Without a doubt the best weird, vulnerable, sickly little psychopath in film is Peter Lorre and the best Peter Lorre performance is in "Stranger on the Third Floor."
A lot of Theory Corner readers will prefer "M", which is a terrific film no doubt , but I'm isolating the performance here. Lorre's performance in Stranger is far, far better and much more caricatured than the one he did in M! I always admired Norma Jean for creating the character of Marylon Monroe and the whole genre of the blonde bombshell. In the same way I admire Lorre for creating the genre of the fragile, sickly, friendly-when-he's-not-trying-to-kill-you psychopath. This performance has to be seen to be believed!
As a matter of fact Tom McKimson liked it so much that he parodied it in "Birth of a Notion."
The other film I'd like to serve up is Lugosi's black & white version of "The Raven." In this film Lugosi finally got a sympathetic director who realized what beautiful word music the actor was capable of. Lugosi was one of the greatest screen actors of his time but you'd never know it if all you saw was "Dracula." This is by far Lugosi's best film and it gets my highest recommendation. (Blogger may delete my picture of Lugosi but I'll let the paragaph stand).
12 comments:
I guess i need to see "Stranger on the Third Floor". One of my favourite movies is "The Maltese Falcon" and i love Peter Lorre's performance in that. I enjoyed him in Casablanca too.
For my money I prefer Lorre in "Mad Love", that is one of the sickest movies ever made!
Well, YOU can't have him 'cause he's MINE. all MINE! Bwahahaahaaaa!
I love Peter, fat, thin, fat agin...soignee Hungarian jew by way of Austria, demi-monde-weary, elegantly dangerous, and most importantly a good horseman.
Seriously, how about "Mask Of Dimitrios"?
And early Lorre, nothing beats "Mad Love": POWER of SUGheeeehhhhhhsssssTION!"
Or the good guy Lorre in "The Verdict" with his buddy GREENSTREET?!
Funny you write this, as the other night "Maltese Falcon" was on and I tivoed it; of course I turned it on to the scene where "Joel Cairo" appears in Spade's office for the first time...man. what a scene!
Supposedly Lorre was unhappy and frustrated with his third or maybe second banana status in Hollywood; who can blame him? By the 60s he was ill and depressed...but I've never read a bad word about him from anyone.
And here's a squib from the IMDB:"He convinced Humphrey Bogart to marry Lauren Bacall, despite the age difference. He did so by saying, "Five good years are better than none!"
What a man!
Lorre's acting is also pretty good in Hair-Raising Hare. A little more on the cartoony side though.
I haven't seen The Third Floor yet, but I want to!
Legosy is brilliant too!
I also like the version of The Raven with Peter Lorre. Except he's old and fat in that one. Lorre's also good in The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Arsenic and Old Lace!
An oddball Lorre performance in "I Am an Adventuress" teams Lorre & Erich von Stroheim as a pair of con men. Lorre underplays his "psycho" character who likes playing with knives. Too bad Lorre & Von S. didn't do more pictures together, they could have been another Abbott & Costello. (Von Stroheim makes a great straight man)
In the '50s, Lorre made a hysterical appearance on the Jack Benny Show. On the show, Jack is telling Lorre about a nightmare he had, where Lorre was a killer on the run who has plastic surgeon (Mel Blanc, I'm sure) change his face to evade the law. Unfortunately, the surgeon gives him Jack Benny's face, and for the rest of the sketch, Benny is playing Peter Lorre with Lorre doing the v.o. At first he's angry about having Jack's face. but then it dawns on him that Jack Benny is a wealthy entertainer- He'll just take over his identity and be rich and famous. He locks Benny in a closet and then shoots him through the closet door. Benny, still acting like Peter Lorre, goes out on stage to do his show. But he bombs badly and the audience starts booing him, Benny, in Lorre's voice, turns on the audience,saying "Why aren't you laughing? That was a funny joke! I'll show you" and he pulls out a gun and starts shooting the audience. Best part is when Don Wilson comes on stage, he tries to stop him, thinking it's Jack, he gets plugged, and then goes into these elaborate death spasms before hitting the floor. Jack, pauses for a little bit and then says to Don in Peter Lorre's voice, but perfectly matching Jack's delivery, "You die lousy".
Do you have a copy of the Lorre biography "The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre" by Stephen D. Youngkin (University Press of Kentucky, 2005)? Find out more about it -- and Peter himself -- on the book's official website: http://www.PeterLorreBook.com
By the way, Warner Home Video will be releasing remastered prints of three of Peter's movies ("The Maltese Falcon", "All Through the Night" and "Passage to Marseille") as part of their new "Bogart Signature Collection", this fall.
And the first of two Mr. Moto box-sets will be coming out on August 1, 2005, with "Think Fast, Mr. Moto", "Thank You, Mr. Moto", "Mr. Moto Takes a Chance", and "Mysterious Mr. Moto".
I haven't seen many of Lorre's movies, but the ones I have seen him in, I love him! I like his subtle style, that he doesn't always have to be over the top. Nobody does psycho like he can.
Lugosi is one of my most favourite people in the category of creepy-cool. I haven't seen The Raven or even Dracula, but I've seen some of his other ones including Bowery at Midnight and White Zombie. He made his characters very charming, very mysterious, and--whatever characters aside-- the man had such a strong presence he could instantly change the mood of the room just by standing there.
Hey Eddie
Did you ever draw a caricature of Peter Lorre? If ya did does it look like Mr. Lorre or Ren Hoek? Also wasent there any Peter Lorre lines in any of the Ren & Stimpy cartoons?
Jesse
P.S. "Stranger On The Third Floor" sounds like a good movie. I think I might look for it the next time I'm at Block Buster Video.
Man i love Peter Lorre nice Post uncle Eddie ...heres a Drawing i did of Peter Lorre http://www.deviantart.com/view/24933275/
hope ya like it :)
Anonymous: "The Lost One" looks interesting but if it doesn't address itself to the centrality of "Sranger" then it may have missed the mark. Even so, I'll still look out for it.
Eddie
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