Film Career

 

His film career began in 1936 with an uncredited role in The Amateur Gentleman with Douglas Fairbanks Jr and a small speaking role in Rembrandt. He shared his one scene in this film with the star Charles Laughton, with whom he had previously worked on stage at The Old Vic. He made two further films in 1939: Flying Fifty-Five with Derrick de Marney where he showed off his comedic skills playing an amusing drunkard and co-starred with Conrad Veidt in his first Powell and Pressburger film, The Spy in Black, an intriguing spy thriller set during World War One, where he played a German officer for the first of many times in his film career.

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In the 1946 film A Matter of Life and Death, Goring played Conductor 71 whose role is to ‘conduct’ Peter Carter (David Niven) to the afterlife. In the film The Red Shoes, he played Julian Craster, a young composer who wins the heart of ballerina Vicky Page (Moira Shearer) and clashes with the imperious ballet impresario, Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook). In the film Odette released in the UK in 1950, Goring played the role of Colonel Henri, a German Abwehr (Military Intelligence) officer who deceived and captured Odette. The film is based on the true story of Odette Sansom, the first living woman to be awarded the George Cross. The real Odette Sansom (later Hallowes) was later a witness at his marriage to Prudence Fitzgerald in 1977. In 1952, he played Colonel Günther von Hohensee in So Little Time with Maria Schell, one of his rare romantic leads and frequent roles playing a German officer. He considered the film as one of his favourites, alongside the four films he made with Powell and Pressburger.