Wednesday
Feb192020
Poll: Voyage of the Damned (1976) it is.
Wednesday, February 19, 2020 at 9:57AM 
We shared a list of new to streaming titles and then polled you on which new-to-streaming titles that Nathaniel had never seen did he have to watch and write about? The winner by a considerable margin was Voyage of the Damned (1976). This all star WW II era drama about a ship carrying German Jewish refugees away from Nazi Germany was nominated for 3 Oscars (including Supporting Actress) and 6 Golden Globes (including Best Picture Drama) and is now streaming on HBO. So watch it this week and we'll discuss on Monday February 24th.
The vote totals if you're interested:
- Voyage of the Damned (1976) - 40% of the votes
- The Tin Drum (1979) - 14% of the votes
- Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987) -14% of the votes
- The Island (2005) - 13% of the votes
- Footlight Parade (1933), Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974), Dirty Harry (1971), and Gate of Hell (1953) divvied up the remaining votes with under 5% each.
Reader Comments (57)
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne! I am not exaggerating when I say it is Maggie Smith's most nuanced, surprising and outstanding turn (better even than Miss Brodie). So different from the rest of her output since the 80s.
I echo Luke, because I've never seen it either and plan on it. BTW I love Criterion.
no contest: one can never have enough maggie smith in one's life
I voted for The Island because I consider it the only Bay movie that even begins to approach 'good' and I would love to see Nathaniel's reaction to it.
Unless it’s a Cláudio piece I’ll pass on The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne. Fawning over Maggie Smith’s performance is about it for that article. The Tin Drum would be great or Voyage of the Damned. Not a great film, but so much to talk about. Lee Grant over Globe winning Katherine Ross, made especially egregious because The eventual Oscar winner was an even shorter performance, so no excuse giving Grant an extra go around after her previous year’s triumph. Also Oskar Werner and Dunaways performances would be fun to hear about. Oh and the punchy ending that most makes it ll worth getting through.
Luke's choice and The Tin Drum.
Definitely Voyage of the Damned - sadly very topical. Lee Grant is in it, too.
Voyage of the Damned or Dirty Harry. I’ve never seen the first but damn, that cast. I’ve seen Harry many times and think it’s one of the best of its genre. Andy Robinson is terrific, and why didn’t Rene Santori become a bigger name.
I don't have any streaming service but i love the idea of watching the same picture "together" and comment about it.
I'm gonna check what picture wins and watch it this weekend because neither I haven't watch any of them.
Just remember that next monday is 24, i remember it because is my birthday. ;)
Cesar -- aw, that's cool. Happy birthday in advance.
Maggie Smith because she is life.
But seriously, her performance here is so different- it might be the best thing she’s ever done and will give you a newfound appreciation for her formidable talents.
Well if Maggie is that good maybe give it a look. Her Oscar wins were 9/10’s, which if she wasn’t against masterworks would have me fawning on her like folks here.
Unfortunately Voyage of the Damned was a superficial mess of a movie despite its all-star cast.
I voted for The Tin Drum because it's a compelling coming-of-age drama and it play into a boy's wonder while he grows into a man in a boy's body. Anyone who votes for The Island is an idiot. I'd rather dive into a pool of acid than watch that piece of shit again.
Tin Drum, because I've never seen it. And it always appears on cinephile lists of "must see"
I haven’t seen The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne either So let do it!
And 1987 was already a great year for actresses
It HAS to be The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne! After years and years of hearing this is one of Maggie Smith's very best performances the film is finally available to watch. I've spent such a long time looking for a copy. Since this site is a haven for actress-obsessives like myself this is the only possible answer.
Instead of this list, can I request you to write about The Joy Luck Club instead?
Well, this is a very enjoyable gesture on your part, Nathaniel! For that reason, to ease you in gently, I voted for Footlight Parade, because I think you'll really enjoy it. But Dirty Harry is amazing - and all these Maggie Smith comments are making me want to se The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne for the first time, and I've also always wanted to see Voyage of the Damned, for its star cast and its Oscar nominations.
Happy Birthday for Monday, César!
Voyage of the Damned,for the high camp of Lee Grant's frantic haircutting and Faye Dunaway in monical and jodpurs cosplay.
I voted for Judith Hearne because you're good writing about performances but the movie you really need to watch for the first time is The Tin Drum.
I voted for Gate of Hell because it reminds me of the Hit Me With Your Best Shot series. This movie is so perfectly colorful, and every shot is dramatically striking.
I'm old enough to have seen six of the eight on the initial release. It appears that Voyage of the Damned has won the popular vote.
The film is in the 1970s vein of all star disaster epics like Airport, The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno with the imminent threat of concentration camps replacing airplane bombers, tsunamis and fires in skyscrapers.
Allegations flew during that period that the Hollywood Foreign Press accepted bribes in their annual award voting. Watching Katharine Ross in her Golden Globe-winning performance as a prostitute should help decide if such rumors had merit.
Sadly, HBO is showing the truncated 158 minute version that was pared down from the original running time of 182 minutes. Among the edits is a portion of Lee Grant's powerhouse moment that garnered her an Oscar nomination.
Quite honestly, time has not been kind to any of the eight titles selected. Each film is best seen as a window to its era, providing an understanding of what then passed as artistic excellence and/or the height of pop culture.
Footlight Parade is arguably the best Busby Berkeley musical, or at least the one that best balances its musical and non-musical elements. It's also the one of these movies that's fun (okay, I haven't seen Captain Kronos). Don't you all want to have fun?
James: How has time not been kind to Footlight Parade or Dirty Harry? They are still terrific watches - respectively, funny & musical and exciting & hard-hitting.
@Edward L
While Jimmy Cagney and Ruby Keeler are marvelous talents, the contrived story of Footlight Parade of secretly choreographing three stage numbers for a big audition is not a draw for contemporary audiences. These big numbers, like the blushing brides of Honeymoon Hotel, are better suited for the audiences of the 1930s.
I suspect the freewheeling police detective of the 1970s who wields nonstandard weaponry and has questionable interactIons with people of color may play well in certain contemporary circles while other folks find offense. Harry Callahan’s final gesture may echo Will Kane’s similar coda but the implied message is far different than the lessons found in High Noon.
Y'all, Voyage of the Damned is a slog! That publicity photo of Faye wearing a monocle is the only interesting thing about it. I love Lee Grant, but she is badly directed here. The story of the St. Louis (and US complicity in the Holocaust) deserves a much better movie.
The Tin Drum is a genuinely great movie, and I voted for it, but The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne is also a great choice. A lost gem of a Maggie Smith performance.
James: Thanks for your reply.
I'm not sure Footlight Parade's premise was any more of a draw for audiences when I first saw the film in, I think, 1993 than it is for audiences now; the film was 50 years old even then. But I'd show it to anyone of any age confident that they could find a lot to enjoy in it, even if there are one or two representations that are very much of their day.
The politics of Dirty Harry were controversial even when it first came out. I don't approve of Harry's methods, nor his questionable interactions with lots of characters in the movie - including people of colour, the gay couple in the park, and Scorpio, who I think would benefit from some character traits that weren't just destructive and murderous (although I think that Andy Robinson gives a terrific performance). But I think the film dramatises some of the compromises and limitations inherent in the role of policing and how, for some officers, that can be lonely and frustrating in the extreme. Harry goes about things the wrong way, of course, but from a position of wanting what's best for the victims. I think it's a character study, above all, done with suspense (and some grim humour) and hard-hitting in its complexity. SPOILERS: Yes, similar but different to High Noon at the end where he throws away his badge. I have an alternative reading of that, which is that Harry is ashamed of how far he has gone by the end of the film and throws away his badge as a symbolic gesture not in disgust at the police as an institution but to avoid bringing shame upon them by being associated with them - though I'm not sure that that reading is supported by the rest of the film. Interestingly, in the sequels Harry is much more on the side of law and order; in Magnum Force, for example, the villains are vigilante policemen.
Hey César, happy birthday, my fellow Pisces.
I voted for The Tin Drum, because it is the title I'm most curious about, but if I had read the comments first, I would have gone with The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (likely my original #2 anyway).
Voyage of the Damned is 3 hours, and I know how you feel about long movies.
The only reason to watch Voyage of the Damned is for Max Von Sydow, who is great, but it's still not enough.
Footlight Parade, obviously! (Though the crowd disagrees...)
The one I voted for before reading the comments: Lonely Passion of Judith Hearn
The one I think Nathaniel will like the most: Gate of Hell
The one I think I'm most interested in hearing Nathaniel's thoughts on: The Tin Drum
The one I think he'd hate the most: Dirty Harry
But honestly, denying him the actressexual choice seems unfair.
I wish I had time to watch them all!
Even with Maggie's performance Judith Hearne is stodgy, B Grade material, I found it hard to believe that it was in the conversation in 87/88.
By all means watch it Nathaniel, but don't go in with high hopes (and just look away when Wendy Hiller is on screen, it is not her finest hour and we should just try and pretend it is not there)
VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED's winning? Seriously? Zzzzzzz. Take a look at Maggie Smith in, arguably, THE MOST MOVING ROLE OF HER CAREER.
Maggie Smith is great VS All the stuff to talk about in Voyage Of The Damned. You may not agree Daniella , but it would be disingenuous not to see why folks would vote for it. Plus it would provide better fuel for Nathaniel to get his groove back. I’m loving TheClaudioExperience more than most, but it would be fun to see the creator of the site really hit an off-season post out of the park again and not be outshone. The dream journal debacle was a bit bottom of the barrel.
Maybe I was too young, I just remember being board silly by VotD and turning it off after a couple of hours. I've been riveted by HEARNE the three or four times I've seen it, but that's only me. "It's only me....."
Regarding LPoJH, it's also worthy for great turns by Bob Hoskins, and a full on Dickensian horror-show performance by Timothy Spall. Still waiting for that epic poem, dude.
If you voted for Voyage of the Damned speak up, motherfuckers!
Great pick everyone. Nathaniel is a critic/pundit, both things in similar amounts, so the (not that great) Voyage of the Damned really fills out a part of his award history knowledge. I mean Ross winning the Globe, with more screentime than the Oscar victor, but getting her slot stolen by her co-star for one showy scene in a divisive performance and afterglow nomination? I gladly voted to learn Nathaniel's opinion instead of the predictable "Smith is great" of one of the runners up.
Daniella If you had sold LPoJH earlier as more than an acclaimed but overlooked outside of her homeland performance by Smith, I would have been tempted to throw a vote it's way. Shit, this was back in the fun days when BAFTA favoured it's own, so if you had said Maggie Smith winning the BAFTA over Cher in Moonstruck I may not have resisted. Alas, Voyage of the Damned is good knowledge for Nathaniel, plus in a way karmic retribution for his blogging before this moment in time and, I assume, his retirement of the eye-rollingly disdain-dripping from a winking eye of a moniker that was "Zee".
Laura -- omg, let it go... lol. I will not be bullied by stans who bring this up in every single article. You guys dont even get the nickname right since I even (respectfully) include the accent in the correct place AND the full number of "e"s in the name.
Dunaway -- i was excited to do any of these really which is why i picked them but happy to fill in Oscar history details.
White (wo)man tears! Unaddressed negative actions being brought up when the offending and loaded language has been used multiple times in the last month is not bullying sweetie. When someone lobs you a chance to be self deprecating at a shameful time in your past, don't hit it into the net sweetie. That double down attitude is a similar phenomenon to a lot of Trump voters. (Before you get sooky, no you wouldn't vote for ihim, but that is where the phenomenon has been most evident in recent history)
I was hoping Tha Tin Drum win because I already have that film at home but i haven´t watch it yet. XD
Now i´m gonna search Voyage of the damned to do my homework.
Why is Laura Mars even reading TFE? I got annoyed with Sasha Stone over at AwardsDaily -- and STOPPED going to that website. It can be as simple as that.
I rarely comment but I've been reading this site for years and, in addition to the articles, I always enjoyed reading the comments too, which were often insightful and worthwhile on their own. I don't know what happened in the last couple years but the comments on here have grown so obnoxious. This used to be my refuge from the ridiculous stan-culture that affected so many other sites but I think I'll stick to just the articles from now on.
BJ: It's only a tiny percentage of comments. The vast majority of us come here, as ever, to enjoy the movies and Nathaniel's wonderful site.
Rosenberg had such a bizarrely uneven filmography. He directed Cool Hand Luke, The April Fools and The Drowning Pool. But he went from Voyage to Love and Bullets, then the truly awful Amityville Horror, I wonder what happened in this guy's career.
I hope at least most of the people who voted for Voyage of the Damned by now realize their error. The movie's a total dog -- Andrew Sarris correctly described it as looking like outtakes from Ship of Fools.
The Tin Drum is a pretty great movie -- one of the rare adaptations of a quality novel that's in the ballpark of its source -- and would have been a much better choice.
Tom Q.--Bad movies are often just as worthy of discussion as good films. You can learn a lot from this type of conversation. Speaking for myself, I voted for Voyage. And it had nothing to do with me thinking it was good.