#peter lorre articles

[peterlorrefanpage]

The Genius of Peter Lorre

"I have a horrible fear that film directors will find it easier to follow in Hitchcock's steps and provide Lorre with humorous character parts than discover stories to suit his powerful genius, his overpowering sense of spiritual corruption. He is an actor of great profundity in a superficial art." - Graham Greene

From World Film News and Television Progress (Apr 1936-Mar 1937).

[peterlorrefanpage]

That's our man, oh yes, Peter Lorre

The injury brought [ice skater Belita] to America, her mother having learned of a back specialist in Los Angeles. The legit doctor was a bust- but Peter Lorre recommended a veterinarian who hung Belita heels-over-head from a meat hook, a remedy the vet used for animals. She was skating again weeks later.

Imagine you're injured and Peter Lorre suggests you hang upside down from a meat hook. And it works.

[noirgasmweetheart]

Film Experience Blog: Take Three: Peter Lorre

Saving this, partially just for the way this writer describes Ugarte.

"With tight bow tie and a film of sweat covering that malevolent face, topped off by a slicked-down side-parting, Lorre cuts an uneasy, pitiable figure as Ugarte.

He looked quite the odd one alright, but excelled at onscreen looks. He was one of the keenest observers of his co-stars. The way his eyes dance between Bogart and the rest of the bar, opportunistically sizing up everyone and everything around him, shows how alert Lorre was in character, how watchful a supporting actor he was. Ugarte seeks all available in-roads to dicey deals and illicit introductions, then seems to waltz away via hidden corners of the screen. For a man of such dissolute charms Ugarte is made unceasingly watchable himself through Lorre's expert characterful conveyance."

[alwaysalwaysalwaysthesea]

Actors including Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead and Peter Lorre discuss strategy at the home of Lawrence Tibbett. From an August 21, 1939 LIFE magazine article about a threatened AF of L strike.

(source: LIFE archives)

[peterlorrefanpage]

Tintypes Peter Lorre article found!! Thanks to the person who had been posting some Sidney Skolsky articles as referenced in my rabbithole post. Eeeee!!

And thanks to @peterlorres21stcentury, without whom I wouldn't have known this existed in the first place.

Also yes (god, yes) to the pajama-doing-away-with question. 😁

Thanks for going down this rabbithole! It's odd how this doesn't show up anywhere else and I'd hate to spread misinformation if it doesn't actually exist. All I know is that Cheryl made this post, and she copied it from a blog called "Old Movie Section," which no longer exists.

I do believe bits of this are true, especially the lecture on the relative merits of different salami, hehehe. I could see him talking about that with great interest. :D

If it was very warm out, do you think he would also do away with the pajama top? 👀 I'd like to think so.

[peterlorrefanpage]

Peter Lorre: L'attore del giorno

We've seen these pics before! I love seeing them in newsprint:

Full article in Cinema Illustrazione (Feb 1936):

[faustiandevil]

Again not a translator by trade I just do what I can with the knowledge of the language only the Devil and Hungarians speak. I would love to get some notes, or help, because this one is full of misinformation in my humble opinion. So… uh… have the Youngkin book ready I guess…

Peter Lorre – the hero of horror movies is – Hungarian!

Talking with the famous actor’s father in Budapest

Slowly climbing our way up the snow covered street in Buda. We stop before a modest looking villa that stretches into a garden. Under the doorbell stands a small nametag:

LAJOS LÓRÁNT (Translator’s notes: Okay, so this article came out in 1947, after Hungary’s involvement in WWII… on the worst side possible and after the “liberation” by the Soviet army. Now it wasn’t uncommon for Jewish people to change their name to something more Hungarian for assimilation purposes. And during that time people who had a German sounding name could be deported back to Germany… even if they lived in Hungary for generations and had no political involvement in the war. The worse option was of course a brutal death. So that’s my guess as to why it says Lóránt instead of Löwenstein.)

Inside the warm room, among the heavy furniture we shake hands with a kind old man. With Lajos Lóránt, the father of Peter Lorre, the world famous actor, the big star of the so-called >>horror movies<<. We are talking about his son, who appeared in nearly almost every big European city, but his success reached its zenith in Hollywood. Old photos, yellowed articles emerge from the depths of the huge drawer. The past is mixed with the present here, the drawer shows us the ascending career path of a great actor.

– Peter was born in Rózsahegy (Translator’s note: If you are not Hungarian I guarantee you are pronouncing it wrong.), but he was still a child, when we moved to Vienna. He studied there, – the old man’s eyes start to shine – he graduated with honors from the Wiener Handelsakademien. For a short while he worked at a bank, but his dream, to become an actor, didn’t let him rest behind the boring desk of the foreign exchange department. With his young friends he organized an experimental stage, where they performed commedia dell arte plays. – they failed with it. He first performed in a serious play in Breslau, and from here his journey lead to Zürich. (Translator’s notes: If anyone could add more to these please do so. I don’t remember anything about either places.) Then he performed in Vienna with astounding success, then he went to Berlin. There he was spotted by Fritz Lang, who contracted him for the main role in >>M<<. The peculiar movie became a world hit, and with certainty established Péter’s career as an actor.

A faded newspaper, with yellowed edges comes out from the drawer now, the first Hollywood article, which was written of Peter Lorre.

>>…Peter Lorre – states the article – doesn’t hold onto the hundreds of critiques, he only put away one. That copy of the Times, where Chaplin has said that he has seen >>M<< three times and that he considers Peter Lorre the best European actor.<<

After the nazis seized power Peter Lorre has also immigrated, first to Paris, and then to London… The great actor was received with a warm welcome by the free people of the free countries. In London with one of his roles he won the English producer’s first prize, which is equivalent to an American Oscar. (Translator’s note: What?) Mr. Lóránt is now telling us about an episode in London:

- There was a group that got together in London, the immigrants, we went there together with Péter. (Translator’s notes: The story makes it sound as if papa Löwenstein was also there with him in London, but he wasn’t… as to my knowledge… anyway let’s continue…) One day a producer has joined us, he also came from Germany. He told us of an interesting and a typical incident. When the nazis took over the UFA studio, one day Goebbels visited the ateliers in Neubabelsberg. Everyone was there to see the >>tall<< visitor. Then Goebbles had asked: - Tell me, you had once a great actor… a sort of short little man… Why is he not here? - Minister, there’s a bit of a problem with him… - Problem?! What sort of problem?! I can smooth it over! - I’m afraid, Minister, that this problem cannot be fixed. - ??? - Minister, with Peter Lorre the problem is with his… religion! Goebbels straightened himself out, and his expression turned dark: - I no longer know this man! (Translator’s notes: Not a loss if you ask me. Burn in Hell nazi scum~)

Newer photos emerge, these are from America. Success, after success.

- Does your son write often? - Oh, of course. Always with such love and would love for me to move out to him. There’s a possibility it’ll happen around the summer. And he always writes in Hungarian, always, and he always states he is Hungarian. (Translator’s notes: Again what??? Man didn’t speak the language, but he could write??? That’s new info for me… but in a previous one we were also told by papa Löwenstein that he hates writing letters and would rather call home instead… I do feel validated tho, because yes Hungarians ride horses and women, man did not deny his roots. If anyone calls him a different nationality from here on I will be collecting kneecaps just saying.)

Our time is up, the photos and articles go back into the drawer. Mr. Lóránt puts away even the smallest paper piece with such great care, as if it were expensive porcelain.

Original article by György Gaál.

Text under images:

In the first movie, in the main role of Fritz Lang’s drama >>M<<

With his father, in 1930, at Siófok (Translator’s notes: Uhhh… in the previous one I translated this image was said to be taken in 1921 Budapest… Did papa Löwenstein remember it wrong, it has been 10 years and I’m unsure how old he was at this point… He could’ve just misremembered, or the journalist made an error. Either way I feel gaslighted. If anyone knows if he took any vacays near Lake Balaton lemme know.)

With his wife in Palm Springs. The white horse was a gift from Robert Taylor

[rustbeltjessie]

Poetry’s Dead (Undead Undead Undead)

Poetry & Halloween go together like candy corn & carved pumpkins because poetry is, at its heart, a haunted thing. All poems are about ghosts, even if they’re not about ghosts. They’re all haunted by the traces of memory (the poet’s own memory, but also the ghosts of history that each word carries with it). Writing a poem is a way to summon ghosts, but it can also be a way to exorcise your ghosts & demons, or at least expel them from your mind and bind them with paper & ink. (As Sandra Cisneros wrote: I put it down on paper and then the ghost does not ache so much.) Poems are also a bit like spells. Spells to conjure the past or shape the future. Spells to heal the writer/reader, or get revenge on what has harmed them. Or creation spells which bring forth something beautiful that wasn’t there before. I suppose any form of writing could be considered a spell, but poetry feels even more tied to spell-work because of its rhythm and sound. There is something inherently incantatory about it.

So, yes, all poetry fits into the Halloween season, at least in some small way. But one can make the connection even more obvious, depending on what is being written about. And that is exactly what I’m doing with both my current works-in-progress. All writers write about their obsessions. I am a giant nerd who is kinda goth, so some of my obsessions are very Halloween-y. If all poems are implicitly about ghosts, many of my poems are explicitly about ghosts. Ghosts are the overarching theme in my in-progress full length collection. Some of its other themes and inspirations include: murder ballads, urban legends, fairy and folk tales, witchcraft, monsters, and horror films. I recently completed a poem for that manuscript titled “Planet of the Monster Girls.” It’s about a group of girls obsessed with classic horror films and their stars: Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, and Lon Chaney, Jr. Writing that poem rekindled my own obsession with those actors. I splurged on Etsy items relating to them, and built a sort of altar/shrine in my workspace. I rewatched their films, and did internet and library searches for more information about those monstrous leading men. And then the poems came. I found myself scribbling epistolary prosepoems to Peter Lorre. (It started with him because I have a long-running obsession with Mr. Lorre that would require an entire separate essay to explain). Soon after, I began writing missives to the rest of them, too.

I have so many other things I’m working on right now that I tried to resist it at first. No way am I starting another effing book, I told myself. But the epistolary poems kept coming, and then I started doing some erasures as well, from the books and articles I’ve been reading about those men. (Because how often does one find a source text full of choice words like quirky, deviant, venom, mesmeric, dread, and menace?) After a couple weeks, I had to admit to myself that I am, indeed, working on a new book. I don’t yet know what the final form or structure will be, or whether it will be a chapbook or a full-length. But right now I don’t care, because I am enjoying the process. This project is giving me a way to discuss serious topics while paying tribute to some of my favorite actors and films. It is giving me a fun way to juxtapose the ‘high art’ of poetry with the ‘low art’ of vintage horror, noir, and b-movies. (And it gave me an excuse to decorate a special notebook in which to write the poems.)

Yes, poetry & Halloween go together like ghosts and crumbling old mansions. Yes, all poems are spells and summonings. And this year, I’m spending my Halloween season writing spells which summon the ghosts of my muses: Boris, Bela, Peter, Vincent, & Lon.

—Jessie Lynn McMains (originally published in The Poetry Question, October 2019)

[peterlorres21stcentury]

When the Filmpocalyse arrives and physical media ceases to be a choice (because y'all threw it away faster than a toddler grabbing for a new toy) you won't be getting any of my DVDs, mwahaha.

...unless I like you. You're cool.

Incidentally, if you do have DVDs, I recommend copying them over to external storage if you can (MakeMKV is what I use). Mp4s and .mkvs are playable in most devices, at least for now, and I'm foreseeing a dark time when there is no longer any support for DVD players. Or the greedy companies slap some extra devious DRM tomfoolery on top of what already exists. Save the files while you can.

Every person [surveyed] said they worry about losing access to films – a not irrational fear. Cillian Murphy just won the Oscar for best actor for Oppenheimer, but the movie that made him a star, 2002’s critically lauded and commercially successful 28 Days Later, is virtually impossible to stream. It’s also out of print on disc, with used copies fetching $60 or $70 on eBay. It’s partly for this reason that the actor Timothy Simons, best known as Jonah on Veep, prefers physical films. There’s a notion that, “you know, ‘Everything’s available on streaming,’” he told me. “Well, it kind of isn’t. And the thing that is available on streaming could just not be tomorrow, if two companies you don’t care about get in a fight about licensing.”

[frogmuse]

Culture | Peter Lorre : à l'ombre de la malédiction | VerdamMnis Magazine

Peter Lorre mon ❤️ pour toi est ♾️

[peterlorres21stcentury]

hey, I resemble that remark

I wish I could find this again, or even remember what the person was talking about, but a few years ago I came across an internet comment or possibly an article that was trying to describe some unpleasant experience in a humorously exaggerated way. Their comparison was, roughly: "like making out with a sweaty Peter Lorre."

And then there's me, lurking creepily on the edges of life and unable to even pretend being normal: "that's a bad thing because...?" 😏

totally unrelated visual aid

[noirgasmweetheart]

This article surprisingly fails to mention the two publicity photos featuring the cats.

[quanatural]

Ah, I like articles about Peter Lorre's animated image ...thank you,op!!!,Thank you for writing this down, and for choosing such a handsome photo.😆😆😆

I'm also looking for the book devoted to PL animation image, and someone actually published this book! ? ahahaha

I am very interested in the gossip here. Although I have looked up a lot of information about John K, I haven't read his post saying that he is a fan of Peter Lorre. Of course, my friends and I often make fun of this, so it's not surprising if he is.And those fan paintings kept by Peter Lorre ...

I especially like the last paragraph. Yes, Peter Lorre did live forever in animation. I sometimes think that he seems to have come out of animation ... I don't know, he may be the god of multimedia.

I swear I will make an animation about Peter Lorre in the future.Ah, I think that's my mission as an animation student, doing what I love.

@bluebellthesponge

Hmm I dunno tbh. I guess he's just easy to caricature. Bug eyes, crooked teeth, short stature, creepy voice. Even describing it probably puts a handful of characters in your mind.

According to the book The Animated Peter Lorre, there's at least 700+ lorre caricatures/impressions in cartoons. Tho he does include igor-type characters and impressions of an impressions but still, that's A LOT. Too bad the author doesn't give an explaination as to WHY Lorre is so parodied.

I know Looney tunes parodied Lorre because he was one of the popular stars of the day, Looney tunes parodies a lot of famous stars from the 40s so it's not really surprising. I also know in the 90s Looney tunes reboots you have a lot of lorre caricatures because the animators were fans of his movies.

I've heard a story about how Lorre stuck up for the animation union at Warner Brothers and got fired for it and that's why he is caricatured so often as a way to honor him. I kinda doubt the story is true because I can't find a source (and Lorre was more likely fired for beefing with Jack Warner) but if the story is true then it's super wholesome.

Something that is official is Charles Addams (the creator of the Addams Family) telling Lorre that he based Gomez Addams off of him. I know people hate on the 2019 Addams family movies for making Gomez ugly but it's comic accurate because he was based off of Lorre (and the governor of new york in the 30s but that's not important)

I've also heard Lorre parodies are possibly an antisemetic caricature because Peter Lorre was Jewish (his birthname is Laszlo Löwenstein and you can guess why he avoided using it) and let's be real, they often give him very unflattering portrayals. He barely played horror yet is the most affiliated with it, and his "creepier" roles sometimes hinged on the fact that he's a foreigner. It's not a good look. I get that he often avoided telling others he's Jewish and apparently a lot of people didn't know but there's still a weird layer of xenophobia to it that I kinds feel like kinda bleeds into some of the caricatures? That's just my opinion. Most Peter parodies are such copies of a copy that they're pretty far from the original source material. Still, it's food for thought. Especially when making your own Peter parody.

As far as I do know Lorre did like the caricatures, keeping some of the drawings fans sent him and even finding it amusing when others tell him how to do an impression of HIMSELF. Some of those saved fan drawings are still online. My favorite is the drawing of him as a turtle <3 Most of the caricatures was because he was pretty famous for the time.

The most amusing thing about peter parodies is that it's gone on so long that nobody really knows who lorre is, but they can identify his "image" in cartoons. Tim Burton didn't even know Lorre's name when he added Maggot in corpse bride, but he did know the voice and look. That's how it is. (Check out this maggot pin I got recently)

I know for Slappy, Kaz is actually a fan of Peter Lorre and collects his movies, hence why we have Slappy. I remember from Kaz's Facebook where he mentions Slappy saying he never knew just HOW many characters were inspired by lorre. There's also John K (creator of Ren and Stimpy, I know he's terrible) who mentioned on his personal blog that he's a big fan of Lorre which is why Ren from Ren and Stimpy is based off of him. I've notice Ren quotes some Peter Lorre movie quotes, aside from his famous catchphrase "YOU EEEDIOT" of course. (Check out this Ren and Stimpy comic where Ren meets Joel Cairo, a character Peter Lorre played)

I just think it's neat. He shows up everywhere all the time :) I made a joke Thomas The Tank Engine Peter Parody but @thekhaotickrab messaged me saying they found an actual Thomas character with Lorre's voice which is pretty hilarous. Many of these I find amusing because there's no reason for it to exist. Yeah, there's a Peter Parody transformer named Cosmos and he likes scaring people because he's lonely. Yeah, there's several in Scooby Doo for some reason. Yeah he's GOMEZ ADDAMS. He's also a GPS in hotel Transylvania 2. He's also a literal egg with legs in digimon. He's also a lamp.

I heard Lorre's dream was to continue to act forever. He sorta got that wish because he keeps respawning in cartoons forever. I hope this tradition keeps up. Slappy gets a lot of shit but I'm forever grateful to that ugly little fish for introducing me to all of this <3 May the Peter Parody live on forever!

[kjudgemental]

New piece on Peter Lorre up on TFM now, go check it out and support independent writing.

[peterlorrefanpage]

Lorre-storre

"Twinkling motoishly?" Oh, dear. I mean, I get it, just - the lowercase phrasing is a bit much.

But I really would love more Lorre-storres and maybe that just needs to be a thing.

From Motion Picture (Aug 1938-Jan 1939).