one unforgettable moment in a department store with Douglass Montgomery and a character who is playing a famous actor. At the end, the baby is born (this is not a spoiler), and one character says to the newborn "Little man, what now?" (hence the title) which is an interesting thought, back then in 1934 and even today in 2011 with our hindsight. I left the theater thinking about what kind of life that child would have had; today he'd be almost 80 years old.

Directed by Frank Borzage.
Highly recommended.