TCM Film Fest 2018 Includes Lorre

Turner Classic Movies has announced the full schedule for their annual Classic Film Festival, to be held in Hollywood from Thursday, April 26 to Sunday, April 29, 2018 – and Lorre fans attending the event will be treated to showings of Silk Stockings (1957) and The Raven (1963), as well as many special guests.

The Raven – Saturday, April 28 – 9:30 pm.

Silk Stockings – Sunday, April 29 – 3:30 pm.

Both films will be shown at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres Multiplex, located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard, in Hollywood, California. Built in 2001, the Chinese Multiplex is next door to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, home of the handprints and shoeprints of the famous in the theater’s courtyard.

This year’s festival theme is "Powerful Words: The Page On Screen".

The Raven, loosely based on the poem by Poe, will be shown as part of the "Poet's Corner". Sara Karloff, daughter of Boris Karloff, who co-starred with Peter in several movies, including The Raven, will be the special guest.

Silk Stockings is shown as one of the "Essentials". Special guest is Dr. Vanessa Ament, who will be the teacher/facilitator for TCM’s free online course on Hollywood movie musicals this coming summer.

Festival passes are still available in these three categories – Palace, Classic, Essential, and Spotlight – and may be purchased through the festival website.

Individual tickets may also be purchased for $20 for most screenings and events. Students with valid Student ID will receive a 50% discount off all individual tickets.

More information about tickets and passes is available on the festival website.

Venues for the various events include the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX (formerly known as Grauman’s Chinese), The Egyptian Theater, and the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres multiplex – all within an easy walking distance along Hollywood Boulevard.

Parking is available in several lots near Hollywood Boulevard. Most convenient to the Chinese 6 Multiplex is the Hollywood and Highland lot, located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard, with entrances on Highland Avenue and Orange Drive. More information about the Hollywood and Highland lot is available on the parking lot’s website.

In the pages of The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre, Stephen D. Youngkin discusses the making of these movies scheduled during the TCM festival, including interviews with many of the actors and crew who worked with Peter throughout his career. The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre is available for the Kindle and Nook, as well as hard-bound and soft-bound editions.

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

Purchase The Lost One from Amazon U.K.

Purchase The Lost One from Amazon Canada.

Rancho Mirage Launches Film Series with Lorre Classic

The California city of Rancho Mirage, in partnership with Desert Recreation District, kicks off an outdoor summer film series on Saturday, April 14, 2018, with a showing of Casablanca (1942) on the big screen at the Rancho Mirage Amphitheater.

The gates to the Amphitheater will open at 6:30 pm. The movie will begin at sunset.

Admission is free for everyone. Bring your own lawn chairs, blankets, food, and beverages. Complimentary popcorn and water will be served.

The “Cinema Under the Stars” film series will run on five consecutive Saturdays, from April 14 to May 12, 2018. The complete schedule is available on the series’ website.

The Rancho Mirage Amphitheater is located in Rancho Mirage Community Park, 71560 San Jacinto Drive, in Rancho Mirage, California.

Parking is available in the lot adjoining the Rancho Mirage Community Park.

For more information, please contact City Hall at 760-324-4511, extension 273.

Happy Birthday, Harry Morgan!

Old-time radio host Greg Bell is famous for saluting actors’ birthdays on his Sirius XM Radio channel Radio Classics. Every year, he celebrates Peter Lorre's birthday the week of June 26 with a "Love for Laszlo" two-hour block of four of Peter's radio shows.

And the week of April 8 to 14, 2018, Peter's co-star Harry Morgan gets the birthday star treatment with four programs – two episodes of Mystery in the Air, "The Black Cat" (Sept. 18, 1947) and "The Marvelous Barastro" (Aug. 7, 1947); followed by two episodes of This Is Your FBI, "Floating Stickup" (Dec. 8, 1950) and "Backstage Shakedown" (Nov. 10, 1950).

The Morgan tribute will air these dates and times –

Sunday, April 8, 2018 ~
5 am Pacific, 8 am Eastern

Tuesday, April 10 ~
7 pm Pacific, 10 pm Eastern

Thursday, April 12 ~
11 pm Pacific

Friday, April 13 ~
2 am Eastern

Satellite radio providers Sirius and XM air Radio Classics over channel 148. Subscribers may also listen to the programs over the internet. Log-in with your User ID and password. Not a subscriber? A free 30-day trial is also available through the Sirius XM radio website.

As "The Voice of Mystery", Harry Morgan acted as narrator on Peter Lorre’s radio series Mystery in the Air, a replacement series for The Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Show in the summer of 1947.

Mystery in the Air presented tales of suspense "culled from the four corners of world literature", adapted from such famous tales as Alexander Pushkin's "The Queen of Spades" and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat", as well as original radio dramas.

Morgan hosted all 13 episodes, beginning with "The Tell-Tale Heart" on July 3 and continuing to the final program, "Crime and Punishment", adapted from Peter's 1935 Columbia Studios film, on Sept. 25.

In the image above, Morgan (in black suit) stands, looking over Hans Conried's shoulder at his script, with Peter Lorre at the microphone.

On March 14, 1979, author Stephen Youngkin took an interview with Harry Morgan for his Lorre biography, The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre, published in September, 2005, through University Press of Kentucky. Morgan recalled working with Lorre on Mystery in the Air, describing the intensity of Peter's performances as he played to the microphone, not the studio audience.

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

Purchase The Lost One through Amazon.

Lorre Classic at Hoquiam, WA, Cinema

As part of their “Silver Screen Classics” series of movies, the 7th Street Theater, in Hoquiam, Washington, will present The Maltese Falcon (1941) on Saturday, April 7, and Sunday, April 8, 2018.

The film will begin at 7:30 pm on Saturday and 2 pm on Sunday.

Admission is $6 for all seats. Tickets may be purchased at the box-office, as well as City Drug in Aberdeen or Crown Drug and Harbor Drug in Hoquiam. Tickets may also be purchased online through Brown Paper Tickets, linked to the venue’s website. A nominal service fee will be charged for each ticket purchased online. More information about tickets is available on the theater website.

The 7th Street Theater is located at 313 Seventh Street, in Hoquiam, Washington. Directions are available on the cinema's website.

Parking is available on the street in front of the cinema, as well as the surrounding streets.

For more information, please call the theater at 360-537-7400.

The historic 7th Street Theater opened its doors in 1928 as a vaudeville house and movie palace. Now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the cinema celebrates its 90th anniversary in 2018 with special events, including a birthday party. A special 90th Anniversary t-shirt is also available for sale at the theater for $20. Anyone wearing the t-shirt to a movie in 2018 will receive $1 off the admission price.

The 7th Street Theater began showing classic movies in 2003 and currently hosts two film series. The “Silver Screen Classic” series includes movies, such as The Maltese Falcon, produced at least 50 years ago. The “Classic Film” series includes not-quite-as-vintage movies.

This weekend, Peter Lorre fans in Hoquiam can step inside the 7th Street Theater and back in time – to enjoy The Maltese Falcon as Lorre fans originally did in 1941.

Casablanca at Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, CA

A salute to “Hitchcock and Other Masters of Suspense” kicks off on Friday, April 6, 2018, at the historic Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, California, and the first weekend’s movies are an Ingrid Bergman double-feature of Casablanca (1942) and Gaslight (1944).

Casablanca will be shown on these dates and times ~

• Friday, April 6 – 7:30 pm
• Saturday, April 7 – 3:30 pm and 7:30 pm
• Sunday, April 8 – 3:30 pm and 7:30 pm

Gaslight will be shown at 5:25 pm and 9:25 pm all three days.

Before and after the 7:30 show, one of the Stanford’s “Masters of the Mighty Wurlitzer” will play the Wurlitzer theater organ during the intermission.

Admission is $7 for adults, and $5 for youth (18 and under) and seniors (65 and over). Tickets may be purchased at the box office on the day of the show.

The Stanford Theatre is located at 221 University Avenue in Palo Alto, California. Look for the cinema’s large neon marquee – a landmark along University Avenue in the downtown area.

Parking is available at meters along the street in front of the cinema, as well as two parking garages within two blocks of the Stanford. The Bryant / Lytton Parking Garage is located at 445 Bryant Avenue, one block north of University Avenue. The High Street Parking Garage is located at 528 High Street, one block south of University Avenue.

For more information, please call the Stanford Theatre at 650-324-3700.

“Hitchcock and Other Masters of Suspense” will run from Friday, April 6, to Sunday, June 10, 2018. The complete schedule is available on the Stanford Theatre website.

Florida Church Ends Classic Film Series with Lorre

On Thursday, April 5, 2018, the Paramount Church, located in Palm Beach, Florida, ends its annual classic movie series for the 2017-2018 season with My Favorite Brunette (1947), starring Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, and Peter Lorre.

The program begins at 6:30 pm, with entertainment featuring Beatriz Loo, Christian recording artist.

The event is free, and everyone is invited. After the movie, refreshments will be served in the church fellowship hall. Donations are appreciated to cover the cost of refreshments, as well as licensing the film.

The Paramount Church is located at 139 North County Road #31, at the corner of North County Road and Sunrise Avenue, in Palm Beach, Florida.

Parking is available in the lot adjoining the church. The entrance to the parking lot is on Sunset Avenue. Parking is also available along the street in front of the church. Directions are available on the church’s website.

The Paramount Church is located in what was once the Paramount Theatre, which opened in 1927 as one of the grandest movie palaces in Palm Beach, Florida, including 26 private boxes in the balcony and floor-to-ceiling murals of fish swimming through seaweed. In 1974, the Paramount Theatre was designated as an historic place, and in 1982, a Town Landmark.

The movies ended in 1980. In 1985 the theater was renovated as office space. The Paramount Church now occupies the area that was once the stage, orchestra pit, and screen.

The church’s classic movie series begins every December and runs the first Thursday of every month until the beginning of May. Films in the series are preceded by a presentation of a scene from the movie, a sing-a-long, a concert, or an historical perspective of the movie.

For more information, please contact the Paramount Church at 561-835-0200.

Hitchcock Fest Includes Lorre

A showing of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), Peter Lorre’s first role in an English-speaking film, kicks off TRYLON’s annual Minneapolis Hitchcock Festival on Thursday, March 29, 2018, in the Minneapolis, Minnesota, area.

The Hitchcock festival will be shown every Thursday night from March 29 to May 21, 2018. Participating cinemas include the Heights Theater in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, and the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis. The complete schedule is available on the TRYLON website.

The Man Who Knew Too Much will be shown in a 35mm print, courtesy of the Library of Congress, at the Heights Theater. The program begins at 7:30 pm.

Admission is $10 for all seats. Tickets may be purchased at the Heights box-office. Tickets may also be purchased through the Heights website.

The Heights Theatre is located at 3951 Central Avenue NE, at the corner of Central Avenue NE and Gould Avenue NE, in Columbia Heights, Minnesota.

Parking is available in the lot behind and beside the cinema. More information on parking, as well as directions to the cinema, is available on the venue’s website.

For more information, please contact the Heights Theater at 763-788-0979.

Casablanca at the AFI Silver Theatre

Lorre fans in the Silver Spring, Maryland, area will have two opportunities in March 2018 to catch Casablanca at the AFI Silver Theatre, in Silver Spring, Maryland.

On Saturday, March 17, Margaret Talbot, daughter of Warner Bros. actor Lyle Talbot, will moderate a panel of authors Alan K. Rode, Meredith Hindley, and Noah Isenberg and a discussion of Casablanca, following a showing of the 1942 movie.

Rode’s book Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film, Hindley’s Destination Casablanca: Exile, Espionage, and the Battle for North Africa in World War II, and Isenberg’s We’ll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie will all be available for purchase and autographs.

The program will begin at 2 pm.

Tickets for the event are $15 General Admission and $13 for AFI members. Tickets may be purchased at the box office or through the AFI Silver website.

Casablanca will also be shown on Tuesday, March 20, and Thursday, March 22, as part of the AFI Silver series “Directed by Michael Curtiz”. Alan Rode will introduce Casablanca, as well some of the other movies in the series.

Both showings of Casablanca will begin at 7:20 pm.

Admission is $13 General Admission, $10 for seniors, $8 for children, and $9.50 for AFI Members, 2 star and up. Tickets may be purchased at the box-office, as well as through the venue’s website.

The series “Directed by Michael Curtiz” will run from Saturday, March 17, to Sunday, March 25. The complete schedule is available on the AFI Silver website.

The AFI Silver Theatre is located at 8633 Colesville Road, at the intersection of Colesville Road and Georgia Avenue, in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Parking is available in several public parking decks close to the theater. Most convenient is the Wayne Avenue garage, located at 921 Wayne Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland. Parking at the Wayne Avenue garage is free on weekends and after 8 pm on weekdays.

Directions to the cinema, as well as information about parking and public transportation, may be found on the AFI Silver website.

Spring into Spring With Lorre on TV

Winter becomes spring, and Peter's fans can enjoy many Lorre films 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.

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February, 2018

Throughout February and into March, the Turner Classic Movies channel holds its annual “30 Days of Oscar” festival – with several Lorre Oscar winners and nominees included.

Feb 21 (Wed), 7:30 am, Antenna TV channel – The Jack Benny Program (originally broadcast over CBS, Jan. 22, 1963). Jack welcomes guest Peter Lorre and recounts the nightmare he had involving Peter as a wanted killer.

Feb. 26 (Sun), 8 am, Turner Classic Movies channel – The Maltese Falcon (1941). Today’s daytime theme on TCM is “Best Picture Nominees”, including Peter Lorre’s first movie for Warner Bros. – and his first movie with Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet.

Feb. 27 (Tues), 2:45 am, TCM – Around the World in 80 Days (1956). “30 Days of Oscar” continues with “Best Picture Winners”. Peter Lorre is one of many cameos in this all-star extravaganza about the Victorian London gentleman (David Niven) who bets he can circle the globe in 80 days.

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March, 2018

The “30 Days of Oscar” festival concludes on March 3, but March has plenty of other Lorre movies.

Mar. 1 (Thurs), 4:15 am, TCM – Casablanca (1943). March begins in the “30 Days of Oscar” fest with more “Best Picture Winners” – and the role that won Peter Lorre a contract with the Warner Bros. studio.

Mar. 10 (Sat), 12 midnight, TCM – Stranger on the Third Floor (1940). TCM's "Noir Alley" moves to Saturday nights at midnight (EST), 9 pm (PST), and tonight, host Eddie Muller presents the movie considered by many to be the first true noir film.

Mar. 11 (Sun), 10 am, TCM – Stranger on the Third Floor (1940). Missed the midnight showing of the "Noir Alley" feature? Fear not! The "Czar of Noir" Eddie Muller presents an encore showing of Peter as "the Stranger".

Mar. 12 (Mon), 2:45 pm, TCM – Mad Love (1935). The daytime theme is "30s Horror", including Peter Lorre”s first American movie.

Mar. 19 (Mon), 10:45 pm, TCM – Strange Cargo (1940). The daytime theme is "Prison Escapes". Peter Lorre plays Monsieur Cochon ("The Pig"), who earns a living in the French penal colony of Guiana by reporting escaped convicts (such as Clark Gable's Verne) to the authorities.

Mar. 20 (Tues), 1:30 am, MeTV – Alfred Hitchcock Presents, "Man From the South" (CBS, Mar. 13, 1960)

Mar. 22 (Thurs), 2 am, TCM – Casablanca (1942). A week of "Great Movie Endings" continues with a night of movies with "Famous Last Words".

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April, 2018

April brings several Lorre movies infrequently shown on TCM.

Apr. 12 (Thurs), 10 pm, TCM – Around the World in 80 Days (1956). Every Thursday in April, the TCM primetime theme is "The Victorian Era in Film", and tonight's sub-theme is "Victorian Science and Exploration".

Apr. 18 (Wed), 6 pm, TCM – Passage to Marseille (1944). Every Wednesday in April, TCM turns the spotlight on director Michael Curtiz, including the wartime film that paired Peter Lorre with Humphrey Bogart for a final time at Warner Bros.

Apr. 18 (Wed), 8 pm, TCM – Casablanca (1942). The Curtiz Spotlight continues with the movie that won Peter a contract with Warner Bros.

Apr. 19 (Thurs), 6 am, TCM – Muscle Beach Party (1963). The daytime theme is "Swinging '60s", as TCM includes one of Peter's final films – the movie that was in release as newspapers ran stories of Peter's passing and funeral.

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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!

Lorre Film Kicks off Seattle Noir Fest

Hosted by the “Czar of Noir” Eddie Muller, the annual Noir City festival of film noir movies will kick off with a showing of The Maltese Falcon (1941) on Friday, Feb. 16, 2018, at the SIFF Cinema Egyptian in Seattle, Washington.

The program begins at 6:30 pm with live music by the Casey MacGill Trio and a cider tasting, courtesy of Capitol Cider. Attendees are encouraged to dress in 1940s era and test their Noir knowledge with “Shadow Play”, the game of noir trivia.

The Maltese Falcon will begin at 7 pm. A second showing of the movie is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 19, at 12:30 pm at the Egyptian.

Admission is $15 for adults, $14 for seniors 65 and older, and $10 for SIFF members. Passes for the entire festival are also available for $150 for adults and $100 for SIFF members.

Tickets may be purchased at the Egyptian box office, which opens 30 minutes before the first show of the day, or by calling 206-324-9996, Monday through Friday, between 10 am and 5 pm. Tickets may also be purchased on-line through the SIFF website. SIFF members must log-in first to get their discount. A nominal service fee will be added to all tickets purchased on-line.

The SIFF Cinema Egyptian is located at 805 E. Pine Street, between Harvard Avenue and Broadway Street, in Seattle, Washington.

Parking is available in the Seattle Central College Harvard Parking Garage, located across the street from the Egyptian at 1609 Harvard Avenue, in Seattle.

The Egyptian is also served by public transportation. More information on bus lines, as well as parking, is available on the venue’s website.

Noir City 2018 will run from Friday, Feb. 16, to Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018. The complete schedule is available on the SIFF website.

And in addition to hosting Seattle’s Noir City fest, Eddie Muller appears on SIFFcast’s 100th episode, discussing with Siffcast host Jeremy Cropf the 18 classic movies on this year’s schedule. The podcast is available on the SIFF website.