Mr. Versatile

A modest selection from the film credits of Herman Bing. “And each man in his life plays many parts” ~ Shakespeare.

Night and Day (1946) (uncredited) …. Ladisaus Smedick

Rendezvous 24 (1946) …. Herr Schmidt, innkeeper

The Devil with Hitler (1942) …. Louis

Public Deb No. 1 (1940) (uncredited) …. Dutchman

Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940) (uncredited) …. Silhouettist

Sweethearts (1938) …. Oscar Engel

Daffy Duck in Hollywood (1938) (voice) (uncredited) …. Von Hamburger

The Great Waltz (1938) …. Otto Dommayer

Vacation from Love (1938) …. Oscar Wittlesbach

Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938) …. Monsieur Pepinard

Every Day’s a Holiday (1937) …. Fritz Krausmeyer

Beg, Borrow or Steal (1937) …. Von Giersdorff, aka Count Herman

Maytime (1937) …. August Archipenko

Champagne Waltz (1937) …. Max Snellinek

That Girl from Paris (1936) …. ‘Hammy’ Hammacher

The Three Wise Guys (1936) …. Baumgarten

The King Steps Out (1936) …. Pretzelberger

Laughing Irish Eyes (1936) …. Weisbecher

Tango (1936) …. Mr. Kluckmeyer, Tango Hosiery

Fighting Youth (1935) …. Luigi

1,000 Dollars a Minute (1935) …. Vanderbrocken

Three Kids and a Queen (1935) …. Walter Merkin

His Family Tree (1935) …. Mr. ‘Stony’ Stonehill

Redheads on Parade (1935) …. Lionel Kunkel

Here Comes the Band (1935) (uncredited) …. Hans Bergenspitz

Don’t Bet on Blondes (1935) …. Prof. Friedrich Wilhelm Gruber

In Caliente (1935) …. Mexican Florist

The Misses Stooge (1935) …. Sazarac the Magician

The Night Is Young (1935) …. Nepomuk

Crimson Romance (1934) …. Himmelbaum

The Merry Widow (1934) …. Zizipoff

Mandalay (1934) …. Prof. Kleinschmidt

Trimmed in Furs (1934) …. Engles the Lodge Owner

Blood Money (1933) (uncredited) …. Butcher Weighing Sausages

College Coach (1933) …. Prof. Glantz

Fits in a Fiddle (1933) …. Heinrich Mickelmeier

The Great Jasper (1933) (uncredited) …. Herman Beaumgartner

A Farewell to Arms (1932) (uncredited) …. Swiss Postal Clerk

Three on a Match (1932) (uncredited) …. Prof. Irving Finklestein

The Crash (1932) (uncredited) …. E.F. McSorley, Diamond Broker

Blessed Event (1932) (uncredited) …. Emil, the Head Chef

Crooner (1932) (uncredited) …. Vaudevillian with Dachshunds

Week-End Marriage (1932) (uncredited) …. Mr. Mengel

Westward Passage (1932) …. Otto Hoopengarner, the Dutchman

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) (uncredited) …. Franz Odenheimer

Men of Chance (1931) (uncredited) …. Fritz Tannenbaum

Show Girl in Hollywood (1930) …. Bing

October

When a carnival showman named Mr. Electrico told Ray Bradbury to “Live Forever!” perhaps he didn’t say it loud enough, because as of this year, no more Ray Bradbury. On the other hand, maybe he said it just right but meant it not quite literally. Something Wicked This Way Comes, a novel which came directly out of that youthful experience (and which was originally suggested as a movie for Gene Kelly, of all people, to direct) maybe WILL live forever, and the author’s name with it.

Jack Clayton’s film, like Truffaut’s film of FAHRENHEIT 451, is sometimes not good enough. Sometimes, however, both are beyond perfection, (ie 451’s final scenes) and a few moments like that in a film count for an awful lot.

This week’s autumnal edition of The Forgotten.

Well, *we* enjoyed it.

I HAD intended to see Soderbergh’s HAYWIRE after enjoying the trailer, but as you can see, it took me a while.

I liked the premise of a film based around a female action star who can really do most of the stuff the script shows her doing — it seemed that HAYWIRE was the movie that would do for kicking people in the face what THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE did for soulless sexual encounters. And that, surely, can’t be bad?

Gina Carano, Soderbergh’s discovery — “a natural beauty who beats people to a pulp in a cage” — is worth it. She can act, and indeed in the conversation scenes she seems wondrously natural, her face moving about in a way that the faces of trained thespians, with their screen technique and Botox, rarely do. When you see her in interviews, she seems heftier and more voluble — Soderbergh has slimmed down her look and her mannerisms with careful filming and direction. In the more emotional scenes, he tends to use photogenics in place of histrionics, finding killer looks that express the character’s inner state.

Confirming this as an old-fashioned bit of star-grooming, Carano has very stylish costumes by Shoshana Rubin.

The rest of the cast is fine, with Michael Fassbender and Channing Tatum holding their own in the punching and smashing departments, Michael Douglas a bit miscast as a trustworthy man, and Ewan MacGregor trying hard as always. Antonio Banderas is very amusing, starting the movie with a big beard and then putting it aside for the finale, really for no discernible reason.

Lem Dobbs, who scripted KAFKA and THE LIMEY, wrote this one too. It follows the cool, Melvillean aesthetic of the latter film, with a few moments of sentiment which are more underplayed than they were in the Stamp vehicle. Soderbergh said after KAFKA that he felt he wasn’t good at cold material, which is odd to me, since his OCEAN’S films seem basically slick and heartless. But then, I only like the first one of those, and that not so much. And then again, I liked KAFKA much better than SEX LIES AND VIDEOTAPE, so maybe I’m weird.

Mexico is always a bit sepia-toned in Soderbergh films (see TRAFFIC), contrary to reality.

Dobbs (before taking his name from Bogart in SIERRA MADRE, he started his movie career as Lem Kitaj, acting for Michael Powell in THE BOY WHO TURNED YELLOW — he’s the best thing in it) provides a very simple betrayal-revenge structure which masquerades behind a cloak of sophistication, with flashbacks, lists of names, rapidly shuffled international locations and plenty of mumbled obfuscation. As with THE LIMEY, whose classic moment is a long-held exterior with sounds of mayhem raging indoors (undoubtedly influenced by the climax of THE PUBLIC ENEMY) the movie gets some of its best effects by keeping dramatic events offscreen — but nevertheless makes spectacular use of Carano’s particular talents. Nobody is likely to top the best of Jackie Chan’s fights, but HAYWIRE’s hotel havoc will live for as long as people enjoy seeing Michael Fassbender getting his neck crushed between a set of powerful thighs, and that, my friends, will be a very long time.

Now for CONTAGION and then maybe MAGIC MIKE.