CINEVENT 45 Includes The Verdict Memorial Day Weekend

The film festival CINEVENT, held annually in Columbus, OH, will include The Verdict (1946) in the schedule of classic sound and silent movies over the Memorial Day weekend.

The Verdict is scheduled for Friday, May 24, 2013, at 11:15 pm. The full line-up is available on the CINEVENT website.

Admission is $25 for a single day and $45 for the full weekend. The full convention rate of $45 includes access to the Ballroom and Gallery Dealers’ Rooms. More information about convention registration can be found on the event website.

CINEVENT 45 will be held at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Conference Center, located at 4900 Sinclair Road, in Columbus, OH. The hotel may be contacted at (614) 846-0300.

For more information about CINEVENT 45, please contact Steve Haynes through his eMail address steve@cinevent.com. A 24-hour voice mail is available at (866) 785-7687.

CINEVENT began in 1968 when Steve Haynes, a young film enthusiast, got together with some of his friends to screen classic movies over a weekend. They called their gathering “Cinevent”. Since then, CINEVENT has grown into a four-day extravaganza where fans of vintage movies can enjoy:

• Silent comedies and dramas with live piano accompaniment
• Sound movies from the 1930s and 1940s on 16mm prints
• Dealers’ rooms filled with posters, stills, lobby cards, books, film and video, sound recordings
• The Hollywood Poster Auction, held this year on Saturday, May 24, 2013

The Verdict was the final movie Peter Lorre made with Sydney Greenstreet, his co-star in eight previous films of mystery and suspense. Unlike their partnership as villains in The Maltese Falcon (1941), Peter and Sydney G. are best friends and partners-in-detection in The Verdict, as they work together to solve a locked-room murder.

In The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre (2005), director Don Siegel reminisces with Stephen Youngkin on working with Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet in The Verdict. Beginning his career as a montage and second unit director on Lorre films such as Casablanca (1942) and Passage to Marseille (1944), Siegel made the move to film director with The Verdict.

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

Three Strangers Opens Film Noir Fest in Palm Springs

The recently-restored print of Three Strangers (1946) will open this year’s Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival at Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs, California.

Produced and hosted by Alan K. Rode, the Festival will run from Thursday, May 16 to Sunday, May 19, 2013. In addition to the noir treasures, numerous special guests are also slated to appear. The full schedule is available through the Festival website.

Three Strangers will be shown on Thursday, May 16, at 7:30 pm. Following the movie will be an on-stage discussion with Sir Michael Lindsay Hogg, son of Geraldine Fitzgerald, who partners with Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet on a sweepstakes ticket on Chinese New Year’s Eve. Sir Michael will also sign copies of his book Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York and Points Beyond in the cinema lobby both before and after the screening.

Tickets for Three Strangers are $13 for all seats. “All Access” passes are available for $125, including all films in the Festival and the opening night reception to follow Three Strangers. More information about tickets may be found on the Festival website.

The Camelot Theatres is located in the parking lot of the Palm Springs Mall at 2300 E. Baristo Road, between Farrell Street and Sunrise Avenue in Palm Springs, California. Parking is available at the mall near the cinema. Directions are available on the Camelot website.

The Hilton Palm Springs is the official hotel of the Festival. Special room rates are available for attendees and may be booked through the Hilton hotel website. The Hilton Palm Springs is located at 400 East Tahquitz Canyon Way, in Palm Springs. For more information, please contact the Hilton at (760) 320-6868.

The Film Noir Foundation went to its own expense in producing the preserved 35mm print of Three Strangers, supplied for this festival. In 2012, the print was shown at Noir City festivals across the U.S. before heading to the film and television archive at UCLA, as part of their Film Noir Foundation collection.

At the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival, Lorre fans have another opportunity to enjoy Peter on the big screen in one of his most sympathetic and romantic roles.

Roxie Theater Festival Includes 3 Lorre Films

Lorre fans attending the “I Wake Up Dreaming” film noir festival at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco will have the opportunity to catch three Peter Lorre movies this week – Black Angel (1946), Island of Doomed Men (1940), and All Through the Night(1942).

Organized by Elliot Lavine, the festival runs from Friday, May 10, to Thursday, May 23. Most films will be shown in 35mm prints.

Peter Lorre films will be shown the following dates and times:

• May 12, Sunday – A tribute to author Cornell Woolrich includes Black Angel at 4:30 and 9:30 pm, in addition to Night Has a Thousand Eyes and Fall Guy
• May 13, Monday – Island of Doomed Men at 8 pm only, on a double bill with Club Havana
• May 14, Tuesday – All Through the Night at 8 pm only, on a double bill with Nightmare

Tickets may be purchased at the Roxie box office on the day of the show. The box opens 30 minutes before the first show of the day.

Tickets may also be purchased on-line through the Roxie website. Click on a film title and scroll to the bottom of the screen, then click on the Tickets link. The TicketWeb site will open.

Tickets are $11 for all seats and include the double or triple bill. A $2 service fee will be added for all tickets purchased on-line. Tickets may be picked up at the Roxie box office.

The Roxie Theater is located at 3117 16th Street, between Valencia and Guerrero streets, in San Francisco, California. For more information, please call the Roxie at (415) 863-1087.

Public transportation includes several MUNI bus-lines – 22, 53, 33, 14, and 49. The closest BART station is located at 16th and Mission streets.

Public parking is available at the 16th and Hoff Garage, located at 42 Hoff Street, off 16th Street, between Valencia and Mission streets. The garage is open between 7 am and 2 am. Hourly rates are listed on the garage website. For more information about parking, please call the garage at (415) 861-4048.

More information about ticket prices and parking may be found on the Roxie website.

Lorre Biographer Stephen Youngkin Interviewed

The “Warrior Filmmaker” Jack Marino hosted Stephen Youngkin, author of The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre, on the April 12, 2013, installment of his internet radio show, broadcasting at 8 pm PST over Channel 2 on LA Talk Radio.

Peter Lorre was a humble, shy man, said Stephen Youngkin during the interview, who called himself a “facemaker” because he didn’t want others to know how seriously he took acting – and he took the craft of acting very, very seriously.

During the hour-long program, Jack and Stephen chatted about Peter Lorre’s life and career, covering such topics as:

• Peter’s thoughts on the movies he made towards the end of his career
• His work with director Fritz Lang on M
• The making of the Mr. Moto series in the late 1930s
• His start at Warner Bros. in The Maltese Falcon and the studio’s reluctance to sign Peter to a contract, considering him already typecast and wondering how he would fit in with their stable of contract players
• Peter’s interest in directing movies
• Peter’s problems with addiction to morphine
• Peter’s three marriages

Stephen also discussed the writing of The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre, the authorized Lorre biography published by University Press of Kentucky in 2005. He began by interviewing many of the directors, actors, and behind-the-scenes crew in the early 1970s, as well as Lorre friends and family members. Vincent Price, who worked with Peter on five movies, including Irwin Allen pictures and the Poe series of the 1960s, was an early contact who put Stephen in touch with other Lorre co-workers.

The resulting 613-page biography covers the life of Peter Lorre from his birth on June 26, 1904, to his death on Mar. 23, 1964, of a massive stroke. Included are a list of interviews taken, extensive Chapter Notes, and a complete-to-date list of Peter’s theater, film, radio, and television credits.

Jack Marino’s interview with Stephen Youngkin can be heard over the Warrior Filmmaker’s page on the LA Talk Radio website. Scroll to “Friday, April 12, 2013”, and click the “Play” link. The installment can also be downloaded as an MP3 button by clicking the “Download” link.

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

Restored M in Theaters This Summer

Peter Lorre fans across the United States will have the opportunity to see the new digital restoration of M (1931) in movie theaters this summer.

Distributed by Kino Lorber, and restored by TLEFilms Film Restoration and Preservation Services in Berlin, Germany – in association with Archives francaises du film - CNC in Paris and PostFactory GmbH, also in Berlin – this print of M includes improved subtitles and the longest running time of previous prints. At 111 minutes, it’s considered the most-complete print to date.

As of this writing, participating theaters include:

• Alamo Ritz – Austin, TX – May 4-7, 2013
• Plaza Theatre – Atlanta, GA – May 10-16, 2013
• Ambler Theater – Ambler, PA – May 15, 2013
• County Theater – Doylestown, PA – May 16, 2013
• Regent Square Theater – Pittsburgh, PA – May 20-23, 2013
• Cleveland Cinematheque – Cleveland, OH – May 30 to June 2, 2013
• Miami Beach Cinematheque – Miami Beach, FL – June 27, 2013
• Wexner Center for the Arts – Columbus, OH – July 11, 2013
• SIFF Cinema – Seattle, WA – Sept. 6-12, 2013

More information about theaters and showings can be found on the Kino Lorber website.

M was Peter’s first sound film – but not his first time before movie cameras. His first movie was a silent German film, Die verschwundene Frau (The Missing Wife) in 1929. To the end of his life, Peter kept his appearance in the movie a secret, even from his family and Celia Lovsky, who introduced him to the German director Fritz Lang. He preferred that everyone believe that Lang’s first sound movie was his first movie, too.

Stephen Youngkin discusses the making of M – and the discovery of Die verschwundene Frau, including screen shots of Peter as a dentist’s patient – in the pages of his book The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre, published in 2005 by University Press of Kentucky. The Lost One is now available in soft-bound and hard-back, as well as the Kindle and Nook.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea On-Screen at Washburn University

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Peter Lorre’s only film at the Walt Disney studio, will open the “Fabulous Jules Verne Film Festival” on Friday, May 3, at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas.

The festival will be held over May 3 and 4, Friday and Saturday. Included are short films by French filmmaker Georges Melies, as well as several feature-length movies, all based on the works of Verne. The full schedule is available on the Washburn University website. The festival is supported by Washburn’s Office of International Affairs and Office of Multicultural Affairs and includes door prizes and a coloring contest.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea will be shown at 7 pm on Friday, May 3, 2013. Tom Prasch, professor of history at Washburn, will introduce the movie.

All events will be held in Room 112 of the Henderson Learning Resources Center.

Admission is free for all events.

For more information about the festival, please contact Bill Shaffer at bill.shaffer@washburn.edu or call (785) 670-1111.

Washburn University is located at 1700 SW College Avenue, in Topeka, Kansas.

In The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre (2005), Stephen D. Youngkin discusses the making of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea through interviews with set designer Harper Goff. For the weekly series Disneyland, Peter appeared with Kirk Douglas (who plays master harpooner Ned Land) to discuss the movie’s “giant squid” sequence. The episode, titled “Monsters of the Deep”, originally aired on Jan. 19, 1955, over ABC.

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

Bogart Festival in Key Largo Includes Two Lorre Films

The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1942) are among the Bogart movies featured at the first annual Bogart Film Festival to be held in Key Largo, Florida, this weekend, May 2 to 5, 2013.

Stephen Humphrey Bogart, son of Bogie and Lauren Bacall, will host the event, which includes several non-Bogart noir films from the 1940s to now. Movies will be screened in a variety of locations, including hotels, theaters, and outdoor locations in Key Largo, Islamorada, and Tavernier.

The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca will be shown at the following dates and locations:

• May 3, Friday, 9 pm – The Maltese Falcon, at the outdoor amphitheater at Founders Park, 87000 Overseas Highway, Islamorada
• May 3, Friday, 9 pm – Casablanca, outside the Murray Nelson Government and Cultural Center, 10200 Overseas Highway, Key Largo
• May 4, Saturday, 9 pm – The Maltese Falcon, outside the Murray Nelson Government and Cultural Center, 10200 Overseas Highway, Key Largo
• May 4, Saturday, 9 pm – Casablanca, at the outdoor amphitheater at Founders Park, 87000 Overseas Highway, Islamorada
• May 5, Sunday, 3 pm – The Maltese Falcon, inside the Murray Nelson Government and Cultural Center, 10200 Overseas Highway, Key Largo

Thursday night, May 2, the Festival will open at the Murray Nelson Government and Cultural Center, with a cocktail reception hosted by Stephen Bogart and film historian Leonard Maltin at 7:30 pm and an outdoor screening of Key Largo (1948).

Other events during the festival include:

• Discussion of Bogart’s life and career with Stephen Bogart and Leonard Maltin
• The Bogart Ball, hosted by Stephen Bogart and attended by Leonard Maltin, who will give a speech on Bogart’s contribution to film noir
• Tours on-board the restored African Queen
• A display of Bogart memorabilia

The festival will conclude with the Bogart Brunch on Sunday, May 5, beginning 10 am at Gus’ Grille Restaurant in Key Largo.

A full list of films and events is located on the Festival’s website.

Tickets for individual films and events may be purchased on-line through the Festival website.

In The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre, author Stephen Youngkin chronicles Peter Lorre’s on- and off-screen friendship with Bogart. The two actors first worked together on The Maltese Falcon in the summer of 1941 and went on to make another four movies – three of them at Warner Bros. Their final movie, Beat the Devil (1954), reteamed them with John Huston, their Falcon director.

During his lifetime, Peter had few friends, but he counted Bogie as one of his two closest – the other being Bertolt Brecht, the German playwright with whom Peter worked as a young stage actor in Berlin during the 1920s.

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

Film Historian Includes Lorre in Planned Documentary Series

Manny Pacheco needs the help of classic film fans.

The author of the Forgotten Hollywood series of books, weekly radio show, and blog is now planning his most ambitious project – a series of Forgotten Hollywood documentaries.

The proposed series would tell the story of American issues such as diversity, disability, political climates and social responsibilities, through the eyes of character actors from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s

The subject of the pilot episode is Lionel Barrymore, whose fight against disability influenced President Franklin D. Roosevelt and helped to create the March of Dimes campaign. Margaret O’Brien, an MGM child star of the 1940s who appeared with Barrymore in Three Wise Fools (1946), will give an on-camera interview about the actor she considered her “studio grandfather”.

Proposed series entries include Child Actors of the Depression, Hollywood’s Connection with the Manhattan Project, The Evolution of the Modern Horror Genre, and Whistle Blowers of the McCarthy Era. Featured character actors include Freddie Bartholomew, Leo Gorcey, Lon Chaney Jr., Ward Bond, Adolphe Menjou, Sydney Greenstreet.

And Peter Lorre.

Interested in helping to make this series a reality? Please visit the Forgotten Hollywood Series page on Indiegogo and click the “Contribute Now” button. Any amount is welcome and appreciated, and all contributors will get screen credit at the end of the pilot.

Special perks for the various donation levels include autographed copies Forgotten Hollywood, CDs of the radio series, and assorted memorabilia, such as classic film posters and DVDs. Generous contributors can receive producer credit.

The project is currently in Week 15 of the 17-week campaign.

Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet are Chapter 1 in Manny Pacheco’s Son of Forgotten Hollywood, second in the Forgotten Hollywood series. The book may be purchased at a number of locations, all listed on the Forgotten Hollywood website.

Lorre on TV This Spring

Spring arrives with a number of Peter Lorre movies on television and Turner Classic Movies during April, May, and June. 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.

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April, 2013

Apr. 9 (Tues.), 2:30 am, Antenna TV channel – The Jack Benny Show. Peter Lorre is Jack’s special guest on this program, which originally aired over CBS on Jan. 22, 1963.

Apr. 9 (Tues.), 2:30 am, Turner Classic Movies channel – Three Strangers (1946). TCM host Robert Osborne ends an evening of his personal film picks with this story of three strangers who gather before a statuette of the Chinese goddess Kwan Yin at midnight on Chinese New Year’s Eve and make a combined wish – which brings enlightenment for one and disaster for two.

Apr. 9 (Tues.), 4:15 am, TCM – The Verdict (1946). Peter Lorre’s final movie with Sydney Greenstreet follows Three Strangers.

Apr. 11 (Thurs.), 8:25 am and 6:15 pm, Retroplex channel – The Patsy (1964). Peter’s final movie, released after his passing in 1964, airs twice on the Retroplex movie channel.

Apr. 22 (Mon.), 8:35 am and 4:15 pm, Retroplex channel – The Patsy (1964).

Apr. 22 (Mon.), 1:10 pm and 4 am, Fox Movie Channel – Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961).

Apr. 25 (Thurs.), 4:15 am, TCM – Around the World in 80 Days (1956). This all-star cameo film ends an evening of movies about “Amazing Races”.

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May, 2013

May 1 (Wed.), 1 am, TCM – Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). An evening of movies starring actress Priscilla Lane includes the comedy about two dear old Brooklyn ladies who are running an unusual “charity” from their home – they dispatch lonely elderly gentlemen with a potent glass of elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and “just a pinch” of cyanide.

May 7 (Tues.), 12 pm, TCM – Strange Cargo (1940).

May 10 (Fri.), 7:45 am, Fox Movie Channel – Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961).

May 11 (Sat.), 9:15 am, TCM – Crime and Punishment (1935). Peter’s second American movie, and the only one he made under the contract he signed with Columbia studios while he was still in London, filming The Man Who Knew Too Much.

May 12 (Sun.), 12:45 pm and 4:20 am, Retroplex channel – The Patsy (1964).

May 16 (Thurs.), midnight, Antenna TV channel – Alfred Hitchcock Presents, “Man From the South” (Mar. 13, 1960).

May 17 (Fri.), 1 pm, Retroplex channel – The Patsy (1964).

May 18 (Sat.), 6:50 am, Retroplex channel – The Patsy (1964).

May 22 (Wed.), 11:45 am, TCM – The Story of Mankind (1957).

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June, 2013

June 26 is Peter Lorre’s 109th birthday, and although there is no birthday salute from TCM, Lorre fans will find plenty of Lorre movies this month.

June 4 (Tues.), 6:30 am, TCM – Hollywood Canteen (1944) – June’s Star of the Month is Eleanor Parker, and a day of her Warner Bros. films ends with this star-filled musical salute to the famous World War 2 servicemen’s canteen in Los Angeles.

June 4 (Tues.), 6:30 am, TCM – Hollywood Canteen (1944) – June’s Star of the Month is Eleanor Parker, and a day of her Warner Bros. films ends with this star-filled musical salute to the famous World War 2 servicemen’s canteen in Los Angeles.

June 4 (Tues.), noon, Fox Movie Channel – Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961).

June 4 (Tues.), 4 am, TCM – Background to Danger (1943).

June 7 (Fri.), 11:15 am, TCM – Stranger on the Third Floor (1940).

June 7 (Fri.), 2:30 am, TCM – The Maltese Falcon (1941) – The Friday Night Spotlight takes aim at Noir Writers with an evening of adaptations of Dashiell Hammett novels, including one of the most famous and the film that introduced the screen teams of Peter and Bogie, and Lorre and Greenstreet.

June 18 (Wed.), 8 am, TCM – The Constant Nymph (1943). Before offering a contract, Warner Bros. tested Peter’s appeal as a romantic actor in the small role of Fritz Bercovy, who loves and marries one of the Sanger sisters.

June 20 (Thurs.), 2 am, Antenna TV channel – The Jack Benny Show (Jan. 22, 1963).

June 26 (Wed.) – Celebrate Peter’s birthday with three movies on TCM: Quicksand (1950) at 10:45 am, Casablanca (1942) at 3 am, and All Through the Night (1942) at 5 am. Casablanca was selected by guest programmer Joseph Abboud, famous menswear designer and author, whose interest in clothes and fashion was inspired by movie costumes.

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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!

Cinemark Theaters Screen Casablanca on April 3

Peter Lorre fans across the United States will have an opportunity to catch Peter on the big screen when Cinemark movie theaters show Casablanca for one day only – Wednesday, April 3, 2013.

It’s all part of the cinema chain’s classic movie series this spring.

Showtimes will be at 2 pm and 7 pm.

Ticket prices will vary by theater.

A list of participating theaters may be found on the Casablanca page of the Cinemark website. Enter a zip code or a city and state to locate particular cinemas.

In The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre, Stephen Youngkin details the making of Casablanca, as well as the on- and off-screen friendship between Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre. The Lost One is now available on the Kindle and Nook, as well as paperback and hardbound.