The Best Peter Lorre Films You’ve Never Seen
There are really two Peter Lorres. One was the actual performing artist who went by that name, who in life(1904-1964) was highly valued for his creativity and charm. The other is the weird amalgam of cartoons, caricatures and vocal imitations that coalesce in American pop culture's collective memory as "Peter Lorre," the perverted super-deformed menace of vintage animated Warner Bros. shorts and Spike Jones novelty songs. Most people are far more familiar with the caricature Peter than the real Peter, so when someone like me mentions to them that Peter was considered one of the greatest actors of his era, they either go "Huh?" or assume that he did all of his really great work in some obscure German plays that only about a hundred people saw. Au contraire, there are lots of great Peter performances that have been preserved on celluloid, wax, vinyl and mylar tape, but getting hold of many of these precious radio, TV and film performances isn't always easy or legal. Regarding Peter's films, there are some good ones currently available on commercial DVD, the Mr. Moto box sets, "Mad Love," "Strange Cargo," "The Boogie Man Will Get You," and "The Verdict" being welcome additions to the Peter DVD catalog that illustrate the astonishing range of the mercurial, infinitely inventive talent that was Peter Lorre.
If you are shopping for illicit Petervideo or should the copyright holders ever wise up and release some of these missing films on DVD, here are some lesser known examples of the cinema of Peter Lorre that seasoned Peterfans can warmly recommend.
"F. P. 1 Antwortet Nicht" (“F. P. 1 Doesn’t Answer”)
In this futuristic (for 1932) German action film Hans Albers plays a dashing, hotheaded flying ace who is torn between rescuing a sabotaged mid-Atlantic aircraft refueling platform and his anger over the platform's architect having stolen his girlfriend. Peter, with his hair dyed blond and crimped and teased to make him look like a cuddly mini-Hans, serves as his alter ego and voice of conscience. Films like "F. P. 1," "Die Koffer des Herrn O.F." and "Was Frauen Traeumen," demonstrated to German audiences that there was more to Peter than just the little girl-stabber of "M."
"Die Koffer des Herrn O.F." (“Mr. O.F.’s Luggage”)
Adorable Rene Clair-style musical in which a sleepy German village is transformed into a dynamic jazz-age megalopolis through the machinations of a puckish newspaper editor played by Peter, who also wins the heart of a Parisian sex bomb (Margo Lion) with his beguiling "interviews."
"Was Frauen Traeumen" (“What Women Dream About”)
Don't you love a good Peter Lorre musical? This one features Peter as a bumbling detective on the trail of a lady jewel thief. Besides demonstrating his gift for slapstick comedy, for the only time in his film career Peter gets to sing! He
performs his duet of "Ja, die Polizei" (“Yes, the Police”) with leading lady Nora Gregor very sweetly, and even manages to hit a few of the right notes.
"Nancy Steele Is Missing!"
Wouldn't you love to be Victor McLaughlin, sharing your Depression-era prison cell with the dapper, witty psychopath Professor Sturm (played with understated verve by you-know-who)? It wasn't the Professor's fault he committed that
homicide, as he explains to Victor: "What else was I to do? I am so little, and he was such a large man--as big as you!"
"Crack-Up"
A rousing "F. P. 1"-style aerothriller about a flying ace caught up in sabotage and intrigue. This time it's Brian Donlevy who meets his match in Peter's charismatic Baron Rudolf Maximilian Tagger, Ruritarian spymaster extraordinaire.
"I Was An Adventuress"
Though Hollywood legend has Peter stapled at the hip to the phlegmatic Sydney Greenstreet, objective viewing proves that Peter's ebullient screen personality was shown to much more advantage when paired with an actor who could really keep up with him, e.g. Hans Albers, Joan Lorring, Vincent Price, or, in the case of this elegant Lubitsch-style romantic comedy, Peter's fellow Viennese Jewish genius-in-exile Erich von Stroheim. As a suave, wily pair of Continental con artists, Peter and Erich are so delectably naughty you may be tempted to hang around the Cote d'Azur recklessly flashing your diamonds in hopes of meeting them.
"Island of Doomed Men"
Lorre scholar Nancy Agli points out that this is the prime example of how Peter could spin dramatic gold out of cinematic nonsense. With typical understated humor combined with that peculiar Peteresque ability to find humanity even in the most loathsome characters, Peter turns this B-exploitation drama about the downfall of the owner of a Devil's Island-like slave camp into a high-camp Brechtian parable about fear and misery in the Third Reich.
"The Mask of Dimitrios"
I've heard that Johnny Depp (the American Peter Lorre) is a fan of this picture. Peter's mystique as an international man of mystery comes full flower in this adaptation of Eric Ambler's "A Coffin forDimitrios," in which he plays a kittenish economics professor turned mystery writer who travels from Istanbul to Paris via the Orient Express on the trail of a ruthless scoundrel who may or may not be deservedly dead.
"Three Strangers"
Screenwriter John Huston reportedly envisioned Humphrey Bogart for the role of Johnny West, the drunkard-philosopher antihero of this bittersweet Buddhist noir thriller. But Peter turned out to be even better as Johnny opposite the spunky teenage British actress Joan Lorring, who turned out to be the perfect love interest for him here and in "The Verdict."
"Der Verlorene" (“The Lost One”)
Arthaus has released a deluxe two-disc edition featuring an exquisitely restored print of this landmark German-language film noir directed and co-written by and starring Peter. Unfortunately it's in the European Region 2 PAL format, which NTSC format Region I North American DVD equipment won't play. So as with the films listed above my fellow Americans either must do without or see what they can make out from some cruddy bootleg off of ebay. Not fair!
(c) Anne Sharp. All rights reserved.
