Peter Lorre was also the first James Bond villain, in the 1950s TV version of "Casino Royale," long before the Sean Connery movies. The first villain in the first James Bond screen adaptation of the first book in Ian Fleming's series.
When Lorre came to America, Chaplin called him the world's finest actor, which they used in the previews for his first American movie. To my knowledge, no one has ever stolen a scene from Lorre, and he worked with Cary Grant, Bela Lugosi, Humphrey Bogart, and the great Mickey Rooney.
@NeverDoubt1 You surprised me by mentioning the much-maligned Raft, one of my great favorites who left his Warners contract, sinking his career, in the wake of a film he did with Lorre and much of the cast of "Casablanca." Raft, famously illiterate, misunderstood that Jack Warner was supposed to pay him $10,000 to buy him out of his contract, and paid the ten grand to Warner instead, who quickly pocketed his check like the weasel that he was.
@NeverDoubt1 I'd forgotten about that! Raft was legendarily pugnacious. When he and Edw. G. Robinson were shooting "Manpower" (which Raft chose over "The Maltese Falcon" because of its great director, Raoul Walsh), they had a fistfight right on the set that was splashed all over the newspapers, and it wasn't a stunt. Either Raft was frustrated because Robinson replaced McLaglen but got top billing with an inflated part, or it was over Dietrich, one of Raft's literally countless women.
@Diskobanger He was a morphine addict and I remember reading once in "Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine" that he gained an abrupt hundred pounds during an illness, bifurcating his appearance even more emphatically than his co-star Cary Grant's removal of a mole from his cheek in 1950. Scared the hell out me more than anything else I ever saw in that magazine. Or anywhere else.
I wish I could have watched the movie with the odors. I guess we'll never know what the odors were, or even if someone told us, we wouldn't be able to experience them.
They were all like cheap perfume, according to people close to the project. Most viewers couldn't really stand it, so the company went from putting the scent in the whole movie theatre to just giving out scratch 'n sniff cards.
@meg3325 Today, they should have guys standing behind movie screens emitting smells based on what's happening on-screen. Why?... Because it creates jobs! Make it happen, Obama!
@meg3325 The education system was purposely dumbed down to make for a pliable electorate, the oldest trick in the book. A newer trick, computerized voting machines, will eventually render that superfluous along with a lot of other things.
@mrspivvy maybe thats just what t.v. execs thought looked good on t.v. at the time. speaking of strange physical features of women in the 50's and so on. What ever happened to good old fashioned missile tits?, they are quite rare these days . It was'nt the bra's either ;p
Like CDU916 said, it's really interesting to see PL as himself. In this clip he reminds me a lot of some elderly members at my synagogue, who are Hungarian like he was. Not only his accent, but how he words things.
@IcePirate3:Now please enlighten me: Peter Lorre was a Hungarian ?
Maybe the ancestry, but what the fuck...
I like Hungarians a lot (not some of the present anti-semitic ones), but i wonder what might be at stake, if all people with certain language background of the family might be declared to belong to this+that cunt-ry, pretty absurd, Lorre was a German actor who escaped the Nazis. We all have different "heritage" in our "genes", but let´s FORGET that now please, it is nonsense !
@Heralde8:It may be that he had the Austrian citizenship,because first he fled to Austria in 1933,before emigrating to the USA.Goebbels(who was an"intelligent"devil,if he just wanted to) is reported to have"advised"him to go.In my opinion M by Fritz Lang was a bleak anticipation of all the Nazi hysteria coming later,the Nazis actually exploited the hysteria of the populace concerning infanticides.
Lorre remarked:"There´s no place for 2 murderers like me+Hitler in Germany, so i´ll go!"
@MrSKINFLICK From Wikipedia's article on Peter Lorre, for what it might be worth: "Lorre was born as László Löwenstein into a Jewish family in Rózsahegy (Hungarian), Rosenberg (German), Kingdom of Hungary, part of Austria-Hungary, now Ružomberok, Slovakia." That sounds convoluted enough to confuse anybody. I'm like you, I always thought he was German and never thought he was Hungarian like Lugosi (who was actually Transylvanian).
@NeverDoubt1: As i answered to Onlymusical - he grew up in the border region of Hungary/Austria + (later) Slovakia as a son of parents with German-sounding surnames - people from such regions often married with no regard to their ethnic background, though he can´t have been a German, Austrians had + have their own citizenships, but the national language in Austria is German of course.
@Onlymusical:Contrary to what many idiotic racists would like to hear or read: This border region of Austria/Hungary/Czechoslovakia was always ethnically mixed, because people often married with NO regard to their ethnic background.German minorities were also often"in the game".Stubborn racism is a product of the late 19th+early 20th century + had a lot to do with economic envy.The Ruhrgebiet megacity in Northrhine-Westfalia has a larger minority of naturalized Poles since ca. 1900.
@MrSKINFLICK Yes, eugenics and economic envy were the reasons for the concentration camps, especially the latter. Read Michael Crichton's brief essays in the back of his novel "State of Fear" for some compelling thoughts about this.
@Onlymusical: The ridiculous thing is that the Nazis were such ugly creeps that they should have admitted themselves to the extermination camps first, my German grandfather always said: "They were partly so ugly, if we only had had TV already back then," but TV also doesn´t often help a lot, as you can see by bigots in the USA who vote for Newt Gingrich nowadays, yuck ! I always liked Lorre´s remark: "There's no place for TWO murderers like Hitler and me in Germany, so i better go."
@Onlymusical:Wiki: "His parents were Alois Loewenstein+Elvira Freischberger. When he was a child his family moved to Vienna where Lorre attended school. He began acting on stage in Vienna at the age of 17..." So his family background was obviously Austrian+German language+his parents very probably German-speaking jews. It´s not too unsual in this region or elsewhere among German-speaking people to give a child a foreign name,besides he may have had Hungarian elements in his family.
@funkeekatt Yeah it's true he was really beloved by audiences, especially when he partnered with Sydney Greenstreet I think. I read that when Peter was touring veterans hospitals, people were always asking him "What's Sydney Greenstreet like?" Lol
@NeverDoubt1 I love reading about old movie stars. I think it's cool that many actors mostly known for playing villains were actually quite cultured and nice. Boris Karloff, Vincent Price and Edward G. Robinson were very cultured gentlemen I've read.
@funkeekatt And Bela Lugosi was no slouch either. God, talk about bringing something to the screen! By the way, I think Boris Karloff's best performance was in a small supporting role in "Scarface."
@Onlymusical Actually Lorre was above Greenstreet for Maltese Falcon, but yes after that Greenstreet was on top. In fact one time Peter was billed 5th even though he was clearly the star of the film. Supposedly the studio wasn't happy with some of his associations during the HUAC crisis.
@NeverDoubt1 Lorre found himself in a nation run by some people not too different from the one he left, unfortunately. Have you seen Chaplin's "A King in New York?"
@NeverDoubt1Is this about the Mask of Dimitrios?Cause i recently watched the film and although he was clearly the star he was either 4th or 5th...I thought WTF?
@NeverDoubt1 That is totally true.He got to pioneer in many things and is really remembered even after 106 years.But it's sad how the bussines mistreated such a talent!
@ThePythonfan It basically represents the contradiction of American culture. America represented freedom and safety for the European refugee artists, but Hollywood was not necessarily a haven for high art. ;)
@funkeekatt I think it's due to him playing villains with dept and, as Arlene said, with those big sad eyes. He never was an evil villain, but someone who'd gone wrong - but had these good or sad tendencies in him.
He WAS a good + very clever German, he despised the Nazis and left soon in horror, and M by Fritz Lang was an anticipation of the Nazis + Goebbels was not so silly not to recognize that, he would have put Lorre in a concentration camp. I wonder he ever had a party with Marlene Dietrich, both must have amused themselves with a lot of laughter & grotesque humor about the fate of too silly Germans back then....i am sad that he died so early...too early !
@funkeekatt Everybody on earth loved him because he was so colorful and amusing as a performer and always brought enough to the table to the point that the greatest leading men had to hold on to their hats to try to keep up. There's a lot to be said for simply bringing something to see to the screen. Look at my own favorite actor, Wallace Beery.
A remarkable actor who got pigeon-holed in 'Casablanca" as a sinister bad man. Scarily wonderful performance in "M" a decade earlier. You can see he was a gentleman; modest, and with impeccable manners.
@maxreger100 Yes, Peter Lorre was definitely one of the greatest of all actors. When he emigrated to America, Chaplin announced that he was the world's finest actor, which they used in the trailer for his first American movie.
I wish there were more actors like him today I think the only actor I can think of that lives up to his awesomeness and that is probably Alfred Molina. I'm sorry if none of you agree with this comment.
Well he got the name peter because fritz thought he looked like the character Peter in an old childrens book in Germany. And they gave him the last name Lorre which is German for parrot. However his great nephew was given his real name ladislav but everyone calls him Larry.
@Chizpurfle52595 I know he's old here but I can't think of him as an "old man". I also think "cute" is somehow an inappropriate adjective for him. I've seen too many movies where he was the villain, but a delicious villain, to ever think of him as so.... harmless. I guess I've just seen too many films where his character was genial like this but really had very sinister goals. It's the anticipation for that surprise that one has when watching him that is so fun.
you guys should see his brother andrew...sptting fricken image (well back in the 80's at least). same voice and all. it was like seeing peter if he hadnt had all those problems that aged him so fast and ended him so early.
@JennelleBelle did you know the Lorre family entirely? you seem to know them so well.. I have only seen a picture of Andrew when he was young from a apge I visted but I´d like to see more pictures of him
@brendaPMB my fathers side is associated with him somehow but i don't know much. i didnt meet my dad til i was 17 when he came back from germany but he doesnt elaborate on it i guess cuz he doesnt want people in the family running their mouth. i never heard of lorre until my dad brought him up. my father looks like him and even in myself i see it, especially in my smile its almost identical, but i'll leave it at that and let the man RIP...he already had a nut out there saying he was his son.
my dad slapped an envelope with our whole family geneology in front of me some years ago going all the way back to rosenburg and hamburg in 1760. the name loewnstein was in there, but im thinking it is a popular name there. this is what lead me to look him up on youtube. i have some pics and hollywood paperwork in my possesion too. so i guess it is what it is. hollywood aside, he was just any other person. i think he was real cute. it's disturbing to think he might be blood lol...MIGHT be.
@JennelleBelle Yes, he was a normal man and also as cute as a buttom! but people tend to see him as the moster in the movies *sigh*.. a monster my a***
i wish he had taken better care of himself. he aged so quickly between 1935-1950. addictions out the ass stemming from a gall surgery gone wrong years back in vienna. however, give me a choice between some young hot stallion and a young peter lorre (preferable as dr. gogol lol) and well, id hop on peter like a bugger.
Wow...if this show was still running today, I could see us REALLY effing it up, you know? It ws such a classy show then. If it was on today, it would be painful to watch because it wouldn't even compare to the original
@whenmonkeysattack16 The series ran right into the '80s, I believe and got schlocky looking although still had some good guests, like George Carlin. I've read that someone's doing a live version in L.A. (Mark Evanier talks about it occasionally on his blog and you could search it there).
This guy was fascinating to watch in movies. There just aren't the same calibre of humans in the business anymore. Peter Lore, William Powell, Walter Brennan, Cary Grant,Bette Davis, Rosalind Russell, and so many more. They were so rich with personality and integrity. Something awful happened to the movie business. The people running it became very shallow, and the people they hired were just like them. Who says the lines is more important than what the lines are. Now we have whores and gays
@Indygoguy Hey man, I was with you until the gay slurs. Society has ALWAYS had gay men and women, they just had different degrees of acceptance and visibility. And there are many fine, truly talented gay actors today, like Sir Ian McClellan, Jane Leach, Jodie Foster, Alan Cumming, Neil Patrick Harris, Jim Parsons, and the list goes on. Tim Gunn deserves an honorable mention for Project Runway. You can hate gay people all you want, but please keep it to yourself.
@Chizpurfle52595 So what, there have been murderers and thieves that were competent in their professions. MGM just filed bankruptcy, so I guess todays crop of actors and directors and producers just aren't cutting it. You can praise Neil Harris and all of them all you want but they leave people cold. If an actor is openly gay the public doesn't like them the way they liked a John Wayne , Douglas Fairbanks Jr, William Powel, Jimmy Stewart, Charles Bronson, Tyronne Power or a Peter Lore.
@Chizpurfle52595 And I don't mean to infer that any of those actors I mention were gay and not "open" about it. They weren't gay at all. My point is that the people producing and acting in movies and television today do not have the same morals as those people of the thirties forties and fifties and half way through the sixties. What they produce today is infused with their spirit of perversion and it is dull garbage.
@Indygoguy Actually, the studios had "fixers," like MGM's Eddie Strickland (who later wound up running the studio!). They'd cover up all the mayhem and debauchery by bribing the cops and so on. Like when Wallace Beery and 2 other guys allegedly beat Ted "3 Stooges" Healy to death in the parking lot of the Trocadero. I grew up believing it was three mysterious college kids who killed him and disappeared.
@Indygoguy The morals of the era didn't match the offscreen behavior but you are exactly right that today's entertainment is gradually becoming more and more suffused with S&M-like sicknesses and it gets more overt every day. Someone noted that when Jack Paar interviewed Judy Garland, he pointed out that her legs were visible but ignored that she was slurringly drunk. Today she'd be expected to wear a thong but they'd burn her at the stake for being drunk.
@Chizpurfle52595 Go compare a movie and it's remake. Being gay you would probably like "The Women". Someone actually posted it here on Youtube. Now compare it to it's remake made a couple of years ago starring Meg Ryan. I've only seen the trailer for the remake but one can tell it can't hold a candle to the original. All of the class and wit and fun is gone and in it's place one gets a sort of "designing women" where the women rant and run around looking like plastic surgery mummidied sluts
I liked Peter Lorre best as the nervous Dr Einstein in the movie Arsenic and Old Lace. And yes, diptwares, I remember when everybody did a Peter Lorre impersonation.
@kirkbyla If you're referring to my recent comment, I haven't seen "M" for years. The only thing that I can remember is the shocking content and Peter Lorre's performance. I can hear him uttering your line.
I first saw Lorre in a Jerry Lewis film, and was surprised later on when I saw how thin he was for most of his career and what a fine actor. He was born Laszlo Lowenstein in Hungary and came to America in the 1930s ahead of the Nazi onslaught. I always remember him in the Maltese Falcon identifying himself as Joel Cairo who is staying at the Hotel Belvedere.
@CarlDuke Maltese Falcon is where I first saw Lorre; Joel Cairo was such a cool character, hehe. His real life story was pretty amazing, in a way he stuck it to the Nazis by becoming such a success. ;)
see him in The Patsy with Jerry Lewis....I think that was the last thing he did being a friend of Jerry Lewis he wanted to do this last project for his friend Lewis
@ClassicsWEREandARE I saw Peter Lorre in The Patsy. As usual he does a great job, I remember him more than anyone else in the supporting cast. It was indeed the last thing he did, but according to his biography he actually wasn't too happy with it, he didn't even want to go and see it when it came out.
I love this guy. It is like you can taste his character. For me he is someone with zero self esteem, that tries and tries and fails, for himself, but keeps trying to be the really cool guy that he is. I loved him in Casablanca. He stole the first few minutes of the bar.
@timtak1 Yeah I think that's true in a way. Peter did seem to have self esteem issues, yet at the same time always fought to stand out in his films, even when the studios tried to keep him down.
@timtak1 And just to let you know, there's a Peter Lorre messageboard at proboards. For some reason I can't put the link here but you can just type "Peter Lorre messageboard" into Google. :)
@redcardinalist It is a nice film! It's always so touching how well Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet worked together. TCM has some clips from Mask of Dimitrios on their website in the media room section.
@Knoxvicious it was all due to his morphine and alcohol addictions. he had a bad surgery in the 30's that pretty much effed him up for life. the man lived in constant pain.
One of my favorite song lyrics ever: "You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre contemplating a crime." From Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat".
It's nice to see Peter Lorre in his later years, without role playing, just being himself! For an actor whose stock in trade was playing villains he never loses his continental charm, I'd love to have been one of ladies who received his hand kiss!
Peter Lorre was also the first James Bond villain, in the 1950s TV version of "Casino Royale," long before the Sean Connery movies. The first villain in the first James Bond screen adaptation of the first book in Ian Fleming's series.
Onlymusical 1 week ago
When Lorre came to America, Chaplin called him the world's finest actor, which they used in the previews for his first American movie. To my knowledge, no one has ever stolen a scene from Lorre, and he worked with Cary Grant, Bela Lugosi, Humphrey Bogart, and the great Mickey Rooney.
Onlymusical 2 weeks ago
@Onlymusical I agree, no one ever stole a scene from him, much to George Raft's chagrin, hehe.
NeverDoubt1 1 week ago
@NeverDoubt1 You surprised me by mentioning the much-maligned Raft, one of my great favorites who left his Warners contract, sinking his career, in the wake of a film he did with Lorre and much of the cast of "Casablanca." Raft, famously illiterate, misunderstood that Jack Warner was supposed to pay him $10,000 to buy him out of his contract, and paid the ten grand to Warner instead, who quickly pocketed his check like the weasel that he was.
Onlymusical 1 week ago
@Onlymusical Oh yeah Raft is OK I was just referring to the story where Raft supposedly hit Lorre for upstaging him, hehe.
NeverDoubt1 1 week ago
@NeverDoubt1 I'd forgotten about that! Raft was legendarily pugnacious. When he and Edw. G. Robinson were shooting "Manpower" (which Raft chose over "The Maltese Falcon" because of its great director, Raoul Walsh), they had a fistfight right on the set that was splashed all over the newspapers, and it wasn't a stunt. Either Raft was frustrated because Robinson replaced McLaglen but got top billing with an inflated part, or it was over Dietrich, one of Raft's literally countless women.
Onlymusical 1 week ago
Florida presents what's my line!
spindalis79 2 weeks ago
This was January 1960, 4 years before Peter's untimely death.
ranhar1 2 weeks ago
He's even more adorable old!
BehindTheSpiderEyes 2 weeks ago
One of my favorite actors. This show had a lot of cool guests... hell, it had Dali.
rpaxon 1 month ago
"Wanna bet?" Ballsy!
Nerdicaful 1 month ago
I always have to laugh about the title of this show:
"What´s my l i n e" ?
Ha, ha !
The German version was entitled "What am I ?" - also pretty funny !
MrSKINFLICK 2 months ago
Actually, Peter WAS known for comedy before 'M'!
Atheneastro 2 months ago 3
god,he got fat
Diskobanger 2 months ago
@Diskobanger:
Yep, he got fat + smoked too much, that´s why he died so early, alas, still we love him in Germany, too - LMFAO !
MrSKINFLICK 2 months ago
@Diskobanger He was a morphine addict and I remember reading once in "Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine" that he gained an abrupt hundred pounds during an illness, bifurcating his appearance even more emphatically than his co-star Cary Grant's removal of a mole from his cheek in 1950. Scared the hell out me more than anything else I ever saw in that magazine. Or anywhere else.
Onlymusical 1 week ago
Looney tunes is how i found out about this guy :D
devyp2theizo 4 months ago 4
I wish I could have watched the movie with the odors. I guess we'll never know what the odors were, or even if someone told us, we wouldn't be able to experience them.
RelVleDy 4 months ago
@RelVleDy
They were all like cheap perfume, according to people close to the project. Most viewers couldn't really stand it, so the company went from putting the scent in the whole movie theatre to just giving out scratch 'n sniff cards.
dharmaWolves 4 months ago
In everything I've seen he was alot thinner :) Peter Lorre is amazing.
captain0ldy0da 4 months ago
Thumbs up if you are hooked on watching these great clips
pyrofella 5 months ago 2
Bring smell-o-vision to YouTube!!
culwin 5 months ago
@meg3325 TV. TV did it.
rokbarry 5 months ago
Completely charming!
srogoff40 5 months ago
Smell o vision!
stephaopi 6 months ago
Americans were witty, smart and educated in those days. What happened?
meg3325 6 months ago 15
@meg3325 Today, they should have guys standing behind movie screens emitting smells based on what's happening on-screen. Why?... Because it creates jobs! Make it happen, Obama!
RelVleDy 5 months ago 4
@RelVleDy Lol yup, Smell o Vision will save the nation! : D
NeverDoubt1 4 months ago
@meg3325:
"Americans were witty, smart and educated in those days. What happened?"
Because they have no more guests like Peter Lorre ?
Read my other comments, he´s deeply revered in Germany even nowadays, what a charisma !
MrSKINFLICK 2 months ago 2
@meg3325 The education system was purposely dumbed down to make for a pliable electorate, the oldest trick in the book. A newer trick, computerized voting machines, will eventually render that superfluous along with a lot of other things.
Onlymusical 1 week ago
Comment removed
CowLunch 1 week ago
@meg3325 Too much TV and not enough radio and reading.
thesocialpet 1 week ago
gilgallen was a dumb bitch
eeeewd33 6 months ago
he might not have primarily been a comedian, but The Raven with Vincent Price and Jack Nicholson was hilarious
Independantfellow 7 months ago 2
He looks much fatter in this video than in his movies with Humphrey.
joshster89 7 months ago
why is it in these old shows the women all look like they have flat heads with the mouth too close to the chin?
mrspivvy 7 months ago
@mrspivvy maybe thats just what t.v. execs thought looked good on t.v. at the time. speaking of strange physical features of women in the 50's and so on. What ever happened to good old fashioned missile tits?, they are quite rare these days . It was'nt the bra's either ;p
uhltron 7 months ago
@mrspivvy Probably just the style of hair and makeup in those days.
IcePirate3 6 months ago
@mrspivvy The flat heads were to set a beer on top of and the placement of the mouth enabled fellatio without needing to wipe the chin afterward.
Onlymusical 1 week ago
Like CDU916 said, it's really interesting to see PL as himself. In this clip he reminds me a lot of some elderly members at my synagogue, who are Hungarian like he was. Not only his accent, but how he words things.
IcePirate3 7 months ago
@IcePirate3:Now please enlighten me: Peter Lorre was a Hungarian ?
Maybe the ancestry, but what the fuck...
I like Hungarians a lot (not some of the present anti-semitic ones), but i wonder what might be at stake, if all people with certain language background of the family might be declared to belong to this+that cunt-ry, pretty absurd, Lorre was a German actor who escaped the Nazis. We all have different "heritage" in our "genes", but let´s FORGET that now please, it is nonsense !
MrSKINFLICK 2 months ago
@MrSKINFLICK Well he was born in Austria-Hungary.
Heralde8 2 months ago
@Heralde8:It may be that he had the Austrian citizenship,because first he fled to Austria in 1933,before emigrating to the USA.Goebbels(who was an"intelligent"devil,if he just wanted to) is reported to have"advised"him to go.In my opinion M by Fritz Lang was a bleak anticipation of all the Nazi hysteria coming later,the Nazis actually exploited the hysteria of the populace concerning infanticides.
Lorre remarked:"There´s no place for 2 murderers like me+Hitler in Germany, so i´ll go!"
MrSKINFLICK 2 months ago
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Heralde8 2 months ago
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Heralde8 2 months ago
@MrSKINFLICK I'm just saying that's where he was born, it's in his biography. :)
Heralde8 2 months ago
@MrSKINFLICK From Wikipedia's article on Peter Lorre, for what it might be worth: "Lorre was born as László Löwenstein into a Jewish family in Rózsahegy (Hungarian), Rosenberg (German), Kingdom of Hungary, part of Austria-Hungary, now Ružomberok, Slovakia." That sounds convoluted enough to confuse anybody. I'm like you, I always thought he was German and never thought he was Hungarian like Lugosi (who was actually Transylvanian).
Onlymusical 1 week ago
@Onlymusical He didn't live in Hungary very long but he considered himself Hungarian more than German.
NeverDoubt1 1 week ago
@NeverDoubt1: As i answered to Onlymusical - he grew up in the border region of Hungary/Austria + (later) Slovakia as a son of parents with German-sounding surnames - people from such regions often married with no regard to their ethnic background, though he can´t have been a German, Austrians had + have their own citizenships, but the national language in Austria is German of course.
MrSKINFLICK 1 week ago
@Onlymusical:Contrary to what many idiotic racists would like to hear or read: This border region of Austria/Hungary/Czechoslovakia was always ethnically mixed, because people often married with NO regard to their ethnic background.German minorities were also often"in the game".Stubborn racism is a product of the late 19th+early 20th century + had a lot to do with economic envy.The Ruhrgebiet megacity in Northrhine-Westfalia has a larger minority of naturalized Poles since ca. 1900.
MrSKINFLICK 1 week ago
@MrSKINFLICK Yes, eugenics and economic envy were the reasons for the concentration camps, especially the latter. Read Michael Crichton's brief essays in the back of his novel "State of Fear" for some compelling thoughts about this.
Onlymusical 1 week ago
@Onlymusical: The ridiculous thing is that the Nazis were such ugly creeps that they should have admitted themselves to the extermination camps first, my German grandfather always said: "They were partly so ugly, if we only had had TV already back then," but TV also doesn´t often help a lot, as you can see by bigots in the USA who vote for Newt Gingrich nowadays, yuck ! I always liked Lorre´s remark: "There's no place for TWO murderers like Hitler and me in Germany, so i better go."
MrSKINFLICK 1 week ago
@Onlymusical:Wiki: "His parents were Alois Loewenstein+Elvira Freischberger. When he was a child his family moved to Vienna where Lorre attended school. He began acting on stage in Vienna at the age of 17..." So his family background was obviously Austrian+German language+his parents very probably German-speaking jews. It´s not too unsual in this region or elsewhere among German-speaking people to give a child a foreign name,besides he may have had Hungarian elements in his family.
MrSKINFLICK 1 week ago
Lazlo Lowenstein AKA Peter Lorre.
cleancab 7 months ago
Peter Lorre...A true giant among an era of giants....Smell-O-Vision...What current television has become
CarloQuinto 8 months ago 5
And to think Arlene Francis was a "street waker" in her first movie with Bela Lugosi as well!
harsishava 9 months ago
lol, smell-o-vision?
omgwallzz 11 months ago 15
What year was this?
smileyface7727 11 months ago
I love that the audience went wild for Peter Lorre. I think people really liked him, despite the fact he mostly played villains.
funkeekatt 1 year ago 31
@funkeekatt Yeah it's true he was really beloved by audiences, especially when he partnered with Sydney Greenstreet I think. I read that when Peter was touring veterans hospitals, people were always asking him "What's Sydney Greenstreet like?" Lol
NeverDoubt1 1 year ago 4
@NeverDoubt1 I love reading about old movie stars. I think it's cool that many actors mostly known for playing villains were actually quite cultured and nice. Boris Karloff, Vincent Price and Edward G. Robinson were very cultured gentlemen I've read.
funkeekatt 1 year ago 5
@funkeekatt And Bela Lugosi was no slouch either. God, talk about bringing something to the screen! By the way, I think Boris Karloff's best performance was in a small supporting role in "Scarface."
Onlymusical 1 week ago
@funkeekatt Robinson had invested heavily in modern art, which came in handy when he was blacklisted.
Onlymusical 1 week ago
@NeverDoubt1 Lorre and Greenstreet made nine movies together, in some of which they got top billing (with Greenstreet always billed above Lorre).
Onlymusical 1 week ago
@Onlymusical Actually Lorre was above Greenstreet for Maltese Falcon, but yes after that Greenstreet was on top. In fact one time Peter was billed 5th even though he was clearly the star of the film. Supposedly the studio wasn't happy with some of his associations during the HUAC crisis.
NeverDoubt1 1 week ago
@NeverDoubt1 Lorre found himself in a nation run by some people not too different from the one he left, unfortunately. Have you seen Chaplin's "A King in New York?"
Onlymusical 1 week ago
@NeverDoubt1Is this about the Mask of Dimitrios?Cause i recently watched the film and although he was clearly the star he was either 4th or 5th...I thought WTF?
ThePythonfan 1 week ago
@ThePythonfan Yup Mask of Dimitrios. It was very much a slap in the face, heh.
NeverDoubt1 1 week ago
@NeverDoubt1 Yes stupid people they exploited him ,his name and talent...ugh.
ThePythonfan 1 week ago
@ThePythonfan Still he was more fortunate than most; he pretty much got to pioneer the Film Noir genre.
NeverDoubt1 1 week ago
@NeverDoubt1 That is totally true.He got to pioneer in many things and is really remembered even after 106 years.But it's sad how the bussines mistreated such a talent!
ThePythonfan 1 week ago
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NeverDoubt1 1 week ago
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@ThePythonfan It basically represents the contradiction of American culture. America represented freedom and safety for the European refugee artists, but Hollywood was not necessarily a haven for high art. ;)
NeverDoubt1 1 week ago
@funkeekatt I think it's due to him playing villains with dept and, as Arlene said, with those big sad eyes. He never was an evil villain, but someone who'd gone wrong - but had these good or sad tendencies in him.
MsSarjen 4 months ago 2
@MsSarjen Very astute analysis of Peter Lorre!
Onlymusical 1 week ago
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MrSKINFLICK 2 months ago
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@funkeekatt:
He WAS a good + very clever German, he despised the Nazis and left soon in horror, and M by Fritz Lang was an anticipation of the Nazis + Goebbels was not so silly not to recognize that, he would have put Lorre in a concentration camp. I wonder he ever had a party with Marlene Dietrich, both must have amused themselves with a lot of laughter & grotesque humor about the fate of too silly Germans back then....i am sad that he died so early...too early !
MrSKINFLICK 2 months ago
@funkeekatt Everybody on earth loved him because he was so colorful and amusing as a performer and always brought enough to the table to the point that the greatest leading men had to hold on to their hats to try to keep up. There's a lot to be said for simply bringing something to see to the screen. Look at my own favorite actor, Wallace Beery.
Onlymusical 1 week ago
He got really big
667mumble 1 year ago
@667mumble He had health problems later in life, though at least he's still very sharp here. :)
NeverDoubt1 1 year ago
If Colin Farrell appeared on that show they would have to rename it 'what's your *ucking problem?''
planetrockford 1 year ago 8
he used to look like a boston terrier but as he aged he definitely resembled the pug. cute
gardenvarietypenis 1 year ago 6
A remarkable actor who got pigeon-holed in 'Casablanca" as a sinister bad man. Scarily wonderful performance in "M" a decade earlier. You can see he was a gentleman; modest, and with impeccable manners.
maxreger100 1 year ago
@maxreger100 Yes, Peter Lorre was definitely one of the greatest of all actors. When he emigrated to America, Chaplin announced that he was the world's finest actor, which they used in the trailer for his first American movie.
Onlymusical 1 week ago
Oh, Smell-O-Vision. Whatever happened to you.
Thicket9 1 year ago 5
Don't you just love his voice.
DrLeonardBonesMcCoy 1 year ago 8
@DrLeonardBonesMcCoy I do... he was an amazing actor!!!
brendaPMB 1 year ago
I wish there were more actors like him today I think the only actor I can think of that lives up to his awesomeness and that is probably Alfred Molina. I'm sorry if none of you agree with this comment.
DrLeonardBonesMcCoy 1 year ago 3
Dorothy looks good here.
torchkit 1 year ago
HE'S ADORABLE
Aidooosh 1 year ago 4
Well he got the name peter because fritz thought he looked like the character Peter in an old childrens book in Germany. And they gave him the last name Lorre which is German for parrot. However his great nephew was given his real name ladislav but everyone calls him Larry.
JennelleBelle 1 year ago 2
@JennelleBelle really.. never heard of that, how do you know?
brendaPMB 1 year ago
I love how everyone is cheering for him and being a lovely audience and such gracious guests! HE'S SUCH A CUTE OLD MAN!!!
Also Smellovision? What the fuck.
Chizpurfle52595 1 year ago
@Chizpurfle52595 I know he's old here but I can't think of him as an "old man". I also think "cute" is somehow an inappropriate adjective for him. I've seen too many movies where he was the villain, but a delicious villain, to ever think of him as so.... harmless. I guess I've just seen too many films where his character was genial like this but really had very sinister goals. It's the anticipation for that surprise that one has when watching him that is so fun.
Indygoguy 1 year ago
Ive always loved Peter Lorre - such a personality.
MsSarjen 1 year ago 5
you guys should see his brother andrew...sptting fricken image (well back in the 80's at least). same voice and all. it was like seeing peter if he hadnt had all those problems that aged him so fast and ended him so early.
JennelleBelle 1 year ago
@JennelleBelle did you know the Lorre family entirely? you seem to know them so well.. I have only seen a picture of Andrew when he was young from a apge I visted but I´d like to see more pictures of him
brendaPMB 1 year ago
@brendaPMB my fathers side is associated with him somehow but i don't know much. i didnt meet my dad til i was 17 when he came back from germany but he doesnt elaborate on it i guess cuz he doesnt want people in the family running their mouth. i never heard of lorre until my dad brought him up. my father looks like him and even in myself i see it, especially in my smile its almost identical, but i'll leave it at that and let the man RIP...he already had a nut out there saying he was his son.
JennelleBelle 1 year ago
my dad slapped an envelope with our whole family geneology in front of me some years ago going all the way back to rosenburg and hamburg in 1760. the name loewnstein was in there, but im thinking it is a popular name there. this is what lead me to look him up on youtube. i have some pics and hollywood paperwork in my possesion too. so i guess it is what it is. hollywood aside, he was just any other person. i think he was real cute. it's disturbing to think he might be blood lol...MIGHT be.
JennelleBelle 1 year ago
@JennelleBelle Yes, he was a normal man and also as cute as a buttom! but people tend to see him as the moster in the movies *sigh*.. a monster my a***
brendaPMB 1 year ago
@JennelleBelle Oh well.. you are lucky if you are related to him in some ways :D
brendaPMB 1 year ago
i wish he had taken better care of himself. he aged so quickly between 1935-1950. addictions out the ass stemming from a gall surgery gone wrong years back in vienna. however, give me a choice between some young hot stallion and a young peter lorre (preferable as dr. gogol lol) and well, id hop on peter like a bugger.
JennelleBelle 1 year ago
Wow...if this show was still running today, I could see us REALLY effing it up, you know? It ws such a classy show then. If it was on today, it would be painful to watch because it wouldn't even compare to the original
whenmonkeysattack16 1 year ago
@whenmonkeysattack16 I have to admit, I can picture some of today's celebrities making fools of themselves on this show, heh.
Heralde8 1 year ago
@whenmonkeysattack16 The series ran right into the '80s, I believe and got schlocky looking although still had some good guests, like George Carlin. I've read that someone's doing a live version in L.A. (Mark Evanier talks about it occasionally on his blog and you could search it there).
Onlymusical 1 week ago
I'd have thought he'd try to fool them into thinking he was vincent price
busessuck1 1 year ago
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This guy was fascinating to watch in movies. There just aren't the same calibre of humans in the business anymore. Peter Lore, William Powell, Walter Brennan, Cary Grant,Bette Davis, Rosalind Russell, and so many more. They were so rich with personality and integrity. Something awful happened to the movie business. The people running it became very shallow, and the people they hired were just like them. Who says the lines is more important than what the lines are. Now we have whores and gays
Indygoguy 1 year ago
@Indygoguy
Very well put! I second that emotion!
:-)
JubalCalif 1 year ago
@Indygoguy Hey man, I was with you until the gay slurs. Society has ALWAYS had gay men and women, they just had different degrees of acceptance and visibility. And there are many fine, truly talented gay actors today, like Sir Ian McClellan, Jane Leach, Jodie Foster, Alan Cumming, Neil Patrick Harris, Jim Parsons, and the list goes on. Tim Gunn deserves an honorable mention for Project Runway. You can hate gay people all you want, but please keep it to yourself.
Chizpurfle52595 1 year ago
@Chizpurfle52595 So what, there have been murderers and thieves that were competent in their professions. MGM just filed bankruptcy, so I guess todays crop of actors and directors and producers just aren't cutting it. You can praise Neil Harris and all of them all you want but they leave people cold. If an actor is openly gay the public doesn't like them the way they liked a John Wayne , Douglas Fairbanks Jr, William Powel, Jimmy Stewart, Charles Bronson, Tyronne Power or a Peter Lore.
Indygoguy 1 year ago
@Chizpurfle52595 And I don't mean to infer that any of those actors I mention were gay and not "open" about it. They weren't gay at all. My point is that the people producing and acting in movies and television today do not have the same morals as those people of the thirties forties and fifties and half way through the sixties. What they produce today is infused with their spirit of perversion and it is dull garbage.
Indygoguy 1 year ago
@Indygoguy Actually, the studios had "fixers," like MGM's Eddie Strickland (who later wound up running the studio!). They'd cover up all the mayhem and debauchery by bribing the cops and so on. Like when Wallace Beery and 2 other guys allegedly beat Ted "3 Stooges" Healy to death in the parking lot of the Trocadero. I grew up believing it was three mysterious college kids who killed him and disappeared.
Onlymusical 1 week ago
@Indygoguy The morals of the era didn't match the offscreen behavior but you are exactly right that today's entertainment is gradually becoming more and more suffused with S&M-like sicknesses and it gets more overt every day. Someone noted that when Jack Paar interviewed Judy Garland, he pointed out that her legs were visible but ignored that she was slurringly drunk. Today she'd be expected to wear a thong but they'd burn her at the stake for being drunk.
Onlymusical 1 week ago
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@Chizpurfle52595 Go compare a movie and it's remake. Being gay you would probably like "The Women". Someone actually posted it here on Youtube. Now compare it to it's remake made a couple of years ago starring Meg Ryan. I've only seen the trailer for the remake but one can tell it can't hold a candle to the original. All of the class and wit and fun is gone and in it's place one gets a sort of "designing women" where the women rant and run around looking like plastic surgery mummidied sluts
Indygoguy 1 year ago
A GREAT ACTOR
bobszvetics1 1 year ago
I liked Peter Lorre best as the nervous Dr Einstein in the movie Arsenic and Old Lace. And yes, diptwares, I remember when everybody did a Peter Lorre impersonation.
valentine0591 1 year ago 4
@valentine0591 I think he's in his best looks there !Finaly someon that agrees! Great part!
ThePythonfan 1 week ago
I can't believe how much fun it is watching these 50 plus years old guest spots. When I was a kid every one did a Peter Lorre impersonation,
diptwares 1 year ago
what's with the wolf whistles???
diddymuck 1 year ago
@diddymuck Because he's a sexy beast.
ZZTopRockman 1 year ago 7
it was the Hand the Hand i tell you
kirkbyla 1 year ago 2
@kirkbyla If you're referring to my recent comment, I haven't seen "M" for years. The only thing that I can remember is the shocking content and Peter Lorre's performance. I can hear him uttering your line.
errolfan 1 year ago
"M"
errolfan 1 year ago 3
Classy, motherfucker.
klickenpod 1 year ago
And dead 4 years after this aired. Lot of people died in a relatively short time after they were on.
owenowen 1 year ago
They should make a film of him starring Steve Bucemi (Mr Pink in Reservoir Dogs) as Lorre. there both amazing
MultiMurder 1 year ago
@MultiMurder ugh dont even compare that ugly thing to the beautiful mr lorre. just because they both got bug eyes dont mean shit.
JennelleBelle 1 year ago
@JennelleBelle Hey now, I happen to like Steve Buschemi and think he's quite a good actor. Yall is just bein hateful.
Chizpurfle52595 1 year ago 4
@Chizpurfle52595 expressing opnion is not being hateful. you like him, good for you.
JennelleBelle 1 year ago
I first saw Lorre in a Jerry Lewis film, and was surprised later on when I saw how thin he was for most of his career and what a fine actor. He was born Laszlo Lowenstein in Hungary and came to America in the 1930s ahead of the Nazi onslaught. I always remember him in the Maltese Falcon identifying himself as Joel Cairo who is staying at the Hotel Belvedere.
CarlDuke 1 year ago
@CarlDuke Maltese Falcon is where I first saw Lorre; Joel Cairo was such a cool character, hehe. His real life story was pretty amazing, in a way he stuck it to the Nazis by becoming such a success. ;)
Heralde8 1 year ago
A chalk board! Wowsers!
bakacrow 1 year ago
Happy Birthday Peter !!!!!
19tc85 1 year ago 2
see him in The Patsy with Jerry Lewis....I think that was the last thing he did being a friend of Jerry Lewis he wanted to do this last project for his friend Lewis
ClassicsWEREandARE 1 year ago
@ClassicsWEREandARE I saw Peter Lorre in The Patsy. As usual he does a great job, I remember him more than anyone else in the supporting cast. It was indeed the last thing he did, but according to his biography he actually wasn't too happy with it, he didn't even want to go and see it when it came out.
Heralde8 1 year ago
Smell-o-vision? I thought that was a joke.
Naxwell 1 year ago
I love this guy. It is like you can taste his character. For me he is someone with zero self esteem, that tries and tries and fails, for himself, but keeps trying to be the really cool guy that he is. I loved him in Casablanca. He stole the first few minutes of the bar.
timtak1 1 year ago 2
@timtak1 Yeah I think that's true in a way. Peter did seem to have self esteem issues, yet at the same time always fought to stand out in his films, even when the studios tried to keep him down.
Heralde8 1 year ago
@timtak1 And just to let you know, there's a Peter Lorre messageboard at proboards. For some reason I can't put the link here but you can just type "Peter Lorre messageboard" into Google. :)
Heralde8 1 year ago
What a classic Mr Lorre is
Jellogel 1 year ago
My, times have changed. Peter comes out with a lit cigarette. He was delightfully creepy.
TheLousyCafe1960 1 year ago 4
I mention Peter Lorre in The Celebrity Song.
superdavid002 1 year ago
If you ever get a chance, see "The Mask of Dimitrios" where Peter Lorre is not only the lead but the good guy for a change. Really good film.
redcardinalist 1 year ago 3
@redcardinalist It is a nice film! It's always so touching how well Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet worked together. TCM has some clips from Mask of Dimitrios on their website in the media room section.
Heralde8 1 year ago
Ohhh senoir Larrrrrwaaaaa
ShroudedFury 1 year ago
Smell-o-Vision...wait till James Cameron gets wind of this!
thewomandirector 1 year ago 8
Love Peter Lorre
RichardOliverWY 1 year ago 7
LOL He probably has one of the most recognizable voices there ever was.
Floatie114 1 year ago 22
Lorre seems to be turning in Sydney Greenstreet.
mmmmmmmmmm9999 1 year ago 2
Arlene was hot back in the day....
obdami 2 years ago
his eyes in M are epic
NationOfMasturbation 2 years ago 2
0:54, even if comedy wasn't Mr. Lorre's line, he could be extremely funny.
anton1990 2 years ago 8
agree 100%.
cutevwbug 2 years ago
LOL, if there were ever a guest who needed to disguise his voice, it was him!
pepsibookcat 2 years ago 54
Oh, this is a treasure!!!
pepsibookcat 2 years ago 5
I can't believe there's a lot of comments concerning Lorre's weight. He was probably in his 50's-60's in this, who DOESN'T put on weight during then?
Knoxvicious 2 years ago 5
@Knoxvicious
I know, people are so unforgiving about weight issues.
HeraldMB 2 years ago 3
When do they ask about his weight? Or even make a referrance to it?
mycodenameismonkey 2 years ago
I'm not talking about the comments the people in the video make. I'm talking about the Youtube comments you see here. Right below you-? o_O
Knoxvicious 2 years ago
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Actually, it was when he was 60. ;~)
mycodenameismonkey 2 years ago
@Knoxvicious it was all due to his morphine and alcohol addictions. he had a bad surgery in the 30's that pretty much effed him up for life. the man lived in constant pain.
JennelleBelle 1 year ago
One of my favorite song lyrics ever: "You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre contemplating a crime." From Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat".
ameroux 2 years ago 2
he got pretty chubby later in life, but what a prolific actor
photoalyssa 2 years ago 8
"Rick! Hide me Riiiiiiick!"
fkd1963 2 years ago 14
It's nice to see Peter Lorre in his later years, without role playing, just being himself! For an actor whose stock in trade was playing villains he never loses his continental charm, I'd love to have been one of ladies who received his hand kiss!
CDU916 2 years ago 54
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@CDU916
he was a miserable ugly Jewish pig
TheSunmanho 1 year ago
I love Peter's voice.
lotsandlotsofbubbles 2 years ago 10
Great clip!
You know it's amazing how spot on she was when she finally got