March 27, 2017

Syracuse Cinephile Society Fest Includes Lorre

The Syracuse Cinephile Society, of Syracuse, New York, continues their spring 2017 season of Monday Night classic movies with a mystery double-feature of The Whistler (1944) and Mr. Moto’s Last Warning (1939) on Monday, March 27, 2017.

All films in the series will be shown at the Spaghetti Warehouse Restaurant, located at 689 North Clinton Street in Syracuse, New York. Parking is available in the lot beside the restaurant.

Directions to the Spaghetti Warehouse Restaurant are available on the Cinephile Society's website.

The program will begin at 7:30 pm, but attendees who plan to come for dinner are recommended to arrive no later than 6:15 pm, in order to finish by 7:30 pm.

Admission to the Syracuse Cinephile Society event is $3 for Cinephile members, $3.50 for non-members.

The full schedule for the Monday Night Series is available on the Society’s website.

In the pages of The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre, Stephen D. Youngkin discusses the making of the Mr. Moto series, including interviews with Norman Foster, who directed Mr. Moto’s Last Warning and five other Moto films.

Although initially interested in playing the intrepid – and globe-trotting – Japanese importer for whom detecting is a hobby, Peter soon grew of the character. Continually addressed as “Mr. Moto” by the public, playing Mr. Moto in sketches on the radio variety series of the late 1930s, and getting few opportunities to appear in non-Moto projects at 20th Centuryi-Fox all added to Peter’s disappointment with the series.

In 2006 and 2007, 20th Century-Fox remastered and restored all eight of the Moto films, hired John Cork and his production company Cloverland to produce a unique documentary – including interviews with Stephen Youngkin – for each movie, and released the series in two DVD box-sets with additional extras.

Purchase Mr. Moto, Volume 1, from Amazon.

Purchase Mr. Moto, Volume 2, from Amazon.

Purchase The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre from Amazon.

March 23, 2017

Spring into Spring and Summer with Lorre on TV

As the days grow longer and spring moves into summer, Peter Lorre fans can find many Lorre movies on television and Turner Classic Movies.

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.



March, 2017

Eddie Muller, “The Czar of Noir” and president of the Film Noir Foundation, kicks off in March a special series of film noir movies to be shown every Sunday at 10 am on the Turner Classic Movies channel. And TCM turns the spotlight on “March Malice” with a week-long series of dramas, a different theme each day.

Mar. 5 (Sun), 10 am, Turner Classic Movies channel – The Maltese Falcon (1941). Eddie Muller introduces his film noir series “Noir Alley” with the classic hard-boiled detective movie, Peter’s first film at Warner Bros.

Mar 12 (Sun), 8 am, TCM – They Met in Bombay (1941).

Mar. 15 (Wed), 11 am, TCM – The Maltese Falcon (1941). The daytime theme is “Femme Fatales”, and no “femme” is more “fatale” than Mary Astor’s Brigid O’Shaughnessy, who works against her former associates Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) and Kasper Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet) to obtain the fabulous jewel-encrusted statuette.

Mar. 21 (Tues), 11 am, TCM – M (1931). “March Malice”, and the theme today is “Serial Killers”. Peter Lorre attracted attention in his first sound movie as Hans Beckert, the child murderer of Berlin.

Mar. 21 (Tues), 6 am, GetTV channel – Mrs. G. Goes to College, “First Test”. Originally broadcast Oct. 11, 1961, “First Test” is the first of two episodes in which Peter appeared as Dr. Kestner, science instructor at an unnamed university.

Mar. 23 (Thurs), 6 pm, TCM – Casablanca (1942). “March Malice” continues and today’s theme is “Nazis”. Although Peter played Nazis in movies during the 1940s, Conrad Veidt is the Nazi in question this time – while Peter’s character Ugarte gets the action going when he leaves two valuable exit visas with saloon owner Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart).

Mar. 29 (Wed), 4 am, Fox Movie channel – Five Weeks in a Balloon (1961).

Mar. 30 (Thurs), 6 am, GetTV channel – Mrs. G. Goes to College, “The Trouble with Crayton”. Originally broadcast Dec. 6, 1961, this episode was the second and final appearance of Peter Lorre as Dr. Kestner, Mrs. G.’s science instructor at an unnamed university.

Mar. 30 (Thurs), 9:25 am, Fox Movie channel – Five Weeks in a Balloon (1961).



April, 2017

This month, Lorre fans can enjoy one of Peter's TV episodes, in addition to several movies.

April 8 (Sat), 11 am, MeTV channel – Wagon Train, "The Alexander Portlass Story". Originally broadcast March 16, 1060.

April 12 (Wed), 11:05 am, Fox Movie channel – Five Weeks in a Balloon (1961).

April 15 (Sat), 6:15 am, TCM – Hollywood Canteen (1944).

April 15 (Sat), 9:40 am, MGM HD channel – The Comedy of Terrors (1964). The MGM channel presents a day of Vincent Price movies, "Death and Taxes: Vincent Price Movie Marathon", in honor of the day Americans' income taxes are due.

April 15 (Sat), 11:20 am, MGM HD channel – The Raven (1963). The Vincent Price marathon continues with this comic adaptation of the poem by Edgar Allan Poe.

April 17 (Mon), 5:30 am, TCM – Screen Director’s Playhouse, "No. 5 Checked Out". Originally broadcast over NBC on Jan. 18, 1956.

April 18 (Tues), 6 am, TCM – M (1931). The daytime theme of "The Madness Within" begins with Peter Lorre in his first sound movie as Hans Beckert, a man tortured by his inner demons to murder children in Berlin.

April 19 (Wed), 1:15 pm, Fox Movie channel – Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962).

April 21 (Fri), 6 am, Get TV – Mrs. G. Goes to College, "First Test". Originally broadcast Oct. 11, 1961.

April 24 (Mon), 9:20 am, Fox Movie channel – Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962).

April 24 (Mon), 11 am, TCM – Around the World in 80 Days (1956). TCM wishes Shirley MacLaine a happy birthday with a day of her movies, including this all-star extravaganza with Peter Lorre as a Japanese steward aboard a ship bound for Yokohama.

April 25 (Tues), 8:15 am, Fox Movie channel – Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962).

April 26 (Wed), 7:35 am, MGM HD channel – The Raven (1963). The MGM channel features a morning of movies starring Vincent Price, who co-starred with Peter in five movies in the mid-1950s to early 1960s.

April 27 (Thurs), 4:20 am, MGM HD channel – The Raven (1963). The MGM channel features a morning of movies starring Vincent Price, who co-starred with Peter in five movies in the mid-1950s to early 1960s.

April 30 (Sun), 6 am, MGM HD channel – The Comedy of Terrors (1964).

April 30 (Sun), 11:05 am, Fox Movie channel – Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962).



May, 2017

Clark Gable is the Star of the Month on the Turner Classic Movies channel, and the line-up includes both of the movies he made with Peter Lorre.

May 2 (Tues), 6 am, Get TV channel – Mrs. G. Goes to College, "The Trouble with Crayton", originally broadcast Dec. 6, 1961.

May 8 (Mon), 9 am, MGM HD channel – The Comedy of Terrors (1964).

May 9 (Tues), 9:30 pm, TCM – Strange Cargo (1940). An evening of movies with TCM "Star of the Month" Clark Gable and frequent leading lady Joan Crawford, includes the first movie Peter Lorre made with Gable.

May 10 (Wed), 1:45 pm, TCM – They Met in Bombay (1941). Movies starring Clark Gable continues, including the second and final film Peter made with TCM's "Star of the Month".

May 21 (Sun), 2 pm, TCM – Muscle Beach Party (1964). Peter Lorre’s only appearance in American International Pictures’ successful “Beach Party” movie series was playing in theaters at the time newspapers were running Peter’s obituary on his passing at age 59 on March 23, 1964, and his funeral two days later.

May 23 (Tues), 12:30 pm, TCM – The Verdict (1946). "Revenge" is the daytime theme on TCM. In this locked-room murder mystery, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet made their final film appearance together.

May 25 (Thurs), 11 am, MGM HD channel – The Comedy of Terrors (1964).

May 28 (Sun), 2:30 pm, TCM – Hotel Berlin (1945). Over the three-day Memorial Day weekend holiday, TCM salutes war-time movies. Today's daytime theme is "Spy Movie Classics".



June, 2017

The Turner Classic Movies channel includes Peter's first English-speaking film, the 1934 Hitchcock movie The Man Who Knew Too Much.

June 2 (Fri), 3:30 pm, TCM – The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934). The first of two movies Peter made with British director of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock.

June 20 (Tues), 3:45 pm, TCM – Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). Originally film in the fall of 1941, Arsenic and Old Lace was released when the Broadway production ended its run. And by then, Peter Lorre was a contract player at Warner Bros.



July, 2017

The Turner Classic Movies channel includes a handful of Peter's movies.

July 7 (Fri), 9:30 pm, TCM – The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934). TCM turns the spotlight on British director Alfred Hitchcock, including the first movie he made with Peter Lorre.

July 13 (Thurs), 6:15 am, TCM – Mad Love (1935). In his first America movie, Peter plays the brilliant Dr. Gogol, whose love of an actress (Frances Drake) drives him to do anything to win her love – including grafting onto the wrists of her husband (Colin clive) the hands of a knife-throwing murderer.

July 16 (Sun), 6:30 am, Movies! Network – Think Fast, Mr. Moto (1937). The first of eight mystery films in which Peter played the Japanese detective Kentaro Moto.

July 27 (Thurs), 4:15 am, TCM – The Story of Mankind (1957). In this all-star extravanda directed by Irwin allen, Peter appears as Emperor Nero, who strums a lyre while Rome burns.



Many of these and other Lorre movies are now available on DVD and Blu-Ray – many 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.

In The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre, Stephen D. Youngkin discusses the making of Peter’s movies, including interviews with many of the directors, writers, actors, and crew who worked with Peter.

A complete list of Peter’s movies and television credits is available in the book’s Appendix.

Purchase The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre from Amazon.

Happy viewing!

March 16, 2017

Mrs. G. Goes to College Comes to GetTV, March 2017

Lorre fans with access to the GetTV channel can look forward to something new from Peter’s television credits when Mrs. G. Goes to College joins the station’s line-up in late March, 2017.

The one-season TV comedy series – broadcast over CBS on Wednesday nights at 9:30 pm in the early 1960s – tells the story of Mrs. Sarah Green (Gertrude Berg), an older widow who decides to attend an unnamed university and live in a boarding house among her fellow students.

Also in the cast are Sir Cedric Hardwicke, as Prof. Crayton, her English instructor; Mary Wickes, as her landlady; Skip Ward, as her classmate Joe Caldwell; and a young Marion Ross (who later appeared on Happy Days in the 1980s), as Susan Green, Mrs. Green’s daughter.

As Dr. Kestner, Mrs. Green’s science instructor, Peter Lorre made two guest appearances on the program.

In “First Test”, originally shown on Oct. 11, 1961, Dr. Kestner makes a bet with his friend Prof. Crayton that Mrs. G. and her lab partner Joe Caldwell will fail their first exam in the Doctor’s class.

In “The Trouble with Crayton”, broadcast Dec. 6, 1961, Dr. Kestner conspires with Mrs. G. to help Prof. Crayton get some much-needed rest.

GetTV will first air these episodes on the following days and times ~
  • ”First Test” – Tues., Mar. 21 – 6 am
  • ”The Trouble with Crayton” – Thurs., Mar. 30 – 6 am
With the series added to the channel’s regular line-up, GetTV will air these episodes on future dates and times, as listed on the GetTV schedule.

Although not available commercially, Mrs. G. Goes to College may be purchased through Thomas Film Classics.

In the Appendix of The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre, Lorre fans will find a complete-to-date list of Peter’s television credits, as well as lists of his radio work, his movies, and his stage and theater appearances.

The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre may be purchased through Amazon.

Heritage House Shows Beat the Devil, Mar. 16, 2017

As part of their “Film Noir” series, held on the third Thursday of every month, the Heritage House Arts and Civic Center presents Beat the Devil (1954) – Peter Lorre’s final movie with pal Humphrey Bogart and director John Huston – on Thursday, Mar. 16, 2017.

The film will be shown at 2 pm and 7 pm.

Admission is free for everyone. Free popcorn will be served during each showing.

The Heritage House is located at 1428 Jenkins Road, on the grounds of Heritage Park, in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Parking is available near the Heritage House.

Follow the Heritage House on Facebook to find out more about House events.