Best Supporting Actor 1965: Michael Dunn in Ship of Fools

Michael Dunn received his only Oscar nomination for portraying Carl Glocken in Ship of Fools.

Ship of Fools is a film that lacks subtly and I believe Michael Dunn's Carl Glocken exemplifies this fact. He is a dwarf who breaks the fourth wall at the beginning and the end of the film to you know make the film "deep" by saying everyone is a fool, than saying it does not have anything to do with anything, but you know really it does wink wink, becuase you know it really is a very meaningful film you know.

Dunn's Glocken is one of those meaningful men in the film, he though is special with his ability to see the audience, making very perceptive, and observant of all those fools you know. Well enough you knows, Glocken is not part of the Oskar Werner/Simone Signoret storyline therefore he is stuck in an awful film. Dunn though has even more against him because he is stuck as simply a plot device and barely has a character to begin with.

Dunn mostly observes others while making the occasional "deep" response to them. He never does much more than that, and really his performance never makes more out of his one dimensional  character than there is. It is not that Dunn is bad, but his whole character never amount to more than it is, which is only a plot device used by the director never a real honest person on his own.