October 6, 2009

Take a Class on "Peter Lorre"

From Oct. 6 to Nov. 3, 2009, Lorre fans in Vero Beach, Florida, will be able to study the life and career of the classic film actor.

The World of Peter Lorre” will be offered through the Education and Film Department at the Vero Beach Museum of Art. Warren Obluck, the museum’s film studies coordinator, will lead the discussions and screen several Lorre movies, including M (1931), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Beat the Devil (1953), and Silk Stockings (1957).

In addition, Think Fast, Mr. Moto (1937) – the first of the eight Mr. Moto detective films Lorre made at 20th Century-Fox in the late 1930s – will be shown in serial style at the beginning of each class session.

The 5-week class will be held in the Leonhardt Auditorium every Tuesday, beginning Oct. 6 and ending Nov. 3. Two sessions are available – afternoons at 1:30 p.m. and evenings at 7 p.m. The cost is $55, $45 for Museum members.

The Vero Beach Museum of Art is located in Riverside Park, at 3001 Riverside Park Drive, Vero Beach, Florida. Free parking is available on campus.

Registration for the fall term began Sept. 8 and continues during Museum hours in the Education Wing or at the main lobby Visitor Services desk throughout the term. Students may register in-person between 4 and 6 p.m., or by phone between 5 and 6 p.m.

For information about registration or any classes, contact Ellyn Giordano, Museum Art School Manager, (772) 231-0707, extension 116. For more information on “The World of Peter Lorre”, call (772) 231-0707, extension 136.

Why a class on Peter Lorre? As instructor Warren Obluck stated in a recent interview with TCPalm, Lorre was “so amazingly talented and so remarkably underused in the United States that audiences never had the opportunity to discover what he was all about.” Through Peter’s movies and a discussion of his personal life, Obluck intends to help students “understand Lorre’s range as an actor.”

Text for the “World of Peter Lorre” course is not announced on the VBMA’s website – but a good choice would certainly be Stephen D. Youngkin’s The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre (University Press of Kentucky, 2005), Peter’s authorized biography.