Georges Vinter

Georges Vinter (1879-1945) was a French silent film actor and director, who worked for Pathé Frères. His most famous role was detective Nick Winter in a series of more than thirty short films.


French postcard. Photo: Pathé. Caption: Nick Winter Détective.


French postcard. Photo: Pathé. Caption: Nick Winter Détective.

A great success before the First World War

Georges Vinter, whose real name was Paul Georges Pinvert, was born in 1879 in Nancy.

He made his film debut at Pathè Frères in the short crime film Le Tour du monde d'un policier/A Detective's Trip Around the World (Charles-Lucien Lépine, 1906). Segundo de Chomon was the cameraman.

Bob Lipton at IMDb: "Charles-Lucien Lepine takes a break from directing his usual fine split-reel slapstick comedies to direct this two-reel movie; am immense undertaking in numerous scenes for the era, given that arguably the world's first feature film was only being directed in Australia that year."

Between 1910 and 1915, Vinter was the creator of the role and interpreter of the very popular detective Nick Winter, whose name was inspired by his own pseudonym. The series of well over thirty shorts, produced by the Pathé film company and mostly directed by Paul Garbagni but some also by Gérard Bourgeois, was a great success before the First World War.

Some episodes were co-directed by Garbagni and Linder including the comedy star Max Linder such as Max contre Nick Winter/Max Linder v. Nick Winter (Paul Garbagni, Max Linder, 1912), and L'Ange du foyer/The Angel of the Home (Paul Garbagni, Max Linder, 1912).

In 1911-1912 Vinter also acted in ten comedies at the Pathé Nizza studios in Nice as the character Fouinard, directed by Alfred Machin and Henri Gambart. An example is Le premier duel de Fouinard (Henri Gambart, 1912) with Paulette Lorsy.


French collectors card. Photo: Pathé Frères, 1911. Georges Vinter in Nick Winter et l’affaire du Célébric hôtel/Nick Winter and the Celebric Hotel case (Gérard Bourgeois, 1911). Plot: Nick Winter has to deal with a notorious hotel rat who remains elusive, despite the many misdeeds that signal his presence. He's staying at the Celebric Hotel and is preparing, with the help of an accomplice, to carry out a successful robbery of an old lady's room, whose purse is stuffed with banknotes. But the tempting bag is a trap for our thieves. The old lady is none other than the astonishing Nick Winter, who triumphs once again in this scene. Georges Vinter played the detective Nick Winter, Jacques Normand the hotel rat, while the hotel manager was played by Jacques Vandenne. It is not clear which actor the shouting man on this card is.


French collectors card. Photo: Pathé Frères, 1911. Georges Vinter in Nick Winter et l’affaire du Célébric hôtel/Nick Winter and the Celebric Hotel case (Gérard Bourgeois, 1911). Georges Vinter (right) played the detective Nick Winter, Jacques Normand (middle) as the hotel rat, while the hotel manager (left) was played by Jacques Vandenne.


French collectors card. Photo: Pathé Frères, 1911. Georges Vinter as Nick Winter in Nick Winter et le Parfum révélateur/Nick Winter and the revealing perfume (Paul Garbagni, 1911). Plot: A gambler at Monte Carlo returns to his hotel and his wife, ruined and discouraged. At his wife's suggestion, they manage to rob their next-door neighbor of a lot of jewels. The woman, unfortunately, however, leaves her handkerchief behind her. The hotel management called in Nick Winter, the famous detective, on the case. He discovers the handkerchief, which is scented with a peculiar perfume, and with this, as a clue, he catches the culprits.

Mephisto

In the 1920s Georges Vinter was assistant-director to four films by René Leprince and Henri Desfontaines. These included the episode films Mylord L'Arsouille (René Leprince, 1925) and Desfontaines' episode film Belphégor (Henri Desfontaines, 1927), starring René Navarre and Elmire Vautier. In the latter, the phantom appears in the middle of the night in the Louvres museum in search of something in the dark corridors.

Georges Vinter also co-directed in Spain La última cita/The Last Date (Francisco Gargallo, Georges Vinter, 1927) and directed in Portugal La tía Ramona/Aunt Ramona (Georges Vinter, 1928).

His last acting part was a supporting role in the late silent film Trois jeunes filles nues/Three Naked Flappers (Robert Boudrioz, 1929) with Nicolas Rimsky.

In 1931 he codirected the French early sound film Mephisto (Henri Debain, Georges Vinter, 1931) starring Jean Gabin and René Navarre. After that, Vinter's film career was over.

Georges Vinter passed away 1945 in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne. He was 66.


French postcard by G. Blanc & A. Brané, Vincennes. Photo: Félix, Paris.


Spanish cromo (collectors card) in the Series Artistas Populares by Ed. J.C. Plauber S.A., Barcelonano, offered by Chocolates Piera & Brugueras, no. 26 of 42 portraits.

Sources: Bob Lipton (IMDb),  Wikipedia (French), and IMDb.