IMDb RATING
6.4/10
3.6K
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The tragic 1939 voyage of SS St. Louis carrying hundreds of German Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany that seemingly no nation is willing to save from certain doom.The tragic 1939 voyage of SS St. Louis carrying hundreds of German Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany that seemingly no nation is willing to save from certain doom.The tragic 1939 voyage of SS St. Louis carrying hundreds of German Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany that seemingly no nation is willing to save from certain doom.
- Nominated for 3 Oscars
- 1 win & 10 nominations total
David de Keyser
- Joseph Joseph
- (as David De Keyser)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe film was shot mostly in England. After losing a huge amount of money from its American release, the film was released in Britain about a year later. It was also cut from 155 minutes to 137 minutes. Janet Suzman's role was cut out completely, though her name was still prominently displayed in the opening credits.
- GoofsA 1970s red London bus drives past the German Army HQ in late 1930s Hamburg.
- Quotes
Captain Schroeder: I neither approved nor knew of it and assure you it shall not happen again. I frankly admit there appears to have been a lapse of good taste.
- Crazy credits"This film is based upon a true incident. Some of the names, occupations and experiences of those involved have been altered to protect the privacy of the survivors and their families."
- Alternate versionsA version running a length of 182 minutes, released in 1980 on a double-cassette Magnetic Video, was released in 1980. The current video version, from Artisan/Live runs 158 minutes (even though the video cover says 137 minutes).
- ConnectionsFeatured in Premio Donostia a Max Von Sydow (2006)
Featured review
This is a really remarkable film of great importance. It concerns the voyage of an ocean liner from Hamburg in Germany to Cuba, loaded with Jews who have bought their way out of the Nazi nightmare by paying money to Heinrich Himmler. The voyage across the Atlantic is long and slow, with much drama taking place on the way. But when the ship reaches Cuba, the Jews are not allowed to disembark after all, and the whole voyage turns out to have been a 'set-up', a cover for a military cargo arrangement. The film has an all-star cast of prominent film actors of the 1970s. There are so many of them it almost seems as if the whole of Hollywood tried to squeeze into the cast list. The stars include Faye Dunaway, Orson Welles, James Mason, Max von Sydow as the ship's captain, Jose Ferrer, Julie Harris, Oscar Werner in his last film, Maria Schell, Wendy Hiller (who is marvellous, as always), Sam Wanamaker, Ben Gazzara, and the list goes on. Some of these stars appear only fleetingly, between decks as it were, and others have real parts. Some like Orson Welles and Fernando Rey are even on land, and not at sea at all. (After all various diplomats in capital cities have to be seen debating whether to save the Jews or not, or the story would have no context.) Some of the younger stars of the day such as Katharine Ross, Lynne Frederick, and Malcolm McDowell are now largely forgotten as 'names', but were 'big' then. In his first feature film role, Jonathan Pryce is spectacular. Supporting actors like Lee Grant, Victor Spinetti and Luther Adler were familiar then but few now remember them at all, despite the many roles they played on countless occasions, so that everyone at least knew their faces. The film was directed by Stuart Rosenberg and was based on a best-selling novel, which in turn was based upon the notorious real events which actually happened and were an international scandal. The name of the ship was the S.S. St. Louis, and there were 937 Jewish passengers aboard. I cannot reveal the ending of the film or the fate of these passengers, but the historical remarks under 'Trivia' in the IMDb entry add information which partially corrects details of the facts as portrayed in the film.
- robert-temple-1
- Aug 24, 2011
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- El viaje de los condenados
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $7,000,000 (estimated)
- Runtime2 hours 35 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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