July 28, 2013

Egyptian Theatre Screens 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

The American Cinematheque and the Art Directors Guild Film Society will salute Harper Goff, famed Hollywood production designer, with a special screening of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) on Sunday, July 28, 2013, at the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. For more information, please contact the theater at (323) 461-2020.

The program begins at 5:30 pm with a presentation by production designer Thomas A. Walsh on the movie’s art direction. Following 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Walsh will lead a discussion about Harper Goff’s accomplishments with Marty Sklar, Tony Baxter, Harrison Ellenshaw, and Stephen Berger, all of whom worked for the Disney studio in the Imagineering or creative effects departments.

Tickets are $11 for general admission and $7 for members of the American Cinematheque. Tickets may be purchased at the cinema box office or on-line through Fandango. Please note that Fandango will charge a fee for purchasing tickets More information about purchasing tickets may be found on the cinema’s website.

The Egyptian Theatre is located at 6712 Hollywood Boulevard, between Las Palmas and McCadden, in Hollywood, California. Directions are available on the cinema’s website.

Parking is available at several lots near the Egyptian, including the Hollywood & Highland complex. The Egyptian Theatre does not validate parking for any lot.

The Egyptian Theatre is also served by public transportation. The Metro Red Line’s Hollywood/Highland station is a short walk from the cinema. More information about parking, directions, and public transportation may be found on the theater’s website.

In The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre, author Stephen Youngkin interviewed Harper Goff on the making of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, as well as the casting of Peter Lorre as Conseil, apprentice to Paul Lukas’ Prof. Arronax. Goff was inducted into the Art Directors Guild Hall of Fame in 2013. He was named a Disney Legend following his death in 1993 at the age of 81.

The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre is available in hard-bound and soft-bound, as well as the Kindle and Nook.

Harvard Film Archive Screens Two Lorre Hitchcock Films

The Harvard Film Archive’s summer film series “The Complete Alfred Hitchcock” will include two movies Peter Lorre made with the famed director – The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and Secret Agent (1936).

The Man Who Knew Too Much will be shown Sunday, July 28, 2013, at 7 pm, followed by The Skin Game (1931).

Secret Agent will be shown the following Sunday, Aug. 4, at 7 pm, followed by Rich and Strange (1931).

Both films will be shown in 35mm film. The series will run from July 11 to September 28 and includes nine silent movies recently restored by the British Film Institute and accompanied by live piano. The full schedule may be found on the Harvard Film Archive’s website.

The Harvard Film Archive Cinematheque is located in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at 24 Quincy Street, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Directions to the HFA are available on the HFA website. For more information, please call the HFA at (617) 495-4700.

Tickets may be purchased at the Cinematheque on the lower level of the Carpenter Center 45 minutes before showtime. Members of the Harvard Film Archive may reserve tickets in advance for special event screenings.

Ticket prices are $9 for regular admission and $7 for Non-Harvard students, Harvard faculty and staff, and senior citizens. Special Event Ticket Prices are $12 for all patrons. Discounts are available for Harvard Film Archive members. More information about tickets may be found on the HFA website.

Parking is available at meters on Broadway and Harvard streets. The metered parking is free after 8 pm. The Harvard Film Archive is easily reached by public transportation, particularly the MBTA Red Line. More information about parking, including a map, is located on the HFA website.

In the pages of The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre (2005), Stephen D. Youngkin discusses Peter Lorre’s experiences working with Alfred Hitchcock at Gaumont-British in the early 1930s. During filming of The Man Who Knew Too Much, Peter was able to take a break and marry his long-time love Celia Lovsky. Still in scar make-up and frosted hair for the part of Abbott, leader of the anarchists in London, Peter exchanged marriage vows with Celia at Caxton Hall in the West End. Although the marriage ended in 1945 with Peter's marriage to second wife Karen Verne, Peter and Celia remained close friends to the end of Peter’s life on March 23, 1964.

The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre is available on the Kindle and Nook, as well as hard-bound and soft-bound.

July 6, 2013

Summer Film Series Includes Mr. Moto

For the 16th annual University of the Pacific Summer Film Series, organizer Tom Connor includes Peter Lorre as the Japanese detective Mr. Moto in Mr. Moto’s Last Warning (1938), the only one of the eight Moto films in the public domain.

The film will be shown on Saturday, July 6, in the Janet Leigh Theater at the University of the Pacific. The doors open at 6:30 pm. The program begins at 7 pm, and includes newsreels, trailers, and cartoons – the features moviegoers in 1938 would have enjoyed when Mr. Moto’s Last Warning was originally shown in cinemas.

Students, faculty, and staff of the University of the Pacific may attend for free. Admission is $3 for University alumni. General admission for adults and children is $5.

The University of the Pacific is located at 3601 Pacific Avenue, in Stockton, California. The Janet Leigh Theater in located in the McCaffrey Center complex in the center of the Stockton campus.

Parking lots 31 and 32 are located closest to the Janet Leigh Theatre. A campus map is available on the University website.

The Summer Film Series runs until August 17, 2013. The full schedule may be found on the University website.

In The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre (2005), Stephen D. Youngkin details the making of the Mr. Moto series of movies at 20th Century-Fox from 1937 to 1939, including interviews with Norman Foster, who directed six of the eight films, co-stars Leon Ames and Chick Chandler, and stuntman Harvey Parry, who doubled Peter in all the judo and fight sequences.

Considering Moto a welcome change from the villain roles he was usually assigned, Peter initially loved playing the diminutive hero – but his interest disappeared as the series wore on, and he found himself appearing as Moto and no one else, including Moto sketches on several radio shows of the period.

All eight of the Mr. Moto movies have been remastered and released in two box-sets, which include several documentaries on the series, the Moto character, and Peter Lorre. More information about ordering the Moto films may be found in the DVD-VHS section of The Lost One website.

The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre is available through University Press of Kentucky in both hard-bound and soft-bound, as well as the Kindle and Nook.

Lorre on TV This Summer

Summer is here, and with it, a number of Peter Lorre movies on television and Turner Classic Movies during July, August, and September. All times shown are Eastern Standard.

Peter Lorre's page on the TV Guide Channel website lists the Lorre films scheduled on various television channels over a 2-week period.



July, 2013

Paul Henreid is TCM’s “Star of the Month” on Tuesdays in July, and a number of the films Henreid made with Peter Lorre are included on the schedule.

July 2 (Tues.), 4:30 am, Turner Classic Movies channel – Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956). Peter Lorre makes a cameo appearance in this musical starring Cyd Charrise and Dan Dailey, and co-starring Paul Henreid.

July 6 (Sat.), 2:20 pm, Retro TV channel – The Patsy (1964). Peter’s final movie was released several months after his death on Mar. 23, 1964.

July 16 (Tues.), 4 am, Retro TV channel – The Patsy (1964).

July 17 (Wed.), 10:55 am and 11:15 pm, Retro TV channel – The Patsy (1964).

July 23 (Tues.), 12 am, TCM – Hollywood Canteen (1944). Peter Lorre and Paul Henreid are just two of the many Warner Bros. contract players appearing in this salute to the Canteen frequented by servicemen and women during World War II.

July 25 (Thurs.), 12:40 pm and 8 pm, Retro TV channel – The Patsy (1964).

July 30 (Tues.), 3:45 pm, TCM – Silk Stockings (1957).

July 30 (Tues.), TCM – Paul Henreid Month ends with a Henreid / Lorre double-feature: The Conspirators (1944) at 8 pm, and Casablanca (1942) at 10 pm.



August, 2013

August brings TCM’s annual “Summer Under the Stars” festival, and although Peter Lorre is not one of the “Stars”, a number of the Stars he worked with are featured.

Aug. 1 (Thurs.), TCM – On “Humphrey Bogart Day”, TCM presents the first and last movies Peter made with his old friend Bogie: The Maltese Falcon (1941) at 9 am, and Beat the Devil (1954) at 4:15 pm.

Aug. 2 (Fri.), 8:15 am and 4:05 pm, Retro TV channel – The Patsy (1964).

Aug. 6 (Tues.), 2:15 am, TCM – The Constant Nymph (1943). On “Joan Fontaine Day”, Peter Lorre plays the romantic Fritz Bercovy, who loves and marries one of the Sanger sisters.

Aug. 8 (Thurs.), 7:05 am, Encore Suspense channel – Tales of Terror (1962). Peter Lorre appears in "The Black Cat", the second tale of this trilogy.

Aug. 12 (Mon.), 5:20 am and 11:30 am, Encore Suspense channel – Tales of Terror (1962).

Aug. 13 (Tues.), 11:35 am and 4 am, Fox Movie Channel – Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962).

Aug. 13 (Tues.), 5 pm, TCM – Quicksand (1950). On “Mickey Rooney Day”, Peter co-stars with Rooney in an independent film made under their own production company.

Aug. 17 (Sat.), noon, Fox Movie Channel – Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961).

Aug. 21 (Wed.), 7:30 am, Encore Suspense channel – Tales of Terror (1962).

Aug. 22 (Thurs.), 11:30 am and 9:45 pm, Retro TV channel – The Patsy (1964).

Aug. 23 (Fri.), 6:30 am, Retro TV channel – The Patsy (1964).

Aug. 25 (Sun.), 12 am, TCM – Strange Cargo (1940). On “Clark Gable Day”, TCM presents the first of two movies Peter appeared in with Clark Gable.

Aug. 25 (Sun.), 3 am, Fox Movie Channel – Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961).

Aug. 26 (Mon.), 2 am, Antenna TV Channel – The Jack Benny Show, originally broadcast Jan. 22, 1963.

Aug. 28 (Wed.), 9 am and 4:40 pm, Retro TV channel – The Patsy (1964).



September, 2013

Sept. 3 (Tues.), 4:15 pm, TCM – Around the World in 80 Days (1956).

Sept. 26 (Thurs.), 3:35 am, Encore Suspense channel – Tales of Terror (1962).

Sept. 27 (Fri.), 9:35 pm, Encore Suspense channel – Tales of Terror (1962).



Many of these and other Lorre movies are now available on DVD and VHS – some remastered and packaged with extra features. For more information on the films of Peter Lorre released to home video, head on over to the DVD — VHS section of The Lost One website.

Happy viewing!