Peter Lorre.

can it be that they are mad himself who call me man if you only knew what was going on in this hand of man you'd really know when Peter Lorre was in a film you'd know you were going to be frightened nice work me very neat I thought he was one of the greatest actors I'd ever seen I'm not a liar but you you're a coward you don't want to hear the truth you'll always remember the eyes they used to look at you majesty I'm going right into your soul he's one of the best character actors who ever worked in Hollywood or anywhere else his bulging eyes nasal voice and convincing renderings of tormented characters forever branded Peter Lorre as the master of Menace the sultan of sinister in reality he was a kind sensitive cultured man who spent most of his life trying to escape from the shadow of his McCobb portrayals Peter Lorre was born Ladislav Lowenstein on June 26 1904 in Rosa hey Hungary the eldest of five children he learned early in life how to deal with adversity Peter's father Alois was a staunch monarchist with a military background he worked as a manager of a textile concern in Hungary Peter's mother Elvira from whom he inherited his expressive eyes unfortunately died when Peter was four she died of blood poisoning now raising four children alone Alois soon remarried and moved his family to Vienna Austria just as war broke out in the Balkans in 1913 all notice interested in academics Ladislav loved to paint and read stories about America school did however offer him and his younger brother Francis their first stage experience my father and he were in some sort of snow white in the Seven Dwarves or something when they were still in primary school stuff obviously showed his talents early upon graduation the young actor finally made public what he had known privately for years that he wanted to become an actor unhappy with his son's choice Lauda slavs conservative father pleaded with him to learn a trades one that could earn him a decent living striking a deal Ladislav agreed to work as a bank teller by day and pursue his acting at night but the double life soon exhausted the frustrated actor and he was fired from the bank realising the depth of his son's commitment Alois finally gave his blessing and allowed Ladislav to immerse himself in the bohemian lifestyle of the early 1920s he basically lived from Cafe de cafe where he could scrounge a cup of coffee read a newspaper talk shop now 20 the struggling actor joined an experimental theater group whose inspiration came from the teachings of Vienna's leading psychiatrist Sigmund Freud in their performances the troupe explored the psychotherapeutic effects of drama concepts that suited the introspective and analytical Lowenstein perfectly using his large expressive eyes to project every kind of emotion Ladislav was immediately respected as a gifted and believable actor anyone performance Laurie played a murderer a knife-wielding murderer who chased a prostitute around the stage while he was so convincing that the people in the audience started yelling at him to stop it stop it early success encouraged the young actor to seek out bigger and brighter opportunities in 1925 at the suggestion of a friend 21 year old Ladislav Lowenstein moved to Berlin and took the stage name Peter Lorre rising from the ashes of post-war Germany Berlin had become an artistic Mecca here the decadent the dazzling and the deviant were all equally at home so too was Peter Laurie Laurie came of age theatrically in in Germany during the 1920s where Expressionism had a tremendous impact on on all the art forms especially in the theater and one of the hallmarks of Expressionism is the externalization of interior mental states it's it's very its analytical Laurie often said that he thought acting was a science what was akin to psychology and then a good actor was a psychologist a leading proponent of the expressionist movement was one of millions most controversial playwrights Berthold Brecht after auditioning Laurie for a play Brecht praised the young actors distinctive looks an intense style he offered Laurie the chance to play more complex characters in more substantial roles in 1929 Laurie captivated theater goers in a Brecht directed social drama called P&R a in Ingolstadt one critic described him as a new face a terrifying face at 25 Peter Lorre had become a celebrity one who was widely admired by his fellow actors one such admirer was actress Celia Love ski she saw him eating at a restaurant she sat down with him and and complimented him and on his performance he walked her home and on the way home he told her that he loved her and she laughed in his face and which prompted him to scream back in tear or monster which thereafter became his affectionate name for her for the rest of his life the two became inseparable and soon moved in together but Peters relative happiness was short-lived he had some major operation that went wrong in Switzerland for some unknown reason that it could have been an appendix it could have been a gallbladder I'm not sure but obviously there was an infection and they actually didn't expect him to live and for about three or four days it was touch-and-go and they started giving him morphine which was the usual habit in those days although still in pain and despite a growing dependency on morphine Laurie returned to work once again is intense performances drew the attention of other artists among them was Germany's leading filmmaker Fritz Lang who after seeing his work cast him as the lead in his next film mm Laurie played a pathological child murderer one whose crimes are so repellent that Berlin's criminal underworld agrees to help track him down in the film's climactic scene he pleads with a kangaroo court for his life he asserted I'm excited Morgan was Hema Hema mr. Strauss again and he was fearless hey fella income you're here it's finished album for breakfast I thought he was one of the greatest actors I'd ever seen because he betrayed this man who was a child molester and and murderer and yet he became very sympathetic and he was sorry for him and he captured the quality of a man who was a tortured soul he succeeded perhaps not consciously in creating a portrait of the ordinariness of evil in pre Nazi Germany there's just there's nothing melodramatic about Laurie's characters he's absolutely ordinary he he fits in everywhere and yet he is the the carrier of a tremendous evil the international press hailed Laurie is the world's greatest actor and the intensity of his horrifying performance had made him a star but just ahead were real-life horrors that would change the 27 year old actor's life and the world forever I had to go down Roman by 1933 Adolf Hitler in the Nazi Party had gained control of Germany and began the systematic and deliberate destruction of anything and anyone perceived to be in their way in addition to Jews Hitler's enemies included academics liberals and artists those who had frustrated his own creative ambitions the expressionist movement was discredited as promoting decadence and obscenity many actors playwrights and philosophers were being imprisoned and executed others like Peter Lorre were too well-known and were simply told to leave it was actually Goebbels who later became the propaganda minister who in those days was very much interested in theater and artists generally spoke to consider himself as their protector so to speak and he apparently was the one who warned Peter to get out fleeing Germany in the spring of 1933 Peter and Celia settled in Paris but despite his prior success the actor had difficulty getting work after a frustrating year with only one cameo appearance he got a call from a British director who requested a meeting in London the director was Alfred Hitchcock he was terrified because he knew just a smattering of English which he'd used in his job as a bank teller well he knew that Hitchcock loved to tell stories so he led Hitchcock become a raconteur and he simply reacted with laughter and Hitchcock got the idea that he understood was following the story and they obviously spoke English Laurie was cast at his first english-speaking role as a sadistic spy in the man who knew too much and tell mrs. Lawrence a little-bitty and husband are very well anything else tell her they may soon be leaving us leaving us for a long long journey I would it's a chick species on which no traveler returns Laurie later referred to himself is the man who didn't know too much English he stayed a late night drinking black coffee at first parroting his lines but later learning their meaning and in infusing them with with nuances that told people that he had a real grasp on the role sorry please forgive me Lloris performance was well received and his career was back on track offered a contract at $1,000 a week with Columbia Pictures in Hollywood's Peter eagerly accepted in July 1934 Peter married Celia and brought his bride to America the land of his childhood dreams the warm sunshine and glamorous lifestyle of Hollywood was a welcome change from the dark nightmare that had engulfed Europe the studios were brimming with creative energy much of it provided by actors directors and technicians who like Laurie were fleeing Hitler's reign of terror but Peters movie contract was not all it appeared to be the performances that had made him famous had typed him and producers were unwilling to cast the star of M in other kinds of roles M stamped Laurie's fate afterwards he was inundated with countless offers to play murderers and Psychopaths women on the street when they saw him would clutch their children to their breast and flee from this actor whose portrayal had been just a little too convincing after a year of waiting in vain for a part the desperate actor approached Columbia Chief Harry Cohn with the idea of filming Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment Cohn agreed with one condition first he would be loaned out to MGM to star in mad love it had everything it had it had sadism and necrophilia and mad science and a mutilation it's a story of a of an obsessed doctor who grafts the hands of murderer onto a concert pianist who's been named in him in a train wreck and of course the hands take on a life of their own fresh on the heels of Bela Lugosi's Dracula and Boris Karloff's Frankenstein film goers embraced Laurie as Hollywood's newest horror star honoring his promise Cohn cast Laurie as Raskolnikov in crime and punishment although Laura gave what he believed to be one of the best performances of his career the film was a box-office disappointment and while wasn't a bad film and it was a fairly good adaptation of the Dostoyevsky novel honest with audiences were just not ready to accept Peter as a leading man unfortunately and so the picture didn't it was not successful after only two years and just one film Laurie left Columbia at issue was the 32 year old actors unwillingness to be typecast in what he felt were one-dimensional horror roles signing on at the newly formed 20th Century Fox in 1936 Laurie was cast by studio chief Darryl zanuck as an undercover spy and crack-up you know a man sees nothing because he's wise or afraid or stupid which I you wise as an owl and now you know an owl in daytime she can't see like this and in nighttime she can his performance as a ruthless spy posing as a harmless eccentric gave the actor the chance to play both comedy and drama a challenge he welcomed a similar challenge was provided when the Hungarian actor appeared as the Japanese detective mr. molto in Fox's follow-up to their enormous ly successful Charlie Chan series race mode Oh are you hurt No thank you oh yes let me see see I thought sure we're gonna kill somebody mr. Motta is a very difficult fellow who killed the film was an instant hit and in less than two years Laurie would appear in eight more mr. moto films wait what happened mr. Wong is Craig dead when Laurie later spoke of the mr. moto series he said I ran away from home to become an actor not to become mr. moto on the other hand it gave him great exposure to American audiences he became a household word he had to balance those things between films Laurie occupied himself by reading voraciously he educated himself about art science and philosophy but the actors appetite was not limited to intellectual pursuits Leon Ames who was a co-worker on the mr. moto series said that Peter was on the make for every woman on a lot and that his like typical line was he he sidle up to a woman and say do you think you could get used to my body despite his successes mr. moto the actor became frustrated and depressed over what he perceived to be the repetitive and inconsequential nature of his films more and more the actor turned to morphine as a means of numbing his emotional pain laurie never hit his drug use from his friends and family but he did a terrific job of keeping it from his coworkers because they'll tell you how precise and how professional he was how he did this with this intermittent drug problem is probably the greatest testament to his acting ability I suppose you've got a good reason for sticking your nose into this oh yes a very good reason mr. Riggs and I have promised a District Attorney to arrest a murderer compounding Laurie's emotional deterioration and professional dissatisfaction were growing concerns about the war in Eastern Europe Laurie had a real low point during the making of the moto pictures he was sitting in his dressing room and and listened to Hitler rant and rave on the radio against the Jews in one morning Norman Foster knocked on his door and said Peter were ready to shoot and Peter screamed the whole world's falling apart and you want me to make a picture safe in the comfort and luxury of Hollywood Laurie felt he had abandoned his family in Europe to assuage his guilt he participated in the war effort by any means possible Peter was making anti-nazi speeches over the shortwave radio somehow they Gestapo managed to track down my family and my grandfather was dragged up to the Gestapo and was interrogated but because of his age even then I think they finally released him my aunt was dragged off ostensibly to one of the camps but she was very sick and they threw her off the train and left to die at the side of the road it was a pretty horrific time for us feeling isolated from his family in his country Laurie was evermore insisted on playing better characters in stronger films at times zanuck complied series got some cuts on service please but I told you to stay over here oh yes I'm sure but I restored a very expensive breakfast you do here and what would you like Oh some wine or Denia and for 1000 francs let's this refer me to it in I'll give a million Laurie's naive hobo was hailed by the press as a superbly comic performance but despite positive reviews moviegoers wanted more of their beloved mr. moto you really are multiple then that is my one permanent characteristic frustrated by what he perceived as an exhale to acknowledge his diverse talents in July of 1939 the actor obtained a release from Fox leaving mr. moto behind at 35 he was once again unemployed and on his own in 1940 Peter Lorre gave in to Hollywood typecasting and appeared alongside Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in the critically disappointing comedy thriller you'll find out small roles and obscure films followed but the 35 year old actor who had previously proven his range and stature was about to receive a badly needed career boost we were talking about a lot more money than this there are more of us to be taken care of now that might be but I've got the fork you me after Falcon 3 certainly have you as the obsequious scoundrel Joel Cairo in John Huston's film of The Maltese Falcon Laurie received universal praise and the film became a box-office blockbuster so potent in fact was the chemistry of Laurie Bogart and screen heavy Sydney Greenstreet that the trio were quickly reteamed in the now classic Casablanca I was willing to shoot captain Rhino and I'm willing to shoot you alright major you asked for it you what do you want for Sam I don't buy and sell human beings that's too bad there's Casablanca Sneden commodity recount me you can't get electric hide me do something you now under contract at Warner Brothers Laurie was again making quality films and working steadily often paired with Green Street or Bogart he enjoyed the kind of professional camaraderie he had not experienced since leaving Germany they liked each other very much but they became very good friends you know Peter was very easy to like he was a charming guy and Bogart and bogey was a very very intelligent guy - when Bogart considered marrying a woman I think twenty two or three years his junior he was very concerned and came to Laurie for advice and Laurie counseled him it's better to have five ten fifteen years happy years than none at all well Peter and his wife Celia the happiness of their ten-year marriage was behind them they had gone from being lovers to friends while filming all through the night Laurie Metz and became smitten with his younger co-star a German actress named Karen Verne I noticed that he would begin to dress up a little better you know and I knew that they would go away for a weekend and he was very nicely dressed yeah he sort of thing - I think he was trying to win her affections on May 25th 1945 two months after his divorce from Celia Peter and Karen were married to keep pace with his younger and more athletic wife the 41 year old took up tennis and soon became lean and muscular for now he was happy and his good spirits made him famous for playing practical jokes on his Warner Brothers co-stars I don't forget one day Judith Anderson came to me and said what goes on every time Peter leaves my dressing room there's a big laugh from everybody and I went over to watch it wants to see what was going on he would come out of our dressing room where he'd been visiting up and he'd zip up his fly and of course nothing was happening you know but he just did that for fun and when she found a half I she ran after him with a with a hairbrush he used to love debug Errol Flynn he'd go to wardrobe and put on these incredible costumes say we'd wear the mutiny on the bounty Charles Lawton costume and right in the middle of a take on non arrows set as arrow would be speaking he would let out here we go mutiny or something like that and Hara would say oh god it's Lori again will you get him off the stage and I have a feeling that he was just we felt that one day he would give anything to be able to be at least some kind of a leading man in one part or another despite the lack of offers for leading roles Lori appeared in more than two dozen films over the next three years he was making good money and living well but ironically the end of world war two at the end of the kinds of roles in which Lori specialized westerns and comedies soon replaced mysteries and thrillers within a year he was back to playing the kind of one-dimensional boogeyman he despised I heard what they said in a garden I couldn't help but he's a liar you're lying I'm not a liar but you you're a coward you don't want to hear the truth the glory days at Warner's had ended instead of co-starring with Humphrey Bogart Laurie played opposite a disembodied hand but as always Peter remained a professional I've never seen a more serious actor he was always prompt always knew exactly every word that he felt was right he often had great suggestions because he was so talented the director would immediately accept but he knew everything his lines his character is the depth of everything that he did was a very serious thing when that camera rolled Carrie to hear it a piano in the hand playing us a hand you'll write all the time it was England's hand and committed murder the beast with five fingers was Laura's last film with Warner Brothers in 1946 after sixteen films in five years his option was not renewed and around this time Sam Stifel a business manager who also represented Mickey Rooney convinced him that if he went independent he would make more money and could produce direct act in his own films will this appealed to Laurie to finally take charge of his career and directed away from typecasting roles Peter formed his own company Laurie incorporated but like many actors of his day he was not a savvy businessman eager to get on with finding interesting projects he gave Stifel complete control over his legal and business affairs with you okay a partner - sure you comin yeah ruffian here we are thanks cuddles very amusing from the beginning business was bad and lofty aspirations soon gave way to financial necessity as Lorie was forced to accept the few film roles he was offered fortunately films were not the actors only creative outlet radio mysteries were thriving and Laura's unique and expressive voice placed him in great demand the way you talk anybody think you don't even like the port yeah why can't huh I hate it I tell you I hate it I hate you he threw himself in the performances as if you were giving live performances before a camera or before hundreds of people at one particular speech he became so wrapped up in the characterization in the plot that his false teeth flew out he caught them in midair put them back in and kept right on going without a break I don't like to be pushed around I just unfortunately Peters experience with Lori incorporated was not so stimulating his constant struggle to find quality material seemed even more fruitless when he discovered that his company had been badly mismanaged one day at lunch uh it was kind of sad but I was I was happy that he thought enough of me is to say something about it and he said Barbara whatever you do if you stay in this business and you make a success of it don't let anyone else sign your checks and I said no I don't think I would do that he said you say that now you get busy and you're going to hand it to someone and have them take care of it and he said I shouldn't have to be working now he said but I have to because I was wiped out in May 1949 the 44 year old actor filed for bankruptcy after only three years his attempt at independence had failed miserably broke and bitter he decided to leave Hollywood and return to Europe but what he would find there was not the homeland he had left 15 years before in June of 1949 Peter and his wife Karen flew to England where he was to give live readings of poetry and literature but four years of professional and financial problems had seriously damaged the Lori's already difficult marriage within weeks of arriving in London Karen decided to go home to California Peter continued to Germany alone gone was the Bohemian Berlin of Laurie's youth in its place were bombed out buildings and refugee camps here Laurie saw the destruction of the human spirit reflected in the eyes of the survivors overwhelmed by their plight in his own private pain he again sought refuge in morphine checking himself into a German sanitarium the now divorced actor met a fellow patient named Ann Marie Brennan despite their 18-year age difference the two began a serious relationship in 1950 Laurie resolved to make a film addressing Germany's post-war plight bolstered by Ann Marie's emotional support he decided to write produce direct and star in their fair lorna or the lost one but the ambitious production was plagued with problems the original cut of the film was lost in a fire and Laurie was forced to re-edit the entire project also unanticipated was the German reaction to the film after experiencing the war firsthand audiences weren't interested in a Hollywood stars rehashing of their grim story by the time it was released in September 1951 what small response the project received ranged from apathy to hostility Peter took the rejection badly believing that his own countrymen were condemning him and his masterpiece how broke and with no prospects in 1952 the 47 year old Laurie returned to America it didn't help that anne-marie was pregnant and had decided to remain in Germany depressed and dejected the actors spent nearly a year without work until II received a call from an old friend John Huston knew where Laurie had been that he had nowhere to go and he stepped in and saved him by casting him as a rogue a comic figure in beat the devil a child six years old his old Dane is hot and you'll be active at that 60 it smokes and drinks it philosophizes this rate I'll be 60 before you get to the point for Laurie this meant more than he could ever say it was a chance to be together with Bogart again and with Houston and it turn the clock back to happier days to the times of camaraderie and practical jokes and and real nuts and bolt professionalism for those who hadn't seen him since his last Hollywood film the harsh toll Laurie's hardships had taken was jarring I was shocked to see how he had deteriorated physically we've bloated and big stomach out to here and he had gone very much downhill and it was very sad because he was a great talent what's our wide eyed Irish leprechaun doing outside my door what do you always make jokes about my name and Chile the name of her hair is he's a tip-top name many Germans and Chile have become to be called O'Hara completing the film he flew back to Germany to meet his baby daughter Catherine he and anne-marie were married on July 21st 1953 for now his future looked hopeful he was very very pleased and very happy that he was absolutely besotted with her and she looked like him he had temperate looked is very much like him she was also very creative and very artistic later that summer Peter moved his family to Beverly Hills where new challenges were offered him in the rapidly developing medium of television here the stage trained actor could enjoy a broader range of roles look Mr Bond as you should know by now I am quite without mercy and if you continue to be that ups in a time I'll have to torture you will be torture to the edge of madness believe me you have no hope whatsoever you hear not nor has she you're an ugly little man why don't you stop talking as the very first James Bond super villain in a televised adaptation of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale Peter Lorre brought an intensity and perversity unusual for the time very lucky a Mr Bond yes and very handsome tell me has he changed much since the days when you two were he looks just the same uh-huh you want me to talk with him now plenty of time I'd kill you one during his latter years Laurie often referred to film and television work that he didn't want to do is latrine duty which was really unfair because many Laurie's film roles at this time for dramas such as Playhouse 90 in climax gave him far more substantive parts than the filmmakers were ever doing larger and more substantive unlike his TV appearances Laurie's film roles were mostly limited to parodies of his earlier screen persona sure friends go ahead hit me hmm hit me you mean that sure go ahead you can't miss it now we are Grant the former star of Germany's expressionist movement had become a caricature the man who had terrified adult audiences in M and Mad Love was now delighting children in the story of mankind and five weeks in a balloon climb aboard and enjoy the wildest wackiest air Safari of all time I think what happened to Peter the sad thing could happen to Peter would then he began to mock himself in a way and I think he gave up trying to do serious work as an actor and he saw Hollywood is a place to make money and as he often said to me make faces you are there with a cast as exciting as the wonders they encounter Walter Pidgeon Joan Fontaine Peter Lorre Barbara Eden oh come on you have no time she moves me was funny he was indomitable he never seemed sad or resigned he did not demean what it is working on at the moment ever it is to his credit that he didn't let it get in his way in 1962 Lori appeared in the first of a series of modestly budgeted horror comedies true terrorizing soft cold caresses the Ravens way directed by Roger Corman these loosely based adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's stories co-starred veteran shock masters Boris Karloff Basil Rathbone and Vincent Price playing his roles with more worth than Menace Peter Lorre enjoyed his work for the first time in many years he became very active from from relatively very little business so to speak he was he was making movies right and left and being paid for them and he loved he loved to work he loved to make the movies he looked money Laurie looked on these as it's time to have fun to escape and basically to earn some much-needed money for his daughter because obviously Laurie anticipated he wouldn't live that much longer his health was very very poor he was sick at the time very sick but the moment the camera started to roll there was no sign of being ill and I did feel that he was enjoying every moment of playing comedy I felt it was like oh another window had opened up for him you know and he did that was a joyous thing that the whole thing was a joy for him critics praised the on-screen chemistry of film land's most famous monsters after years of personal and professional disappointment it appeared that Peter Lorre could finally enjoy a secure and happy future but once again fate had a different plan starring Vincent Price who inspired by a seductive woman is overpowered with lost to kill Peter Lorre too sensitive for both the life he lives and the lives he takes buddy fingers now in his late 50s Peter Lorre was making one film a year on the set his love of acting kept him motivated but off the set he fought chronic fatigue weakness and depression problems at home added to his unhappiness his marriage Anna Marie was not a happy one she graded on his nerves when she went to restaurants she announced herself as mrs. Peter Lorre to secure the best table and made a production of the fact that she was the wife of a celebrity and Peter at this time preferred to keep a very low key and not advertise his presence ironically the actor got along much better with his two ex-wives he called second wife Karen often and saw his first wife Celia almost daily I would always have thought that Celia was the second mother to him and I think that Celia was the person who stood by him and being the older figure being a very down-to-earth sort of person and a very kind person in 1962 Peter and anne-marie decided to end their 12-year relationship the lovable gullible innocent who becomes the mark for six wily characters in search of their bread and butter if Laurie had been critical of his earlier Hollywood films he was downright hostile toward the Patsy in which he appeared with Jerry Lewis he didn't want to be in the film he walked through the role he complained to co-workers which was unusual to him usually he closeted his regrets about whatever film he was doing in this case he was more outspoken and Kathy Laurie his daughter felt that this film had a hand in killing him because he was so unhappy about it he said I don't want to see it when it comes out on March 23rd 1964 just four days after completing the Patsy Peter Lorre died of a heart attack he was 59 years old after a 34-year career that included 79 films and dozens of theatrical radio and television performances Laurie's death meant the loss of a gifted and generous artist and the passing of one of the screens true originals tragic and you know his career I think in the end to try you shouldn't have been that way in a different world in a different society we would have had greater appreciation of his talent and his ability but never ceases to amaze me that to this day he is still remembered there was something about him on film this sort of creative spirit I think of Peter Lorre as warm giggling mysterious a fabulous actor to work with Peter Lori's legacy is perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that people who've never seen one of his films know who he is they know what that voice is they know what that voice means they know what he looks like I miss him terribly and there's no one else like him there are many people that can be replaced in this town but nobody can replace Peter you

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Length: 44min 50sec (2690 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 08 2013