Best Supporting Actor 1954: Tom Tully in The Caine Mutiny

Tom Tully received his only Oscar nomination for playing the original captain of the Caine Commander DeVriess in the Caine Mutiny.

Tully gives a very brief performance as the Caine commander before it is taken over by the on edge Captain Queeg (Humphrey Bogart). He really does very little in his time and does not leave much of an impression on the film. He is just gives a incredibly relaxed performance as the Captain. It is not very interesting, or entertaining, but rather just there.  He gives the new men a little bit of hard time, and shows that he likes his men, but it really is a nothing of a performance. He never does anything more than his incredibly small part requires. He does sort of give less though. He possibly could have done something with his small part but he does not. The commander could have been a little bit more of a character than Tully ever makes him.

Tom Tully's performance is one that really begs the question, why was it nominated. This is not just because of his performance but because of the other performances in the film. Fred Macmurray, Jose Ferrer and Van Johnson were far superior in the same film. Tully was barely in the film and did absolutely nothing  to make himself stand out. He plays the commander as relaxed and that is it. It works okay for what he needs to do but it really is something that any half way decent actor could have done very easily.