In a world filled with creeping fascism, Nazi movies hit harder — even Nazi movies as ostensibly silly as Alvin Rakoff's Death Ship. In this episode of the Certified Forgotten podcast, we're joined by film critic and podcaster Harmony Colangelo (This Ends at Prom) to discuss the deceptive sharpness of this cult classic and why good exploitation cinema never goes out of style.
After a long and storied career at sea, Captain Ashford (George Kennedy) is calling it quits – or being made to call it quits by his employers. Taking his place is Trevor Marshall (Richard Crenna), who celebrates the occasion by bringing his family to sea. But when their ship collides with an unknown vessel, Ashford, Marshall, and the rest of the survivors seek shelter aboard an abandoned German tanker, which soon proves itself to be a haunted graveyard for twisted Nazi experiments – a Death Ship, if you will.
In this short excerpt from the episode, Colangelo explains how Death Ship creates a powerful metaphor for fascism out of a rusted out commercial tanker:
There's a bit of megalaphobia about [the ship], where it's the fear of large things, oftentimes cruise ships, versus the size of a person, who is so insignificant against it. That being the vessel—pardon the pun—of what fascism is ... this giant, harsh, cold structure that is rotted, rusted and decayed, that will physicall go around the sea and hunt people down because it wants to. That's all it knows ... pain and rot. [Death Ship's] got ideas!
The Death Ship episode of the Certified Forgotten podcast with Harmony Colangelo is now available to stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, or the podcast platform of your choice.
