A few minutes of Ship of Fools (1965) this afternoon reminded me that the boatload full of big and small stories in that Stanley Kramer film sometimes shortchanged certain characters and lavished attention on others who were sort of annoying, rather than revelatory. That particular movie seemed to have at least four good stories to tell. For instance, I could have done with less of the slobbering baseball player Lee Marvin. Sorry, but for me, this is not Lee's finest portrayal by a long shot--and normally Marvin has no problem making repellent characters riveting.
![Image](http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac140/moirathefinn/f6bbd0de.jpg)
I would have loved a movie that focused on Heinz Rühmann and Michael Dunn as the two outcasts on the boat--one because he was a Jew (who also happened to be a patriotic German) and the other because he was a dwarf (and perhaps the most perceptive individual on the ship). These two actors would never have an American commercial movie made about them, but I'm sure you get my drift.
Are there any other changes you would like to make in this movie? Are there other films that cry out for rewriting or the shifting of the film's focus from central to other characters?