BK,
I totally agree with you on SHIP OF FOOLS. Boring!
However, that film brings back some fond memories for me.
During the first year after I had moved to Hollywood (I was, probably, 22-23), a friend in the apartment building in which I lived, worked at Columbia Pictures, and one day, he got me onto the set of SHIP OF FOOLS.
Everybody was working that day: Vivien Leigh, Simone Signoret, Lee Marvin, Jose Ferrer, George Segal, Elizabeth Ashley...
I was in awe...specially when I saw who was sitting off to one side, watching Stanley Kramrer direct.
It was Spencer Tracy.
Eventually, somebody asked me who I was. I didn't give the right answer, and I was asked to leave, but what a glorious memory.