Director Vincent Sherman, Peter Lorre and Karen Verne (billed as “Kaaren Verne” in the credits) during filming of All Through the Night, late summer of 1941. Sherman first knew of their affair when Lorre turned up at the studio: “Peter was very nicely dressed. He had a convertible car and he was waiting for Karen and they went away for the weekend to Lake Arrowhead.”

A publicity photographer catches Karen Verne and Peter Lorre on a break during work on their first and only film together. According to the press release, Karen (“meditating on things unknown between scenes of Warner Bros.’ All through the Night”) was forbidden by her parents to see any of Peter’s movies during her childhood in Germany, because they were “noted for their chilling horror.”

Peter and Karen stroll hand-in-hand on the Warners backlot between scenes on All Through the Night (Warners, 1942). Studio biographies give Karen’s height at five foot, five and one-half inches. Peter consistently claimed he was five foot, five inches. Despite her platform shoes, the height difference in these photos begs the question – how tall was Lorre and what shoes was he wearing when he was measured?

Karen Verne and Peter Lorre in costume for the “Duchess Club” sequence in All Through the Night (1942), in which Karen sings and Peter plays piano. Estranged from Celia Lovsky, Peter became involved with Karen during filming in late summer of 1941. This photo, inscribed and sent to a fan, was apparently mailed from Celia’s home address (1531 N. Crescent Heights), which would seem to indicate it was posted after May, 1945 – when Peter and Karen, then newly-married, lived with Celia for a brief time.

Peter catches some rays on the sands of Laguna Beach, a resort town in Orange County, southern California, popular with other Hollywood stars such as Mickey Rooney, Bette Davis, and Judy Garland. Taken in 1942.

A popular get-away for many celebrities, who kept second homes there, Laguna Beach was out of the reach of the Lorres. On this visit, they were accompanied by Celia Lovsky, Peter’s first wife, and her brother, Zdenko. Taken summer of 1942.

Peter and Karen at Lake Arrowhead, possibly over the 4th of July weekend, 1943. Living with (and later married to) a woman thirteen years his junior might explain Lorre’s efforts to get in shape. He led an athletic lifestyle that included swimming, riding and tennis. That, along with dietary discretion, put him in peak form during his days at Warner Bros.

An expert rider, Peter Lorre was very comfortable in the saddle. After declaring bankruptcy in 1949, he was forced to give up his Mandeville Canyon ranch home, along with his stables. When asked what he missed most about America after returning to Europe in 1949, he said it was his horses.

Looking every bit the “westerner” in his cowboy regalia, Lorre polished his riding skills during his time in Mandeville Canyon. At his ranch home, he stabled at least three horses and kept countless other animal pets. Although photos of Karen picture her with Nat and Lady, both brown bays, Peter’s gray quarter horse is not identified.

Peter’s father had taught him to ride as a youngster. However, it was many years before he sat a horse again. After renting a three-acre ranch home in Mandeville Canyon in the mid-1940s, he and Karen kept a small stable and often trotted off into the Hollywood Hills together.

In the early 1940s, actor Gilbert Roland shoved a tennis racket into Lorre’s hand and pushed him onto the tennis court. He soon became a fixture at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club, where according to friend Burl Ives, he developed arms of steel.

Peter began playing Ping-Pong in the early 1930s, graduated to badminton after emigrating to America in 1934, and later took up tennis while under contract at Warner Bros. Here, Peter poses with tennis pro Don Budge.

Peter and Karen lived together for three years before Celia brought them to the altar – after the requisite divorces, Lorre from Lovsky and Verne from Arthur Young. On May 25, 1945, they tied the knot, informally, before witnesses Patricia Shay (actress, in hat) and Paul Mantz (movie stunt pilot on The Face Behind the Mask [1941], with moustache) at a private ceremony in Las Vegas. Afterward, Peter and Karen took Celia on their honeymoon.

Peter and Karen on their wedding day, May 25, 1945. Karen’s traditional German dirndl dress begs the question: Was this a fashion statement by someone who had never “gone Hollywood”? Clearly, Karen looked most comfortable at home in denim and flannel, romping with the dogs and feeding the horses. Or was it Peter’s idea, because he wanted to keep her just as he found her – a “clean, sweet, innocent girl”?

Peter and Karen in a relaxed moment at their home in Mandeville Canyon, circa 1945. For a wedding present, Peter rented the three-acre ranch, which they furnished in early American style.

In addition to horses, Peter and Karen also maintained a menagerie of smaller animals, including a St. Bernard named Bum and a Boston Terrier called Happy, at their home in Mandeville Canyon.

Peter Lorre, Karen Verne, and Mr. Moto? No, Bertolt Brecht scholar Klaus Voelker thinks the man next to the car is possibly set designer Mordecai (“Max”) Gorelik. Brecht’s mistress/collaborator Ruth Berlau took the photo of Peter and Karen at Lake Arrowhead in the early autumn of 1947.

Peter casts himself as cook and whips up a meal at Lake Arrowhead in fall of 1947. Ruth Berlau, who lived with the Lorres during their stay, snapped the shot.