Nelly's Noggin

Marius Goring as Leutnant Felix Schuster in ‘The Spy in Black’ (1939). As Stormtroop Leader Fritz Gerte in ‘Pastor Hall’ (1940). As Oberst Günther von Hohensee in ‘So Little Time’ (1952). As Major General Karl Kreipe in ‘Ill Met By Moonlight (1957). As Rudi Siebel in ‘The Treasure of San Teresa’ (1959). As Oberst Elrick Olberg in ‘The Angry Hills’ (1959). As General Harras in ‘The Devil’s General’ (1960). As a German major in ‘Up From the Beach (1965). As Oberst Muller in ‘The 25th Hour’ (1967). And as Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg in ‘Fall of Eagles’ (1974).

He was interviewed by Stars and Stripes in February 1965 while filming ‘Up From the Beach’. The italics in bold are my own.

Marius Goring: A German only in the movies by James Gunter (10 February 1965) Stars and Stripes

MARIUS GORING was a homicidal maniac before World War II. He has been a Nazi officer since the war.

A character actor whose name sounds German but who is as English as afternoon tea, Goring said he once took the part of a mad killer in a London play and was immediately typed.

"From then on, it was homicidal maniacs for me," he said. "Then the war was over and I suddenly found myself a German."

Goring was in France to act the role of a Wehrmacht major in a new film about the Normandy invasion of 1944, "Up From the Beach." It makes about a dozen times that he has performed the role of a German in World War II uniform, starting as a colonel in "So Little Time" with Maria Schell. (Incorrect. He played a German submarine officer in 1939 in ‘The Spy in Black’ and a stormtroop leader in 1940 in ‘Pastor Hall’.)

"I keep going up and down in rank," he said. "Mostly I have played officers."

Actually, Goring thinks he has too much rank in his present film portrayal of a captured major who was occupation commandant of a small French village.

"It's a gross error," he said. "I should have been a sergeant."

Of his German roles, he remembers best the general he played in a picture called "Ill-Met by Moonlight" and the Luftwaffe general he did in a television film, "The Devil's General."

He said most of his own countrymen think he is German because his name is similar to that of Hermann Göering who headed the Luftwaffe in World War II.

"Goring is a completely English name," he said, pointing out such place names in England as Goring on Thames, Goring Gap and Goring on Sea in Sussex, where he came from. (Incorrect. He was born at Newport on the Isle of Wight).

"Göering came to London in 1938 and tried to find a connection with the Goring family for political reasons, but he couldn't," he said.

Adding to Goring's German image is his German wife, Lucie Mannheim, a leading actress in Germany before 1933 and after the war. Also he speaks German so well that he has appeared in Berlin theatrical presentations. (And German films such as ‘Nachts auf den Straßen’ (1952) and German TV productions).

"I was in Munich for more than a year as a student," he said. "During World War II, I talked to prisoners and got to know a certain type of senior officer and the way that they thought.”

During World War II, Goring was an enlisted man in the Queen's Royal Regiment. (He enlisted on 26 July 1940 in the Queen's Royal (West Surrey) Regiment which was the oldest line regiment in the British army, established in 1661. Regimental Service Number: 6099377). Later, he was connected with the British Foreign Office as a political commentator making broadcasts to the German-speaking countries under the pseudonym of Charles Richardson. (His father’s first name was Charles and his maternal grandmother was a Richardson). In 1944-45, he was a member of the intelligence staff of SHAEF.

"I was then a full colonel," he said. "I used to pray, ‘Dear God, let me meet up with my old regiment. They would have had to present arms.”

Goring was trained at the Old Vic dramatic school and played with that company as well as the Royal Shakespeare company in Stratford. He still makes regular appearances in London theatres.

The actor is a big man with blond hair (actually red gold) and blue eyes. In a German uniform, he is a model for soldierly bearing.

"I trained as a dancer in the beginning and I go back to dancing class when I am in London to keep in shape," he said. "It's a form of discipline.”

How long does Goring think he will continue to be a German officer in the movies?

Rx Murder (1958) Director: Derek N. Twist. Writers: Joan Fleming, John W. Gossage and Derek N. Twist from Joan Fleming’s 1955 novel ‘The Deeds of Dr Deadcert’

Highly Dangerous (1950) Director: Roy Ward Baker. Screenwriter: Eric Ambler

Entomologist Frances Gray (Margaret Lockwood) is asked by her boss Rawlins (Michael Hordern) and Mr. Hedgerley (Norton Wayne) from the Secretariat of the Imperial General Staff if she could go to an obscure Iron Curtain country to investigate the possibility that a scientist called Kassen has succeeded in breeding insecticide-resistant fruitflies that could be used as vectors for germ warfare against the West.

She refuses point-blank: she’s just about to go on her hols to Torquay. Hedgerley hitches a lift from her to the station, and en route she plays the night episode of the radio serial Frank Conway, Secret Agent. It is her duty to do so nightly, so that she can tell the story to her nephew Alan (Lance Secretan) before he goes to bed. That night, affected by her listening to the drama, she phones Hedgerley and agrees that, yes, she’ll do it. She’ll pretend to be a tourist agent while in reality trying to get hold of some insect samples.

When next we meet her she’s on the final stages of her journey behind the Iron Curtain, her flimsy cover being that she’s no longer Frances Gray but Frances Conway (Frank Conway—geddit?). Although she doesn’t realize it, her cabin companion is Commandant Anton Razinski, the sinister Chief of the State Police (Marius Goring). From this point onward Razinski will dog footsteps she didn’t even know she’d taken.

The movie’s standout performance is Goring’s. This may be because Goring could often be a bit of a ham; one of the most frightening personae that tyrants and their powerful minions can adopt is that of the ham—think Stalin. Here is Razinski trying to warn Frances and Bill off the bug farm:

Razinski: “You see, Miss Conway, I told you, there is nothing beautiful in Paritsa province. Nothing but pine trees.” Frances: “And soldiers.” Razinski: “And soldiers, yes. This is a military training area. That is why we have these barriers and precautions. A few months ago some people were shot accidentally in the woods. It was terrible.” Frances: “What people?” Razinski: “Tourists.”

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