Ship of Fools (1965)
Heinz Rühmann: Julius Löwenthal
Photos
Quotes
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Lowenthal : How old are you?
Elsa : Sixteen.
Lowenthal : Adolescence. What is adolescence? Adolescence is a time when people worry about things there's no need to worry about. Sixteen... I promise you, at seventeen you will be even more charming than you are now. At twenty-one, you will be gorgeous. And at twenty-five... devastating! And I won't stand any arguments!
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Lowenthal : I like people; if you look for it, you can find something good in anybody.
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Freytag : Doesn't it bother you that you and that little man are the only two Germans not at the Captain's Table?
Lowenthal : Do you think that bothers me? Besides, I like that little man; what kind of salesman do you think I would be if I couldn't deal with a situation like that? A salesman is supposed to deal a difficult situation and overcome it. Listen, it's not a new story: white men hate black men, Muslims hate Buddhists-that's the way it goes. There's prejudice everywhere. It does no good to give it back. You have got to use your noogin'.
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Lowenthal : Listen to that music, Glocken. Don't try to tell me you don't react to that music.
Glocken : Schmulz.
Lowenthal : Hmph, tell me, Glocken, now honestly, when you hear that music, wherever you are, don't you have a special feeling about being a German?
Glocken : I'll tell you, Leaven's honor, honestly, when I hear that music, wherever I am, I have a special feeling about being a dwarf.
Lowenthal : Ah, I remember being thousands of miles from home in a movie theater in New York; they put on a picture of the funeral of the Kaiserin Victoria. That good woman, how much she meant to all of us.
Glocken : [rolls eyes] You are German, aren't you? You are the most German person I have ever met.
Lowenthal : [chuckles] Oh, I want to show you something. I take it out every once in a while and look at it when I want to feel good.
Glocken : Well, the order of the Iron Cross, second class - and a war hero besides. You may be the biggest fool on this whole boat.
Lowenthal : [looks offended] Why do you say that?
Glocken : [says agitated] Where have you been during this voyage?
Lowenthal : Do you think this boat is a cross-section of the German people? Huh, no. You don't know the average German the way I know him. The people that produced a Goethe, a Beethoven, and a Bach are not to be sneezed at, you know.
Glocken : Fifty percent of the people who produced a Goethe, a Beethoven, and a Bach voted for Rieber's party last week!
Lowenthal : [grumbles disagreed] Forty-four percent.
Glocken : Lowenthal, you are blind; you're absolutely blind! You can't see what's going on in front of your own face.
Lowenthal : What do you mean? Ah, you mean this business about the Jews? You don't understand us. The German-Jew is something special. We are Germans first and Jews second. We have done so much for Germany; Germany has done so much for us. A little patience, a little good will; it works itself out.
[scoffs endearingly]
Lowenthal : Huh, listen, there are nearly a million Jews in Germany. What are they going to do? Kill all of us?
Glocken : [looks frightened]
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Lowenthal : You are sure, you are not Jewish?
Glocken : [makes iffy hand gesture] Reasonably sure.
Lowenthal : You resemble a brother-in-law of mine in Stuttgart.
Glocken : [chuckles] That's the way it is, people are always mistaking me for someone else.
[both chuckle at the humor due to his unique appearance]
