Voyage of the Damned (1976)

In 1939, hundreds of Jewish refugees, many fresh from concentration camps, boarded the SS St Louis – flagship of the Hamburg-Amerika Line. The passengers were being permitted to leave Nazi Germany for Cuba.

Only a select few aboard knew that the trip was a hoax and a Nazi propaganda exercise: that Germany had arranged for the 937 refugees to be refused entry into Cuba and that they would be returned to Germany and certain death.

Only one man on board knew that the ship’s return journey would also be used to smuggle American military secrets from Havana back to Germany.

Voyage of the Damned was produced by Sir Lew Grade with the largest international cast ever assembled for a British film and a $6 million budget to match, to reconstruct the extraordinary true story of the voyage of the SS St Louis.

Faye Dunaway plays Denise Kreisler, the elegant wife of a doctor (Oskar Werner). They insist on leaving their homeland in style – she in an evening dress and he in his dinner jacket. Max Von Sydow has the key role of the captain of the St Louis, a non-Nazi sailor in the old naval tradition to whom, in the long run, the refugees owe their lives.

Malcolm McDowell (pictured at left) has the role of the part-Jewish steward on board; Orson Welles is a rich and influential Cuban industrialist, and James Mason plays the sympathetic Cuban Foreign Minister.

Others in the cast include Lee Grant, Luther Adler, Lynne Frederick, Wendy Hiller, Julie Harris, José Ferrer, Maria Schell, Sam Wanamaker, Janet Suzman, Victor Spinetti, Ben Gazzara and old Rigsby himself, Leonard Rossiter.

German actor Helmut Griem portrays Otto Schiendick, the fanatical Nazi to whom German Counter-Intelligence chief Admiral Canaris (Denholm Elliott) entrusted the delivery of the American secrets from Havana.

Although the St Louis incident ended well for the passengers who were dispersed to various European countries just before the ship returned to Hamburg, the story still has a sad ending.

As the Nazis flooded over Europe, many of the St Louis passengers fell into German hands again and perished. At the end of the war, only 240 of the original 937 men, women and children who sailed on the ship remained alive. The German captain, Gustav Schroeder, survived the war and lived on in the memories of those he helped save.

Denise Kreisler
Faye Dunaway
Professor Egon Kreisler
Oskar Werner
Lili Rosen
Lee Grant
Carl Rosen
Sam Wanamaker
Anna Rosen
Lynne Frederick
Joseph Joseph
David de Keyser
Julia Strauss
Della McDermott
Sarah Strauss
Genevieve West
Professor Weiler
Luther Adler
Rebecca Weiler
Wendy Hiller
Alice Fienchild
Julie Harris
Mr Hauser
Nehemiah Persoff
Mrs Hauser
Maria Schell
Aaron Pozner
Paul Koslo
Joseph Manasse
Jonathan Pryce
Laurenz Schulman
Brian Gilbert
Lotte Schulman
Georgina Hale
Mrs Schulman
Adele Strong
Captain Schroeder
Max von Sydow
Max Gunter
Malcolm McDowell
Otto Schiendick
Helmut Griem
Purser Mueller
Keith Barron
Seaman Berg
Anthony Higgins
Dr Glauner
Donald Houston
Jose Estedes
Orson Welles
Dr Juan Remos
James Mason
Mira Hauser
Katharine Ross
Dr Erich Strauss
Victor Spinetti
Luis Clasing
Michael Constantine
Manuel Benitez
José Ferrer
Morris Troper
Ben Gazzara
President Bru
Fernando Rey
Milton Goldsmith
Bernard Hepton
Robert Hoffman
Günter Meisner
Leni Strauss
Janet Suzman
Werner Mannheim
Frederick Jaeger
Admiral Canaris
Denholm Elliott
Commander Von Bonin
Leonard Rossiter

Director
Stuart Rosenberg