Ship of Fools (1965)
Michael Dunn: Karl Glocken
Photos
Quotes
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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]
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[first lines]
Glocken : [walks up to the ship's railing] My name is Karl Glocken, and this is a ship of fools. I'm a fool, and you'll meet more fools as we go along. This tub is packed with them: emancipated ladies, ball players, lovers, dog lovers, ladies of joy, tolerant Jews, dwarfs - all kinds. And who knows, if you look closely enough, you may even find yourself on board.
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Bill Tenny : [Drunk] You know what I think?
Glocken : No.
Bill Tenny : I think you're a sawed-off intellectual.
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[last lines]
Glocken : Oh I can just hear you saying - 'what has all this to do with us?'... Nothing.
[chuckles and walks away off the boat]
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Glocken : I am sorry. I don't mean to pry. You know, the distasteful curiosity of the nonparticipant.
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Glocken : One of the saddest things in the world must be to see two people who feel so much for each other and who feel that they belong together and, yet, they really don't belong together at all.
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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?
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Glocken : A little patience. A little understanding. The world's getting better all the time.
