Pat Hingle Tagged Articles at Cinematical

For the past few years, Gary Oldman has been the man shining the bat signal high into the sky. But before Christopher Nolan took on the world of the Dark Knight and reinvented it, there was a different Commissioner in town -- Pat Hingle, who lost his battle with blood cancer on Saturday at the age of 84.

In 1989, he became Commissioner James Gordon in Tim Burton's Batman, filling the role through all four of the films -- from the great Michael Keaton days, all the way through to the abysmal and embarrassing Batman and Robin. But while his law-enforcing time in Gotham might be his most recognizable role, it's only a small portion of his work. His 54-year career took him from recent films like Talladega Nights to Muppets from Space and Splendor in the Grass, and even his first (uncredited) role as Jocko in On the Waterfront back in 1954.

Rest in peace, Mr. Hingle. You will be missed.

I developed a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach within the first few minutes of Waltzing Anna. It's that dimly unpleasant feeling I get when I'm watching a film that I wish was going to be good, but realize it's not going to be -- and that I'm going to have to write a review about it, like it or not. When you can predict the plot-line of the entire film accurately within the first couple minutes, that's never a good sign; when that plot is suspiciously like that of another (better) film, it's even worse.

Here are the basic elements of Waltzing Anna, which I had pegged before the opening credits were through: (1) Rich, unscrupulous doctor, who doesn't really care about patients and is only in it for the money; (2) Through a somewhat-contrived circumstance, the doctor is forced to a rural setting where he feels out of place, to tend to an assortment of patients he doesn't care about; (3) Somewhere around about the 20-minute or so mark, the doctor will meet a beautiful woman who lives in said rural setting. She will be smart, lovely, and way out of his league, but he, being the arrogant jerk that he is, won't realize this right away ...