Ship of Fools (1965)

Lee Marvin: Bill Tenny

Photos 

Quotes 

• Bill Tenny : What do they got against the Jews? Back home we don't have anything against the Jews. Hell I never even saw a Jew until I was fifteen.

  Mary Treadwell : Maybe you were too busy lynching negros to take time out for the Jews.

• Bill Tenny : I was in Vercaruz trying to teach them greasers to play ball. Man, they tried to poison me. You know, I had the runs for three weeks.

  Mary Treadwell : How interesting. I'd like to hear more about it.

• Bill Tenny : [Drunk]  You know what I think?

  Glocken : No.

  Bill Tenny : I think you're a sawed-off intellectual.

• Bill Tenny : Hey, did I tell you what happened to me down in Veracruz? When I was comin' through immigration? Well, I'm standin' in line, you see. I see this clerk down there, and I holler out, "Hey, Pancho, get over here." Just bein' friendly like. Now, back home, we call a taxi driver "Mac" or a pullman porter "George". Well, this little nigger - now, you know these coast Mexicans got mostly nigger blood in them, I'm told - but he just looks up and stares at me. The next thing I know, everybody's goin' ahead of me in this line. Then, I realize, that this little nigger resented it.

  David : I think I'll turn in.

  Glocken : Me, too.

• Bill Tenny : You don't know what its like to be out there and the crowd's yellin' for you to deliver. And they start talkin'. Pitchers they talk. "You can't hit a curve ball on the outside corner." And from then on out, that's all you see is curve balls on the outside corner. So, you've had your big chance. And you have muffed it. Now, I can still hear my old man yellin' at me from the stands, even though he wasn't there,"Big wheel, you are a bum! You are a bum just like me."

  Glocken : You know, I think you're being a bit harsh on yourself, Herr Tenny.

  Bill Tenny : A bum.

  Glocken : You know, I travel a lot. My folks give me some money, not much, but some. They are more comfortable when I'm not around, but you know what I find? I find the most amusing things about people are their guilts that they drum up for themselves. For instance, I estimate that there must be at least 873 million people in the world who don't even know what a curve ball on the outside corner is. So, I think it a bit excessive for you think that you have muffed your whole life just because you couldn't hit it! Paddle or no paddle.

• Bill Tenny : What's the matter? Don't you make any money paintin'?

  David : No.

  Bill Tenny : Oh, now wait a minute. Come on, wait a minute. You mean to tell me that you work at somethin' that you can't make a livin' off, so you got to take a job to make enough money to go on workin' at the work you can't live on?

  Glocken : But that is the heroic life. That is the way men who trust themselves can afford to live.

• Bill Tenny : I never could hit a curve ball on the outside corner.

  Glocken : I beg your pardon?

  Bill Tenny : I never could hit a curve ball on the outside corner.

  Glocken : That's very interesting. What does it mean?