`Ship of Fools' Launched With Champagne
background, during the dark days principality of Lichtenstein (for
of January 1933 while the boat tax purposes, we presume). Being
HOLLYWOOD — The interna- is sailing from Vera Cruz, Mexico asked by your correspondent
tional press was on hand at Sound Bremerhaven, Germany. A pres- about the meaning of such a pic-
Stage 9 of the Columbia Studios sure-cooker tension of many moods ture laid against the background
when producer-director Stanley and shades explodes with the of Hitler's rise to power, he as-
Kramer, with a lavish coeIctail "wireless" announcement that sures us quickly that the threat
part y, inaugurated commence- Hitler has been appointed chan- of Nazism is only one aspect of
ment of shooting for the motion cellor of the Reich by the,senile the many-faceted story and not
picture "Ship of Fools," written Pres. von Hindenburg.
the most important one. Werner
by Oscar-winner Abby Mann from
sees in "Ship of Fools" a world
• • •
the best selling novel by Katherine
in microcosm, not a political
The characters are just as un-
Anne Porter.
issue. Similarly, producer-director
real
as
the
period
of
the
story
A decadent atmosphere pre-
Stanley Kramer who has to his
seems today. From our world of
vailed in the dining room of the
credit such fearless films as
of
dreams
of
yesteryear
appears
German passenger freighter
"Judgment at Nuremberg" and
British star Vivien Leigh portray-
"Vera," an interior set that is part
"The Defiant Ones," makes a
ing a frail Tennessee Williams
of a ship's midsection built in its
point in telling me that to him
type Virginia belle fleeing the
actual dimensions in the studio's
the essence of his new film is to
U.S. to eScape middle age; French
mill and raised hip') above the
show that people of varied back-
Oscar-winner Simone Signoret is
stage. It is disillue: ming for the
grounds essentially behave in the
a Spanish noblewoman and Cuban
visitor to find an ocean liner in
same way when thrown together
a rough wooden frame instead of revolutionary of 1933; American by fate or design. Yet, he fails
Lee Marvin portrays a fading ball
its streamlined steel encasement.
to explain why this experiment
Yet the interior with its Old- player, and Jose Ferrer is an anti- had to be achieved with subject
Semitic German publisher. Those
World elegance left nothing to
matter as controversial as "Ship
thespians who actually became
be desired.
victims of Aryan race laws, now of Fools."
For one afternoon, the period once more appear as Germans
The qharacter of Lowenthal in
has been advanced to the year before the Cameras; among them Miss Porter's novel is the most
1964, only to accommodate the are John Wengraf, Werner Kern- unpleasant of the whole story. Yet,
Fourth Estate. The entire action i perer (the son of the conductor), the Lowenthal of the movie still
of the film itself takes place on I • Charles Korvin. In reverse, Heinz remains the German Jew, the
board of the "Vera," labeled a 1 R
1. iehmarin, one of the Third cliche type of a sentimentalist
floating "Grand Hotel" due to its Reich's most celebrated screen who loves the fatherland above all.
manifold vignettes of life set stars, bows in a U.S. movie as
There are other elements in the
against a unified cosmopolitan' Julius Loewenthal, a Jewish man- screen treatment of " Ship of
ufacturers of religious articles for Fools" that are not exactly to
all faiths. There is Lilia Skala, the our liking. For instance, we meet
LE SHONO
mother superior of "Lilies of the young Freytag (Alf Kjellin) who
TOVO TIKOSEVU
Field" and still another genuine is married to a Jewish wife; when
May the New Year bring you a
full measure of Happiness
German, Christiane Schmidtmer, this secret "crime" leaks out, the
frith an abundance of health
billed as Berlin's latest sex bomb. German is forced by his ship's
ROVNER-LACHOWITCHER
AID SOCIETY
Oscar ,Werner. who belongs to captain to sit at the "unclean"
the younger het of Austrian actors, table together with the Jew Loew-
Abe Saginaw, President
William Solomon, Vice President
moves about the make-shift liner enthal and the Dwarf Glocken (Mi-
Alex Begun, Treasurer •
dining room with the snobbish air chael Dunn). The decent German
Frances Cutler, Financial Sec'y
Sam Mauls. Recording Sec'y
of an aristocrat of the "ancient Freytag is worried that he may
Joseph H. Siegal, ,Corres. Sec'y
regime." Werner tells JTA that he have to divorce his "inferior"
Abe Applebaum and —
Rose Lewenthal, Hospitalers
is neither an Austrian nor a Ger- wife when the boat arrives in
Molly Saginaw, Wedding Anniv.
man, but currently a citizen of the Bremrehaven.
* * *
The period of Nazism is back-
ground to another Columbia pic-
ture, this one seen through the
eyes of the Germans thettiselves.
Samuel Spiegel, who has probed
the mind of the British, Turks and
Arabs in his "Lawrence," - now
turns to "The Night of the Gen-
erals," current German bestseller
by Hans Hellmut Kirst.
The current epic is labeled "a
suspense thriller laced with devas-
tating wit." Dealing with the up-
rising among the military against
Hitler, it is a dramatic story prob-
ing the upper level of the German
officer corps with penetrating
satire on the Prussian mentality
DETROIT PURE MILK COMPANY
and the nature of heroism. Anatole
Processors of Detroit's Own Quality
Litvak is set to direct.
On Spiegel's immediate schedule
is balso "The Chase," with Lillian
Hellman writing the screenplay
from the novel by Horton Foote.
Ronald Lubin, who earlier an-
nounced the filming of Leon
Uris' novel, "Mila 18," on loca-
tion in Poland and Yugoslavia,
For Home Delivery . . . Phone VErmont 7-6000
seems to have been persuaded by
the prevailing pro-German senti-
ments in the United States to
drop the project altogether. In
any event, he has purchaiied the
latest epic by Uris, "Aiinaged-
don."
• * •
Producer-director Otto Preming-
er pulls no punches with his forth-
coming filming of "In Harm's
Way," based on James Bassett's
novel dealing with the events at
Pearl Harbor. The all-star cast in-
cludes John Wayne, Kirk Douglas,
Patricia Neal, Stanley Holloway,
Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Bran-
don de Wilde, Jill Haworth (of
"Exodus"), Dana Andrews, Burgess
Meredith, Franchot Tone and Pat-
rick O'Neal.
The naval yarn in its entirety
tow
G ■ . ST •m•S
will be photographed on actual
location in Hawaii, with Paramount
set as the releasing organization.
* S *
Director William Wyler has corn-
pleted, in Hollywood, filming of
the British mystery thriller, "The
Collector," a psychological study
of a closely knit group of three
By HERBERT G. LUFT
(Copyright, 1969, JTA, Inc.)
FARM MAID
DAIRY FOODS
Front Your Friends and
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
26 Friday, September 4, 1964
people portrayed by England's
most promising young talents, Ter-
ence Stamp who rose to fame in
the title role of "Billy Bud," red-
haired Samantha Eggar, and the
well-known Kenneth More. Jud
Kinberg, a long-time John House-
man associate at • M-G-M, joined
forces with screen writer John
Kohn to act as co-producers of the
intimate drama which will be re-
leased by Columbia Pictures, and
is based on the novel by John
Fowles.
A Happy, Healthy and
Prosperous
Rosh Hashanah
Greetings
from
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leader in the manufacture of kosher delicatessen
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From Our Esteemed Rabbis and Mashgichim
Rabbi. Boruch Rabinowitz
Rabbi Ben Zion Rosenthal
Rev Chaim Kaufman
Rev. Yehuda Laib Dicker
•
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TO ALL JEWRY
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A HAPPY, HEALTHFUL, PROSPEROUS
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