The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre: The Man, The Actor
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One of the comments I?ve most often heard
from fans and the actor?s own friends, family and co-workers is how different
Peter Lorre looked in each of his many pictures. From his pubescent fleshiness in
M to his spare leanness in Stranger on the Third Floor
and silkily menacing form in The Maltese Falcon, he kept audiences
guessing: Was this indeed the same man? While he often trademarked many of his
roles with the same delicately strung balance of humor and terror, physically he
rarely repeated himself.
Close friends remembered that he was very unhappy with his appearance, which
he felt limited, not his range, but the roles offered him. In this sense, he
regretted the typecasting constraints imposed by his physical features.
Fans, however, feel differently. In looking back
on a rich body of work in which he was often the best thing in a bad situation,
what is most remarkable is how well he used his physiognomy to complement his
roles. Without that harmony of part and player, what of the irony of casting a
boyishly cherubic actor as a child murderer? Or of seeing a svelt Lorre
balletically skimming down a stairway? However his appearance changed over the
years, Lorre made it work for him.
Except where noted, all photos are from the collection of
Stephen Youngkin. For a larger image, click on the thumbnail. A new
window will open.
Between scenes on You're in the Army Now (1941) at
the Warners studio, Jimmy Durante seranades the cast of All Through the
Night on the set of Marty Callahan's (Barton MacLane) nightclub, the
Duchess Club. Left to right are Kaaren Verne, Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre,
and William Demarest.
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Peter Lorre, Karen Verne and Judith Anderson take a break
while filming All Through the Night (1942). During the making of
The Maltese Falcon, Lorre used to exit Mary Astor?s dressing room
zipping up his fly. When he pulled the same trick on Anderson, she chased him
with a hairbrush.
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Peter Lorre shows actress Priscilla Lane some of his
"villain moves" during her visit to the set of All Through the Night
(1942). Lorre and Lane would soon be working together on Arsenic and Old
Lace – Lane in the female lead and Lorre as a menace. A "Thank You!"
to Barbara Morris for helping us identify the actress.
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George Tobias joins the principals of Arsenic and Old
Lace (1944) – Raymond Massey, director Frank Capra, Peter Lorre,
and Cary Grant – during a lunch break in the Warner Bros. commissary,
fall of 1941.
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The cast of Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) poses with
their director for a photo on the "cemetery" set, just outside the infamous
Brewster mansion. Left to right: John Ridgely, Vaughan Glaser, Peter Lorre,
Jean Adair, John Alexander, Josephine Hull, Cary Grant, director Frank Capra,
Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, James Gleason, Edward Everett Horton, Jack
Carson, Edward McNamara, and Garry Owen. Each member of the cast was given
an 11x14 print of the photo. This is Lorre's personal copy.
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Peter Lorre enthusiastically tells Paul Lukas a story
during lunch in the Warner Bros. commissary, 1943. Peter was filming
Passage to Marseille (1944), while Lukas was working on
Uncertain Glory (1944). According to the Chicago Daily Tribune
("Prize Movie Art", Jan. 16, 1944), this particular still won "Best Candid
Shot" at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' third annual
still photography show.
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In costume and on the set of The Mask of Dimtrios
(Warners, 1944), Peter Lorre and George Tobias go over a scene later cut
from the final print. Tobias played "Fedor Muishkin", who translates Abdul
Dhris' murder trial testimony from Greek to English for mystery writer
Cornelius Leyden (Lorre).
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Lorre and actor Victor Francen share a table at the
Warner Bros. studio commissary. Lorre and Francen appeared in five films
together: Passage to Marseille (1944), The Mask of Dimitrios
(1944), The Conspirators (1944), Confidential Agent (1945),
and The Beast with Five Fingers (1946). Peter stressed their
friendship with his antics during the making of The Beast with Five
Fingers, his last at the studio.
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Lorre had a long on- and off-screen association with cats.
In the Moto movies, he kept Chungkina and Chin-chin. A few years
later he pulled a Siamese kitten out of his overcoat pocket in The Boogie
Man Will Get You (1942). Two more Siamese (not Lorre's own) showed up in
The Mask of Dimitrios (1944). Hostile in both the novel and the final
script ("arching their backs and spitting"), the cats in the movie are quite
friendly. Here, Lorre poses with them for a publicity photo. Only in Tales
of Terror (1962) did his on-screen relationship with his feline friends
turn sour. As Monstressor Herringbone in "The Black Cat" segment, he drunkenly
threatens to tear Pluto's head off.
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Lorre was neither a cat nor a dog person. He loved
animals – cats, dogs, horses, ducks, and chickens. Until he left
for Europe in 1949, he kept any combination of the above. However, after
he returned to the United States in 1952, he put pets behind him. Whether
third wife Annemarie objected to housing (and caring for) assorted creatures
or their landlords said no to pets is hard to say. What contact he did have
with cats was probably limited to those belonging to Celia.
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Lorre and Bogart became friends on The Maltese Falcon
(1941) and worked together on three more movies at Warner Bros. – All
Through the Night (1942), Casablanca (1942), and Passage to
Marseille (1944). While Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet rarely socialized
away from the studio, Peter and Bogie saw a good deal of one another
off-screen. Here, they steam the toxins out of their pores over a game of
gin rummy at one of their favorite hang-outs – Findlandia Baths on
Sunset Boulevard.
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Peter Lorre was one of Lauren "Betty" Bacall's biggest
supporters. When Bogie told him that he loved Betty, but confessed that
the twenty-five year difference in their ages bothered him, Peter dispelled
his doubts, saying, "What's the difference? It's better to have five good
years than none at all."
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Merry Christmas from Peter and Sydney! In one of several
photos publicizing the release of Hollywood Canteen (Warner Bros.)
on December 30, 1944, "Screen menace man Peter Lorre goes along with a gag
to prove you can take men out of menace but you just can't take menace out
of men while star Sydney Greenstreet sits in for Santa."
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Another in a series of publicity stills with Peter Lorre
and Sydney Greenstreet (as Santa) for Hollywood Canteen (Warners,
1944). Although released at Christmas-time, the film does not have a holiday
theme. A G.I. (Robert Hutton), on leave in Los Angeles, visits the famed
Hollywood Canteen and meets many performers of stage and screen. In their
brief scene – which they wrote themselves – Peter and Sydney
help singer Patty Andrews escape from a determined but hopeless dance partner
(Irish-American actor James Flavin). From the collection of Cheryl Morris.
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Peter Lorre, Carol Thurston, and Paul Henreid take a walk
on the Warners lot during filming of The Conspirators (1944). In his
autobiography Ladies Man, Henreid credited Lorre with instigating one
of the most famous stories in Hollywood, that of stealing John Barrymore?s
body from the mortuary. In fact, of the many versions of this bit of
Hollywood apocrypha, this is the only one in which Lorre figures. When
questioned about it later, Henreid declined to confirm or deny it, only that
he thought it made a good story.
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Lorre and actor John Garfield lunch together on the
Warner lot. According to the photo blurb, Garfield, obviously hamming it up
for the camera, shows Lorre how he?d play the villain. At the time,
Garfield was appearing in This Love of Ours. Lorre had just finished
Three Strangers. April, 1945.
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Peter Lorre sits on director Don Siegel's knee during a
script conference with Siegel and Sydney Greenstreet on The Verdict
(Warners, 1946). However much Lorre enjoyed teasing his British trained
acting partner – they appeared in nine films together – he felt
that "Greenstreet was not only one of the nicest men and gentlemen that
I?ve ever known in my life, I think he was one of the truly great, great
actors of our time."
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Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, and director Don Siegel
confer on a street set in front of "Scotland Yard" for The Verdict
(Warners, 1946). To cover backlot sets that did not fit the film's Victorian
period, dry ice fumes, burning cans of charcoal and vaporizing mineral oil
were used to create London fog. The artificial atmosphere played havoc with
Lorre's health, resulting in severe headaches and hay fever, and forcing him
to return to narcotic drugs to cope with his "very great pain and misery."
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The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre (2005)
by Stephen Youngkin – now in its third printing and winner of the
Rondo Award for "Best Book of 2005" – is available in bookstores
everywhere, as well as these on-line merchants.
The Films of Peter Lorre (1982), also by
Youngkin, is out of print, but copies may be purchased through Amazon
and Barnes & Noble below. Interested in Lorre's radio and television
performances? Check out Radio Showcase and Movies Unlimited. Netflix has
Lorre movies for rent.
University Press of Kentucky
Powell's Books
Overstock.com
Barnes & Noble Booksellers
US fans: Amazon.com
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Canadian fans: Amazon.ca
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UK fans: Amazon.uk
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US fans: Amazon.com
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The Films of Peter Lorre
Barnes & Noble Bookstores
Radio Showcase
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US fans: Amazon Gift Certificate
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Canadian fans: Amazon Gift Certificate
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Movies Unlimited
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