Classic Movie 10: Peter Lorre Films

Classic horror has its own set of icons, with stars like Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee serving as some of its most beloved A-listers, but Peter Lorre deserves a spot among them, as well, even though he made far fewer horror movies than the others, partly due to his poor health and early death at the age of 59. While Lorre's work in horror is more limited than most people might realize, his saucer eyes and slightly sinister look made him a perfect fit for the genre, and he was also often cast as oily, suspicious characters in less gruesome fare. 

Born in Austria-Hungary in 1904, Lorre worked in Germany until the rise of the Nazis, which caused the Jewish stage and screen actor to depart and eventually relocate to Hollywood, where he continued to appear in films right up until his passing in 1964. Between 1937 and 1939, Lorre starred as the title character in a series of Mr. Moto mysteries, but the yellowface casting of Lorre as the Japanese detective makes those movies a complicated legacy. Because Lorre's death cut his career short, my list is divided between his horror and other genre roles, with five for each. Mix and match some favorites with others you haven't seen before to appreciate Lorre's unique screen presence!

Five Peter Lorre Horror Films 

1) MAD LOVE (1935)

Lorre's first American horror movie is a Grand Guignol spectacle that recycles the story of the 1920 novel and 1924 silent adaptation of The Hands of Orlac. Lorre plays the brilliant but deranged surgeon who replaces the mangled hands of a gifted pianist (Colin Clive) with those of a recently executed killer.

2) ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (1944)*

This fan-favorite from director Frank Capra is a delightful mix of screwball comedy, crime, and horror, with Lorre in a supporting role as the plastic surgeon who assists dangerous criminal Jonathan Brewster (Raymond Massey). Cary Grant stars as Jonathan's brother, Mortimer, who finds himself surrounded by the criminally insane on Halloween, just as he's trying to tie the knot with his sweetheart (Priscilla Lane).   

3) THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS (1946)

Lorre plays a psychologically distressed secretary who is haunted by the appearance of his dead employer's murderous severed hand in this entertaining chiller with great special effects work. Fans of Thing in The Addams Family TV shows and movies will not want to miss this one!

4) TALES OF TERROR (1962)

Lorre appears in the second segment of this Poe-inspired anthology film from director Roger Corman, which is a loose adaptation of "The Black Cat" combined with other Poe story elements. Vincent Price stars in all three stories, and Basil Rathbone co-stars in the third. Lorre also appears with Price and Karloff in Corman's 1963 horror comedy, The Raven. 

5) THE COMEDY OF TERRORS (1963)

This Jacques Tourneur horror-comedy, co-starring Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone, and Boris Karloff, was the last Lorre picture to be released before his death. Lorre plays the long-suffering assistant to Price's homicidal undertaker, with Rathbone as one of their intended victims.

 

Five Peter Lorre Non-Horror Films

1) M (1931)*

This German thriller from director Fritz Lang made Lorre a movie star even though it also cast him as a serial killer who targets children. Lorre gives a riveting performance as the title character, but it's a disturbing picture and not for the faint of heart, even today. 

2) THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)

The quintessential American detective tale starring Humphrey Bogart is certainly one of the most iconic films to feature Lorre, and it helped to cement his reputation for playing sly, unscrupulous characters. Lorre plays Joel Cairo, one of several criminals scheming to get their hands on the fabled falcon statue. Lorre's scenes with Sydney Greenstreet were so good that the pair appeared in numerous movies together, including Passage to Marseille (1944), The Mask of Dimitrios (1944), Three Strangers (1946), and, of course, Casablanca (1942).

3) CASABLANCA (1942)

Along with The Maltese Falcon, this is probably the film where most people see and remember Peter Lorre, even though he has a relatively small role that quickly ends with his character's death. Humphrey Bogart's world-weary Rick doesn't like Lorre's larcenous Ugarte, but Ugarte trusts Rick partly because of that, which is how the bar owner ends up with the coveted letters of transit that drive the main plot.

4) BLACK ANGEL (1946)

Lorre plays a nightclub owner in this film noir that also stars Dan Duryea and June Vincent. Directed by Roy William Neill, the story comes from a novel by noir great Cornell Woolrich. It's a good follow-up to The Maltese Falcon if you want to see more of Lorre's noir roles, along with The Chase (1946), Rope of Sand (1949), and Quicksand (1950).

5) 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1954)

Disney made this live-action adaptation of the 1870 Jules Verne adventure tale with a host of big stars, including Kirk Douglas, James Mason, and Lorre. It's a rare foray into family fare for Lorre, who plays the assistant to Professor Aronnax (Paul Lukas). The movie was a big hit when it appeared, becoming the third highest-grossing picture of the year.

Peter Lorre trivia: The worm character, Maggot (voiced by Enn Reitel), in Tim Burton's 2005 film, Corpse Bride, is very clearly inspired by Lorre's typical movie persona. 

* These films don't have links to other posts because my original discussions were included in my 2012 book, Beyond Casablanca: 100 Classic Movies Worth Watching (still available as an ebook on Amazon Kindle). 

Classic Movie 10: Close Encounters with the Third Reich

The theme for my spring lifetime learning series was "Close Encounters with the Third Reich," featuring four classic movies where the protagonists get up close and personal in their confrontations with Nazis. With World War II dominating the headlines in the 1940s, it's no surprise that many films from that era examine the threats posed by Hitler's followers, but the Nazis have continued to fascinate and horrify us in movies ever since, with the Indiana Jones trilogy being a particularly familiar example. More recently, we've seen films like Jojo Rabbit (2019) revisit the fascist regime and the suffering it inflicted. If you want to stick with Golden Age Hollywood classics, however, here are ten movies featuring close encounters with the Third Reich and the dangers of fascism.

 

THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940) - One of the greatest anti-fascist films of all time, Charlie Chaplin's masterpiece blends comedy and pathos in its story of a Jewish barber who impersonates a cruel dictator (named Adenoid Hynkel but very obviously parodying Hitler). Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the picture, which earned five Academy Award nominations. It's still a powerful cinematic statement today, and well worth watching even if you aren't normally a Chaplin fan.

MAN HUNT (1941) - Adapted from Geoffrey Household's 1939 novel, Rogue Male, this political thriller sees Walter Pidgeon as a big game hunter on the run from the Nazis and his own government after he is caught aiming his rifle at Hitler. The movie also stars Joan Bennett, George Sanders, John Carradine, and Roddy McDowall. Director Fritz Lang, who left his native Germany in the 1930s, made other anti-Nazi films, as well, including Hangmen Also Die! (1943), Ministry of Fear (1944), and Cloak and Dagger (1946). Rogue Male was adapted again in 1976, with Peter O'Toole in the starring role.

CASABLANCA (1942) - We'll always have Paris, and we'll always have the outstanding ensemble cast of immigrants who give this Humphrey Bogart favorite its enduring power, many of whom had their own real-life close encounters with the Nazis. Bogart's jaded bar owner, Rick, rediscovers his principles after his lost love (Ingrid Bergman) appears in Casablanca on the arm of a freedom fighter (Paul Henreid) being hunted by the Nazis. Casablanca was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won three, including the Oscars for Best Picture, Director (Michael Curtiz), and Screenplay. 

TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942) - Ernst Lubitsch directs this wartime comedy with a serious message, which stars Jack Benny and Carole Lombard as married actors in Warsaw who end up using their skills to fight the Nazis in their own way. Although the movie was only nominated for one Academy Award (Best Music/Score), it's a brilliant picture that pairs perfectly with The Great Dictator. In 1983, Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft starred in a remake that also earned a single Oscar nod, this time for Charles Durning as Best Supporting Actor.  

DESPERATE JOURNEY (1942) - Not nearly as desperate as the title suggests, this WWII action picture directed by Raoul Walsh mixes heroics, comedy, and some tragedy in its tale of RAF airmen trying to escape from behind enemy lines. It stars Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale Sr., Arthur Kennedy, and Ronald Sinclair as the brave Allies on the run from Nazi forces, including Raymond Massey as their most dogged pursuer. The movie earned its sole Oscar nomination for Best Special Effects, but it's a great choice for fans of Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).

LIFEBOAT (1944) - Alfred Hitchcock directs a tense thriller set entirely in a small lifeboat, where the survivors of a U-boat attack find themselves in very close quarters with a Nazi German from the same boat that sank theirs. Stage icon Tallulah Bankhead gives her best film performance as an American reporter, and Walter Slezak is mesmerizing as the German. John Hodiak, William Bendix, Hume Cronyn, Heather Angel, Mary Anderson, Canada Lee, and Henry Hull also star. Lifeboat earned three Oscar nominations, including a nomination for John Steinbeck for Best Story.

NOTORIOUS (1946) -  Hitchcock offers a more domestic entanglement with Nazis in this celebrated thriller, which stars Ingrid Bergman as a young woman who agrees to infiltrate a group of South American Nazis and eventually marries one of them while continuing to spy for the United States. Cary Grant plays her handler/love interest, and Claude Rains takes the role of the Nazi husband, but the scene stealer of the film is Leopoldine Konstantin as a truly terrifying mother-in-law. Notorious earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Rains and a nod for Ben Hecht for Original Screenplay.

THE STRANGER (1946) - This Orson Welles thriller appeared the same year as Notorious and also features a woman who marries a Nazi, but Loretta Young's character is completely unaware of her groom's true identity until a determined Nazi hunter (Edward G. Robinson) reveals the terrible truth. Welles directs and also plays the Nazi who will do anything to keep his secret, even murder his wife. The Stranger is in the public domain, so you can easily find places to watch it on streaming services or online. For yet another "I married a Nazi" story, add the 1940 film, The Man I Married, starring Joan Bennett and Francis Lederer.

STALAG 17 (1953) - William Holden stars in this story of prisoners in a German POW camp, and his performance as a cynical American prisoner earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Billy Wilder directs a cast that also includes Otto Preminger, Sig Ruman, Don Taylor, and Peter Graves. Stalag 17 earned additional Oscar nominations for Wilder as Best Director and Robert Strauss as Best Supporting Actor. For a double feature that presages the hit TV series Hogan's Heroes, pair Stalag 17 with Desperate Journey. 

THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) - How do you solve a problem like the Nazis? This beloved musical starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer offers romance, catchy songs, and a fight against fascism, with Plummer's Captain von Trapp memorably (and meme-ably) tearing up a Nazi flag. Young Liesl von Trapp (Charmian Carr) has the most intimate experience with a Nazi when her love interest, Rolf (Daniel Truhitte), embraces fascism. The Sound of Music won five of its ten Academy Award nominations, with Oscars for Best Picture, Director (Robert Wise), Film Editing, Score, and Sound.

If you want to recreate my series for the lifetime learners, we watched Casablanca, Desperate Journey, Lifeboat, and The Stranger. 

Trivia Time!

German native and character actor Sig Ruman appears in three of the movie on this list and plays a Nazi in each: To Be or Not to Be, Desperate Journey, and Stalag 17.