(1904-64. Born Laszlo Loewenstein, Roszahegy, Austria-Hungary)
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| Der Verlorene |
Moon-faced, much
imitated character actor whose stumpy frame and ingenuous aura forestalled facile
readings of his many sinister roles. His protruding eyes were potent weapons –
drowsy one moment, blazing with hysteria the next – as was his adenoidal
Mitteleuropean accent. Typecast as lunatics, shady foreigners, insidious
villains, weaklings prone to tantrums. His gift was to mine emotions from the
most unsavoury of parts – even his monsters had humanity.
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| As Mr Moto |
Father was a
bookkeeper and reserve officer in the Habsburg army; mother died when he was
three. Took against his stepmother (the feeling was mutual). Grew up in Romania
and Vienna. Excelled at school, then worked in a bank – treading the boards at night.
Joined experimental theatre group run by Jacob Moreno, who renamed him ‘Peter’,
after Struwwelpeter, and ‘Lorre’, after parrot – a tribute to the actor’s
talent for mimicry.
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| The Face Behind the Mask |
Transferred to
Germany and befriended Bertolt Brecht. Glowing reviews on the Berlin stage.
Small role in an Austrian silent film before Lang cast him as the child killer in
M. Lang’s bullying helped shaped Lorre’s
disturbingly pitiable portrayal; it made him a star and a stereotype overnight.
Joined the
Jewish exodus from Nazi tyranny in 1933. First stop UK; a brace of cavalier
performances for Hitchcock. Began his Hollywood career with a keystone role as a
demented doctor in Mad Love. After a
run of appearances as Japanese sleuth Mr Moto, gave a chilling cameo in RKO B-noir
Stranger on the Third Floor. Found a
niche in dark thrillers, stealing scenes in the likes of Black Angel, The Chase
and Quicksand – as Mickey Rooney’s
droll tormentor, he got to bully somebody smaller than him for a change. Carried
films, too – communicated a welter of torment beneath a frozen visage in The Face Behind the Mask.
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| With Sydney Greenstreet in The Verdict |
Biggest
successes at Warners. The Maltese Falcon
was the first of five films with Bogie and nine with Sydney Greenstreet, his
physical and temperamental counterpoint. Their partnership peaked commercially
with Casablanca and concluded with Don
Siegel’s foggy period thriller The
Verdict, with Lorre as an unlikely lothario.
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| Quicksand |
Returned to
Germany in 1951 to direct and star in Der
Verlorene/The Lost One, a desolate
psychological drama steeped in recent history. Audiences snubbed it; it is highly
praised today.
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| With Vincent Price in The Raven |
Bore a weary aspect
in his last decade, long-term morphine addiction catching up with him. Trudged through
undemanding TV gigs and low-budget features. (One distinction from this period
– he was the first actor to play a Bond villain on screen, in a 1954 TV
adaptation of Casino Royale.) Irked at
his misleading ‘horror icon’ status, he relaxed into his persona in his final
roles (two for Roger Corman) in the company of fellow legends Vincent Price and
Boris Karloff.
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| Tales of Terror |
Hollywood
acclaim notwithstanding, he was probably happiest as a young actor on the
stage, where he “trained in putting the gesture before the word… This he
accomplished in a style – clear, controlled, economical – consistent with
Brecht’s criteria for good acting.” (Stephen D. Youngkin, The Lost One: a Life of Peter Lorre)
Five standout roles
As Hans Beckert
in M, he lays bare a killer’s psychic
torment, relying on instinct rather than research for a role based on
Dusseldorf butcher Peter Kürten: “I did not see the actual murderer. I did not
need to… It only mattered that he did what he did, and my only concern was to
understand why. And I did understand.”
As the spurious
General in Hitchcock’s Secret Agent,
adorned with tight perm, rakish moustache and rampant libido, he upstages John
Gielgud and moons over Madeleine Carroll. Mischievous, humorous, taking murder
lightly, this is Lorre at full tilt.
As the eponymous
Stranger on the Third Floor he is a furtive
presence in the shadows, finally revealed as a mentally unbalanced outsider responsible
for two slayings in this expressionistic early noir. True to form, he’s more pathetic
than deplorable.
As Joel Cairo in
The Maltese Falcon, he made the part
as effeminate as permissible for the time. His excitable manner builds steadily
– his “bloated idiot” outburst at bluff Sydney Greenstreet bears endless
rewatching.
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