Peter Lorre

[Office Boy]

Could be Richardoe, however, if you want to see a good Lorre film, try Mad Love (1935), I think it was also known as 'The Hands Of Orlac.' He is at his most sinister in this one.

[beast1]

Just watched another gem of a film, once again directed by Jean Negulesco and starring both Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, entitled "Three Strangers" from 1946.

Three strangers, two men and a woman, randomly meet on the eve of the Chinese New Year and, despite their having varying superstitious beliefs, enter into a pact and perform a ritual, wishing for luck on a sweepstake ticket, before the idol of a Chinese goddess of fortune. They then depart and go back to leading their own individual troubled lives. Lorre plays a drunk who has become embroiled in the murder of a policeman, Greenstreet plays a solicitor who has mismanaged his client's trust fund, and Geraldine Fitzgerald plays a wife whose husband is seeking a divorce in order to marry a younger woman. Whilst these three tales are not connected in any way, ironic twists of fate in each ultimately bring them back together where it all began.

Again, Peter Lorre steals the show and plays the more sympathetic of the three flawed characters.

On a separate note, I also rate "Mad Love" highly and, as Office Boy indicates it was based on the novel "The Hands of Orlac" by Maurice Renard which I would also thoroughly recommend. Incidentally the screenplay for "Mad Love" was written by Guy Endore, author of "The Werewolf of Paris", the basis for Hammer's "The Curse of the Werewolf".

[beast1]

Here's George Chastain's homage to Fritz Lang's "M"

[tittys n beer]

The two roles I always remember Peter Lorre for where both movies he stared in with Vincent Price and Joyce Jameson.

Spoiler alert.


Tales of Terror was a 1962 anthology of 3 stories based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe.
Lorre starred in the 2nd segment, The Black Cat, as a cruel, wife hating alcoholic.
Montresor Herringbone (Lorre) happens across a demonstration being given by Fortunato Luchresi, a well known wine expert (played by Price) and challenges him to a tasting contest.
Although 2 sheets to the wind, Montresor eaily beats the expert. Seeing how drunk Montrasor is, Luchresi sees him home. There he meets Montrasor's wife, Annabelle (Jameson) and is instantly smitten.
As time goes by, Annabelle and Luchresi begin an affair.
When he finds out about what's been going on, Montrasor walls up the lovers in his cellar.
Later, while being visited by two policeman, a screaming is heard coming from behind the wall.
The policemen break down the wall and discover the two corpses, along with Annabelle's black cat whom Montrasor had accidentally walled up.

The Comedy of Terrors.
Complete role reversal for Price and Lorre from the above film.
While Lorre was the bad guy in the The Black Cat, he is now Felix Gillie, the bumbling but good natured assistant to Price's villainous undertaker, Waldo Trumbull.
Trumbull's regular scam of reusing the same coffin over and over again is put to an end when his latest client is put into a crypt instead of being buried (the body would be removed after the mourners left and the coffin kept for next time).
He returns home to his despised wife, Amaryllis (Joyce Jameson) and her father, Hinchley (played by the legend that is Boris Karloff) to think of a new money maker.
Gilley is hopelessly in love with Amaryllis, but is far too timid to stand up to Trumbull. Trumbull also tries to kill off his father in law by giving him his "medicine" from a small bottle (with a skull & crossbones on the front) kept I his waistcoat pocket.
Ironically, Hinchley believes that Trumbull is showing him a kindness and moans to Amaryllis that he believes she doesn't care if he lives or dies when she stops Trumbull giving her father the medicine.
In a bid to drum up a little business, Trumbull decides that bumping off some of the locals could be just the ticket.
He and an unwilling Gilley heard out that night and Trumbull kills off the owner of a large and expensive looking home.
The body is discovered, and Trumbull makes sure he is given the task of arranging the funeral.
The widow does a runner without paying the bill, leaving the mortified Trumbull wondering "Is there no morality left in the world?".
Uping the stakes, he decides to bump off his landlord, Mr. Black, who has been hassling him for rent money owed. As Black is unmarried, there can be no widow to run off with his fee, and his rent worries will be forgotten.
During the attempted murder, Black seemingly dies of a heart attack. It's revealed that Black has had episodes of catalepsy in the past, making him appear quite dead.
He is laid to rest in his family crypt, but revives that night n comes seeking revenge.
What follows is the sort of bloodbath you can generally expect from one of the Godfather movies.
Black kills Gillie.
Trumbull kills Black.
Amaryllis discovers Gillie's body and threatens to go to the police, and is strangled by Trumbull.
Gillie revives, sees Amaryllis' body, fights Trumbull, takes a poker to the head.
Trumbull staggers off and Amaryllis and Gillie both wake up and elope.
As a stunned Trumbull is sitting there, his father in law comes in and tells him he should be taking some of his own medicine. He takes the small bottle from Trumbull's waistcoat and pours the contents into Trumbull's mouth.
He tries to drink some himself, but the bottle is empty and he walks sadly upstairs complaining that there is no medicine left for a sick old man who needs it most.
Trumbull has awoken right after being given the poison, and realises his fate before promptly dying.

The film ends with Mr Black showing an allergic reaction to Amaryllis' cat, showing that he too is alive.