It's in the Bag! (1945) -- Who Played the Short Crooked Business Partner?

[Old Film Lover]

The American comedy film It's in the Bag!, starring Fred Allen, Jack Benny, Rudy Vallee, etc. has two crooked business partners of the murdered man (beyond the lawyer played by John Carradine), who are introduced by name (by Carradine) at about 14:30 into the film.  One is a tall man and the other a short one who is semi-balding.  The tall one is "Mr. Arnold", played by John Miljan.  The short one is "Mr. Gardiner", and I don't seem to recognize the actor, although he looks vaguely familiar.  The short one later appears in an important scene and meets with an unhappy ending, and one would think he is an important enough character to deserve a listing, but no character named "Gardiner" (or any spelling near that) is found in the cast lists on either the IMDb or the AFI.  Does anyone recognize the actor?

 

[slaytonf]

You can search the other actors' names and find photos of them to see which is the one you are looking for..

[Old Film Lover]

1 hour ago, slaytonf said:

You can search the other actors' names and find photos of them to see which is the one you are looking for..

Already tried, with no luck.  All the other actors are accounted for.  It has to be someone not listed.  So I'll need someone who either has the movie (VHS or DVD or Blu-ray), or can find it online, to look at the scene indicated (14:30 into the film), and give me an opinion on the actor's name.  I only have a computer and a player, no hand-held device to take a picture with, and I have no idea how to capture several seconds from the Blu-ray and put it into a file format that can be uploaded here.  But I figure that some of the ultra-fans here will have collections as large as mine, or larger, and that probably one or two of them have the movie and can do a quick lookup by popping the disk into a player.  (I'm happy to do the same for anyone here, by the way, if anyone wants a scene looked at that happens to be in one of the 2,000+ films I have.)

 

 

[MovieCollectorOH]

Here, try this.  A clip of approximately the time OP mentioned.  Anyone with the intelligence level of at least a gnat (and an up-to-date browser) should be able to see this.  Click full screen for best results.  Maybe download the file first, then play, if there are bandwidth issues.  I am just too lazy to downsize.

https://moviecollectoroh.com/tmp/Its in the Bag (1945) clip.mp4

 

[HelenBaby2]

Could it be a character actor named Ben Welden? 

[musicalnovelty]

15 hours ago, HelenBaby2 said:

Could it be a character actor named Ben Welden? 

No, not Ben Welden.

[Old Film Lover]

On 2/24/2021 at 5:45 AM, MovieCollectorOH said:

Here, try this.  A clip of approximately the time OP mentioned.  Anyone with the intelligence level of at least a gnat (and an up-to-date browser) should be able to see this.  Click full screen for best results.  Maybe download the file first, then play, if there are bandwidth issues.  I am just too lazy to downsize.

https://moviecollectoroh.com/tmp/Its in the Bag (1945) clip.mp4

 

Thanks for reproducing the clip, which will enable others to see what I can already see on my own copy of the film. 

Whoever the actor is, he is not listed in the IMDb credits for the film, as far as I can see.  I think I've eliminated every possible name on the IMDb list.

In response to a suggestion above -- not, it's definitely not Ben Welden.

I suppose it's just possible that he is not an actor who acted in very many films, and that's why nobody here recognizes him.  Maybe he's the producer's brother-in-law, or something like, who always wanted to be in a film so they slipped him in.  On the other hand, he looks vaguely familiar, as if I may have seen him before, playing a minor bureaucrat of some sort, or a henpecked everyday husband, or the like.

If anyone has any more suggestions, let me know.  Any verified suggestion I will add to the IMDb database.

[txfilmfan]

On 3/4/2021 at 11:48 AM, Old Film Lover said:

Thanks for reproducing the clip, which will enable others to see what I can already see on my own copy of the film. 

Whoever the actor is, he is not listed in the IMDb credits for the film, as far as I can see.  I think I've eliminated every possible name on the IMDb list.

In response to a suggestion above -- not, it's definitely not Ben Welden.

I suppose it's just possible that he is not an actor who acted in very many films, and that's why nobody here recognizes him.  Maybe he's the producer's brother-in-law, or something like, who always wanted to be in a film so they slipped him in.  On the other hand, he looks vaguely familiar, as if I may have seen him before, playing a minor bureaucrat of some sort, or a henpecked everyday husband, or the like.

If anyone has any more suggestions, let me know.  Any verified suggestion I will add to the IMDb database.

Might be Morrie Ryskind?

[Old Film Lover]

On 3/6/2021 at 7:58 PM, txfilmfan said:

Might be Morrie Ryskind?

You know, it might be!  IMDb lists him as an uncredited contributing writer for the film, and I can imagine them sticking him in for a token part.  Anyhow, that's the best guess so far.  However, I don't know if I feel sure enough to add him to the IMDb cast list.  I'll think about it, and await any further discussion.