Peter Lorre

  • Roy William Neill – Black Angel (1946)

    Roy William Neill1941-1950DramaFilm NoirUSA

    Synopsis:
    A falsely convicted man’s wife, Catherine (June Vincent), and an alcoholic composer and pianist, Martin (Dan Duryea), team up in an attempt to clear her husband of the murder of a blonde singer, Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling), who had been Martin’s wife. Their investigation leads them to face-to-face confrontations with a determined policeman, Captain Flood (Broderick Crawford), and a shifty nightclub owner, Mr. Marko (Peter Lorre), who Catherine and Martin suspect may be the real killer.Read More »

  • Charles Barton – Island of Doomed Men (1940)

    Charles Barton1931-1940CrimeDramaUSA

    Undercover agent Mark Sheldon gets paroled to a remote tropical island with a diamond mine manned by slave labor run by sadistic Stephen Danel.Read More »

  • Jean Negulesco – The Mask of Dimitrios (1944)

    Jean Negulesco1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsClassicsFilm NoirUSA

    Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre make a marvelous team in this exhilarating and atmospheric Film-Noir that Daily Variety hailed as “one of the most brilliant crime dramas yet filmed.” When the body of Dimitrios Makropoulos (Zachary Scott) washes ashore in Istanbul, there is cause for celebration all across Europe. The devious sociopath has left as his legacy an array of crimes including blackmail, thievery, murder and high treason. Interested in chronicling the dead man’s unscrupulous exploits, mystery writer Cornelius Leyden (Lorre) takes up his trail, aided by a mysterious man named Peters (Greenstreet).Read More »

  • Walter Lang – I’ll Give a Million (1938)

    Walter Lang1931-1940ClassicsComedyUSA
    I'll Give a Million (1938)
    I’ll Give a Million (1938)

    After saving a tramp from suicide, a millionaire takes his clothing and disappears. Word is out that he will give a million francs to anyone who is kind to a tramp.Read More »

  • Ida Lupino – Screen Directors Playhouse: No. 5 Checked Out (1956)

    USA1951-1960Ida LupinoThrillerTV

    Quote:
    The 1950s was an incredible time for television. Many of the best actors, directors and writers had moved from the big screen to TV and shows like “Playhouse 90” and “Screen Directors Playhouse” assembled some amazing talent. Here, Ida Lupino directs Teresa Wright, Peter Lorre and William Talman in a drama about some crooks who have chosen Wright’s isolated hotel in which to hide out from the law. Wright plays a deaf woman who is terrified of these men and it is very reminiscent of many other films–including a few in which Miss Lupino appeared (such as “Deep Valley”, “On Dangerous Ground” and “Beware My Lovely”). It also is a bit like the later film “Wait Until Dark” (with Audrey Hepburn)–though in this case the terrified woman is blind, not deaf.Read More »

  • Harun Farocki – Das doppelte Gesicht: Peter Lorre aka The Double Face of Peter Lorre (1984)

    Harun Farocki1981-1990DocumentaryGermany

    Arnold Hohmann wrote:
    Peter Lorre achieved international fame for his performance in the myth-making role in M. This character has held a peculiar fascination for generations of cinephiles. However, at the time, whilst such success meant recognition, it also weighed on the Hungarian actor as a constrictive burden. Using photographs and film extracts, Das doppelte Gesicht reconstructs the ups and downs of Lorre’s career, taking into consideration the economic imperatives and workings of the film industry at the time.Read More »

  • Roger Corman – The Raven (1963)

    USA1961-1970FantasyHorrorRoger Corman

    The Raven (1963) Quote:
    In this tongue-in-cheek movie inspired by Poe’s poem, Dr. Craven is the son of a great sorcerer (now dead) who was once himself quite skilled at that profession, but has since abandoned it. One evening, a cowardly fool of a magician named Bedlo comes to Craven for help- the evil Scarabus has turned him into a raven and he needs someone to change him back. He also tells the reluctant wizard that Craven’s long-lost wife Lenore, whom he loved greatly and thought dead, is living with the despised Scarabus.Read More »

  • Peter Lorre – Der Verlorene AKA The Lost One (1951)

    1951-1960CrimeDramaGermanyPeter Lorre

    Shortly after the end of the war in 1945 in Germany: the doctor and former scientist Karl Rothe (Peter Lorre) works under a false name in a refugee and reception center. He is a “lost” man who has taken personal guilt on himself. He meets a newcomer named Nowak (Karl John). This was already in the war year 1943 his coworker and is actually Hösch. In flashbacks one learns that Rothes then fiancée, Inge Hermann (Renate Mannhardt) spied for the Allies and forwarded information to England. She agreed to an affair with the opportunist Hösch. Rothe killed his lover, more out of jealousy than loyalty to the line. But he was not punished for this crime. Hösch covered him out of “higher” interest. His research was more important to the Nazis than the atonement of murder. The terrible beginning of a deadly spiral …Read More »

  • Malcolm St. Clair – Crack-Up (1936)

    1931-1940DramaMalcolm St. ClairThrillerUSA

    Synopsis:
    Test pilot Brian Donlevy works for a major aircraft plant where a hush-hush project is in progress. Peter Lorre is a deceptively shy plant technician who is actually the head of a foreign spy ring. Eager to get his hands on the plans of a new, secret aircraft, Lorre bribes Donlevy to help him steal the blueprints. Donlevy agrees…Read More »

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