Voyage of the Damned

In May 1939, to define the Jewish 'problem' to the world, Goebbels had 937 German Jews shipped to the apparent safety of Cuba. Refused entry into Havana, the luxury liner was forced back towards Hamburg and the camps. Rosenberg here confuses seriousness with tedious solemnity, and with the star glut has produced a compacted TV series. Too many dramas vie for attention on board. The political doings in Havana are confusing; and the prelude to each Cuban scene - maracas, rumbas, cut-price Carmen Mirandas - irritates. Very idiosyncratic performances from the big shots: Welles' wryly charitable Cuban magnate; Captain von Sydow, humane and anguished; steward McDowell hitting new heights in public school deference; Dunaway in jackboots and monocle. The best moments, such as they are, come in the big passenger scenes; though awkwardly filmed, they generate hysteria, a sense of despair.