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6.4/10
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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
I'd been curious about this one...
...as the studio had floated this one as their big Oscar-bait of the year before it pretty much dropped off the face of the earth, and it's easy to see why--For the first hour, in the story of a thousand 1939 German refugees relocated to Cuba as a propaganda stunt, we get so many of the standard "Wartime passengers of destiny" subplots, those who didn't know their history would think it was a rewritten Titanic epic, and the ship was going to sink. The story, of course, is that a corrupt, bureaucratic Cuba didn't want them, a 30's isolationist US wouldn't take them, and the doomed passengers might ultimately be sent back to Germany. That should be drama but it's oddly uninvolving--Compared to the less realistic Wartime Passengers of Destiny in Robert Wise's The Hindenburg that same year, that one had a better feel for prewar tensions hiding in luxury class..."Hindenburg" made you dream of traveling on luxury zeppelin, "Voyage" just makes you feel like you're on a long trip with a rude staff.
Director Stuart Rosenberg plays the Jewish-history angle too subjectively, since he acts as if the audience is already on his side from the beginning, like "Schindler's List Goes to Havana". 70's-era Faye Dunaway plays her usual ruthless hysterics, Max Von Sydow is the sympathetic ship captain, and Ben Gazzara gets the noble speeches as the government representative, but most of it falls apart in the over-the-top climaxes. Malcolm McDowell looks a bit confused at having to play a good character as a teen steward who finds romance (when he helps foil a German-intelligence ploy, watch the Alex deLarge bad-boy come back out again) . Orson Welles shows up as a Cuban bureaucrat, but with his strange 70's-Welles delivery, you're genuinely not sure whether he's trying for "casual raconteur", or whether he's befuddled by his own lines because he was at the career point where he couldn't remember them anymore.
Director Stuart Rosenberg plays the Jewish-history angle too subjectively, since he acts as if the audience is already on his side from the beginning, like "Schindler's List Goes to Havana". 70's-era Faye Dunaway plays her usual ruthless hysterics, Max Von Sydow is the sympathetic ship captain, and Ben Gazzara gets the noble speeches as the government representative, but most of it falls apart in the over-the-top climaxes. Malcolm McDowell looks a bit confused at having to play a good character as a teen steward who finds romance (when he helps foil a German-intelligence ploy, watch the Alex deLarge bad-boy come back out again) . Orson Welles shows up as a Cuban bureaucrat, but with his strange 70's-Welles delivery, you're genuinely not sure whether he's trying for "casual raconteur", or whether he's befuddled by his own lines because he was at the career point where he couldn't remember them anymore.
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- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Reise der Verdammten
- 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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