Das Totenschiff

Horst Buchholz was certainly the best German actor of his generation ,and he's excellent in this dark desperate adventures movie ,with effective support by Mario Adorf .

Some may think that the movie drags on in its first third ,but when you know the ( somber,at the time ,totally unexpected ) denouement , you realize that these sequences were necessary to make acquaintance with a young naive sailor ,rejected by everyone because he's got no papers ; the meeting with the young peasant girl (Elke Sommer) is actually the condemned man's last cigarette .

When he goes aboard the doomed Schiff , bizarre warnings trouble the viewer : "they caught him in their net" say the harbor men, a strange sign tells the sailor some kind of "abandon all hope,ye who enter here" ..

The work in the coal bunker is depicted in a terrifying realistic way:the fiery furnaces of Hell indeed! The hope to get out of this nightmare during the call will be short-lived ; both Buchholz and Adorf shine, in the final scenes ,worthy of the Raft of the Medusa"!

Great and underrated !