Lorre Returns to Annapolis Outdoor Movie Series

On Sunday, July 22, 2018, Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) returns to the Beer Garden at the 1747 Pub at the Reynolds Tavern, located in Annapolis, Maryland, as the pub continues its Sunday night series of free movies.

The movie will begin at dusk, approximately 8 pm.

Admission is free, and showings are open to the public.

Come between 3 and 7 pm and enjoy Happy Hour or a meal at the 1747 Pub. Food and beverage service continues throughout the screening. Scheduled movies are listed on the Events Calendar page of the pub’s website.

The Beer Garden at the 1747 Pub is located directly behind Reynolds Tavern and has an entrance on Franklin Street. Reynolds Tavern is located at 7 Church Circle, in Annapolis, Maryland.

Parking is available in the South Street Lot, located at 134 South Street, off Church Circle, in Annapolis, Maryland. More information about the South Street Lot is available on the Annapolis Parking website.

For more information, please call the Reynolds Tavern at 410-295-9555.

Bogart Fest at the Aero Includes Lorre

Lorre fans in the Santa Monica, California, area will have three opportunities this month to catch Peter on the big screen when the Aero Theatre presents Casablanca (1942), The Maltese Falcon (1941), and Beat the Devil (1954) as part of their series “Humphrey Bogart, Hollywood Legend”.

The Lorre movies will be shown on the following dates and times ~

• Casablanca – Friday, July 20
• The Maltese Falcon, on a double-bill with The Big Sleep (1945) – Friday, July 27
• Beat the Devil, on a double-bill with The African Queen (1951) – Sunday, July 29

All programs begin at 7:30 pm.

The Bogart fest begins on Thursday, July 19, and ends Sunday, July 29, 2018. The complete schedule is available on the Aero website.

Ticket prices are $12 for general admission, $8 for Cinematheque Members, and $10 for students with valid ID and senior citizens 65 and over. Tickets may be purchased on-line through Fandango and the Aero website.

The Aero Theatre is located at 1328 Montana Avenue, at 14th Street, in Santa Monica, California.

Parking is available free and at meters along Montana Avenue and other streets near the Aero. Please check posted signs. North of Montana Avenue, parking is generally limited to two hours until 7 pm. After 7 pm, parking is free for the duration of a movie.

For more information, please call the Aero at (310) 260-1528.

In the pages of The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre, Stephen D. Youngkin discusses the on-screen and off-screen friendship of Peter Lorre and Humphrey Bogart through interviews with their friends and family members. The two actors met on The Maltese Falcon in the fall of 1941 and went on to work together in three more movies at Warner Bros. until Peter left the studio in 1945. Beat the Devil was their final movie together, filmed on location in Italy in 1954.

The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre may be purchased from Amazon U.S., Amazon Canada, and Amazon U.K, as well as other booksellers.

Toronto Summer Film Fest Includes Lorre

The Toronto Film Society continues its annual summer film fest with a showing of Peter Lorre’s first American film Mad Love (1935) on a double-feature with The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947) on Monday, July 16, 2018, at the Carlton Cinema in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Mad Love will begin at 7 pm. The Private Affairs of Bel Ami will follow.

The summer film fest, titled “Bad Guy / Mad Guys”, will run every Monday night in July and August, beginning on July 9 and ending on August 27 with a showing of Rope of Sand (1949), with Peter Lorre, Burt Lancaster, Corinne Calvet, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains. The full schedule is available on the Toronto Film Society website.

Most films, including Mad Love and Rope of Sand, will be shown at the Carlton Cinema, located at 20 Carlton Street, in Toronto, Ontario.

Parking is available in the parking deck located at 1 Wood Street, a block from the Carlton Cinema. The cinema is also well-served by public transportation, with the College metro stop at the corner of Carlton and Yonge streets.

Memberships in the Toronto Film Society are available in a variety of price levels. The “Trial Membership” may be purchased at the door before any screening. The Trial Membership is $18 for adults and $15 for students with valid student ID. Memberships may be purchased through the Toronto Film Society website.

More information on memberships 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 Mad Love and Rope of Sand through interviews with actress Frances Drake and screenwriter Walter Doniger.

The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre may be purchased from Amazon U.S., Amazon Canada, and Amazon U.K, as well as other booksellers.

San Francisco Cinema Features Lorre Classic

Peter Lorre fans in the San Francisco Bay Area of northern California are in for a special treat on Sunday, July 15, 2018 – a showing of the classic Walt Disney movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), on an adventure film double-feature with Jason and the Argonauts (1963) at San Francisco’s historic Castro Theatre.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea will begin at 1:30 pm. Jason and the Argonauts follows at 3:50 pm.

Admission is $13 for adults, and $10 for seniors (age 62 and older) and children (age 12 and under). Tickets may be purchased at the box office.

The Castro Theatre is located at 429 Castro Street, in San Francisco, California.

Parking is available in two small lots and on the street near the cinema. The Castro is also well-served by both bus and street car. Public transportation options, as well as directions to the Castro, can be found on the cinema’s website.

For more information, please call the Castro at (415) 621-6120.

Lorre Film Opens Annual Norfolk Fest

On Monday, July 9, 2018, the Mal Vincent Classic Film Festival launches its 15th year with The Maltese Falcon (1941) at the Naro Expanded Cinema in Norfolk, Virginia.

The program begins at 7:15, with film critic Mal Vincent introducing The Maltese Falcon with little-known facts about the movie, its stars, writers, and director, based on his five-decades’ personal experience writing about film for The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk’s daily newspaper. Mr. Vincent will also close the program with movie trivia.

Tickets are $10 for adults, and $8 for senior citizens (age 64 and older) and kids (age 12 and under). Ticket Books, including 10 admissions for any movie, may also be purchased for $73.

Tickets go on sale at the box office at 6 pm, and the doors open at 6:30 pm.

The Maltese Falcon will also be shown Tuesday afternoon, July 10, 2018, at 1:45 pm. Matinee prices are $8 for all seats.

Mal Vincent’s film festival will be held every Monday night from July 9 to August 20, 2018. Following the final movie, The Egg and I (1947) on August 20, all attendees will be invited to vote on the best four performances of the festival – lead actor, lead actress, supporting actor, and supporting actress. The results will be entered in the film fest record book.

The closing-night party will be held at the Ynot Pizza and Italian Cuisine, located at 1517 Colley Ave in Norfolk, Virginia, down the street from the Naro.

The complete schedule for the film fest is available on the venue’s website.

The Naro Expanded Cinema is located at 1507 Colley Avenue, in Norfolk, Virginia. For more information, please call the cinema at 757-625-6276.

Parking is available in the lot behind the Naro. Street parking is also available along Colley Avenue. More information, including directions, is available on the Naro’s website.

The historic Naro Expanded Cinema opened on February 24, 1936, as The Colley Theater, one of several suburban movie theaters owned by William S. Wilder. In 1977, the cinema was bought by Tench Phillips and Thom Vourlas, who wanted to show classic films, as well as independent and foreign movies. In 2004, the two cinema owners talked Mal Vincent into presenting classic films at the Naro – and the Mal Vincent Classic Film Festival was born.

And now Peter Lorre fans in the Norfolk, Virginia, area can enjoy The Maltese Falcon in an historic cinema that very likely presented the movie when it was originally released in the fall of 1941. Purchase a ticket at the outside booth. Enter the lobby and step back in time, when cinemas had balconies, and a red velvet curtain shielded the screen until the picture was ready to begin. The lights dim. The curtain parts. The credits roll.

And fans are treated to a Lorre performance on a big screen – as Peter Lorre was meant to be seen . . . . .

Celebrate the Fourth of July with Lorre

In November, 1944, Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) opened at the Stanford Theatre, Palo Alto’s premiere cinema in Northern California, for a 4-day run, beginning Sunday, November 5.

Beginning Tuesday, July 3, 2018, and ending Thursday, July 5, Lorre fans in Palo Alto can once again enjoy Arsenic and Old Lace on the big screen at the historic Stanford as part of the venue’s series “Summer 2018”.

On a double-bill with Talk of the Town (1942), Arsenic and Old Lace will be shown at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, July 3, 4, and 5.

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.

More information about parking is available on the Stanford's website.

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

The Stanford Theatre opened in 1925. Most of the classic films now playing – including many Lorre movies – appeared in this cinema on their initial run, when the program changed two or three times a week. On the venue’s website are the original weekly schedules from 1925 through to 1961.

In the pages of The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre (2005), Stephen D. Youngkin discusses the making of Arsenic and Old Lace, originally filmed in the fall of 1941. Having completed work on The Maltese Falcon (1941), Peter Lorre was called back to the Warner Bros studio to play Dr. Einstein, personal plastic surgeon to the international killer Jonathan Brewster (Raymond Massey).

By the time Arsenic and Old Lace went into release in the fall of 1944, Peter was under contract with Warner Bros. and well on his way to the most productive period of his career.

The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre may be purchased from Amazon U.S., Amazon Canada, and Amazon U.K, as well as other booksellers.

Happy Birthday, Peter Lorre! – From SiriusXM and TCM

Special programming blocks celebrating actors’ birthdays are a tradition on the Radio Classics channel, broadcast over channel 148 on the SiriusXM radio dial.

But this year, Peter Lorre gets a double dose of Happy Birthday wishes from host Greg Bell with two different blocks of Lorre radio programs.

Beginning Tuesday, June 26, 2018 – Peter’s 114th birthday – and continuing throughout the week, Lorre fans can enjoy eight of Peter’s old-time radio performances.

“Peter Lorre Special” includes two episodes from Peter’s own 13-week summer series Mystery in the Air, “The Mask of Medusa” (Sept. 4, 1947) and “Crime and Punishment” (Sept. 25, 1947); an episode of the anthology series Suspense, “Nobody Loves Me” (Aug. 30, 1945); and finally a guest appearance on Jack Benny’s show The Lucky Strike Program, “I Stand Condemned” (Mar. 24, 1946).

“More Peter Lorre B-Day” includes guest appearances on Fred Allen’s show The Texaco Star Theater (Jan. 3, 1943) and Duffy’s Tavern (Oct. 19, 1943), an episode of the anthology series Inner Sanctum, “The Black Seagull” (Mar. 7, 1943), and finally, an episode of Peter’s Armed Forces Radio Services series Mystery Playhouse, “Lady in the Morgue” (Mollé Mystery Theater, May 15, 1945).

And included in the regular block When Radio Was is Peter Lorre’s Suspense episode, “The Devil’s Saint”, originally airing on Jan. 19, 1943.

The Lorre programs and tributes will air on these dates and times ~

Sunday, June 24 ~
When Radio Was
4:30 pm Pacific, 7:30 pm Eastern

Tuesday, June 26 ~
Peter Lorre Special
5 pm Pacific, 8 pm Eastern

More Peter Lorre B-Day
9 pm Pacific

Wednesday, June 27 ~
More Peter Lorre B-Day
12 midnight Eastern

Thursday, July 28 ~
Peter Lorre Special
11 am Pacific, 2 pm Eastern

Friday, June 29 ~
More Peter Lorre B-Day
11 am Pacific, 2 pm Eastern

Saturday, July 30 ~
Peter Lorre Special
9 am Pacific, 12 noon Eastern

Sunday, July 1 ~
More Peter Lorre B-Day
1 am Pacific, 4 am Eastern

And on Friday, June 29, 2018 – three days after Peter’s birthday – the party continues on the Turner Classic Movies channel as TCM salutes Peter’s birthday with a morning and afternoon of Lorre films, beginning at 9 am Eastern and ending at 8 pm, including ~

• 9 am – M (1931)
• 11 am – The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
• 12:30 pm – Mad Love (1935)
• 1:45 pm – Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
• 3 pm – The Maltese Falcon (1941)
• 4:45 pm – The Conspirators (1944)
• 6:30 pm – The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)

Satellite radio provider SiriusXM airs 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.

The full schedule for the week of June 24 to July 1, 2018, is available on the SiriusXM Radio website.

The life and career of Peter Lorre is chronicled in the pages of The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre by Stephen D. Youngkin, who began his research in the 1970s and interviewed Peter’s brothers Andrew and Francis, his first wife Celia Lovsky, his sister-in-law Barbara through his second wife Karen Verne, his daughter Catherine Lorre, friends, fellow actors, and the directors, producers, and crew who worked with him throughout his career.

These interviews shed light on Peter’s childhood, his early days in theater, his career on film, radio, and television, and his sad final days.

The Appendix of The Lost One includes the most complete list available of Peter’s credits – radio, film, stage, and television.

The Lorre radio programs airing this week in honor of Peter’s birthday are available through many merchants. Many of Peter’s movies, as well as some of his television appearances, are available on DVD.

Published in 2005 through University Press of Kentucky, The Lost One may be purchased from Amazon U.S., Amazon Canada, and Amazon U.K, as well as other booksellers.

Lorre Film Fest at UW Cinematheque

Peter Lorre fans in the area of Madison, Wisconsin, will enjoy a special treat in June and July, 2018 – a 6-week, 8-film series of Lorre movies and Lorre caricatures in Warner Bros. cartoons at the Cinematheque on the campus of the University of Wisconsin.

“Peter Lorre: The Mad and the Bad” – a tribute to “one of cinema history’s most fascinating and compelling performers, the great Peter Lorre” – begins Wednesday, June 20, 2018, and runs every Wednesday through July 27, 2018. Films include ~

June 20 ~
Hare-Raising Hare (1947) – 7 pm
The Face Behind the Mask (1940) – 7:10 pm
Island of Doomed Men (1940) – 8:30 pm

June 27 ~
M (1931) – 7 pm

July 4 ~
Birth of a Notion (1947) – 7 pm
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) – 7:10 pm

July 11 ~
Der Verlorene (1951) – 7 pm

July 18 ~
Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) – 7 pm
The Beast with Five Fingers (1940) – 8:30 pm

July 25 ~
The Maltese Falcon (1941) – 7 pm

Prints, both 35mm and 16mm, are courtesy of the Library of Congress, the Goethe Institut, and the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. The full schedule is available on the Cinematheque website.

Admission to all movies at the Cinematheque is free for everyone. Doors open 30 minutes before show time. Donations are accepted at the door or through the venue’s website.

The Cinematheque is located in Room 4070, at the top of Vilas Communications Hall. Also known as “the Parliamentary Room”, Room 4070 is in the center of the open 4th floor plaza of Vilas Hall and may be reached from the Park Street stairs and elevator, the stairs on University Avenue, and the stairs facing University Square and the Lucky Building.

Vilas Hall is located at 821 University Avenue on the campus of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin.

Parking is available in two parking structures on North Lake Street – one at the corner of North Lake and West Johnson streets, and the State Street Campus Garage, located at 415 North Lake Street.

The Cinematheque is also well-served by public transportation.

Directions to the Cinematheque, as well as more information on parking and bus lines, are available on the venue’s website.

The life and career of Peter Lorre is chronicled in the pages of The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre by Stephen D. Youngkin, who began his research in the 1970s and interviewed Peter’s brothers Andrew and Francis, his first wife Celia Lovsky, his sister-in-law Barbara through his second wife Karen Verne, his daughter Catherine Lorre, friends, fellow actors, and the directors, producers, and crew who worked with him throughout his career.

These interviews shed light on Peter’s childhood, his early days in theater, his career on film, radio, and television, and his sad final days.

The Appendix of The Lost One includes the most complete list available of Peter’s credits – radio, film, stage, and television.

Published in 2005 through University Press of Kentucky, The Lost One is available in hard-cover, soft-cover, Amazon’s Kindle, and Barnes and Noble’s Nook.

The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre may be purchased from Amazon U.S., Amazon Canada, and Amazon U.K, as well as other booksellers.

Classic Film Book Challenge 2018 Begins in June

Since 2013, film writer and classic movie fan Raquel Stecher has offered a Summer Reading Challenge through her blog Out of the Past, and this year, the contest will run from June 7 to September 15, 2018.

The deadline to sign up is Sunday, July 15, 2018.

The rules are simple –

• Sign up for the challenge through Raquel’s website
• Read a classic film book
• Write a review and post it on your Blog, Instagram or Goodreads profile
• Use hashtag #classicfilmreading
• Submit your review link – the form is also on Raquel’s website
• Repeat until you have read and reviewed 6 books!
• Review 6 books and be automatically entered to win a prize

What counts as a classic film book? According to her website, a classic film book is any of the following –

• A biographical book about some from the classic film era. Biography, autobiography, memoir or a collection of interviews or letters all count. Can be about an actor, actress, director, or other cast or crew member.
• A book about films – specific film(s), genre, film-making process, etc.
• A photography or art book related to classic films, fashion, style, or a particular person
• Film criticism or analysis
• A 20th-century novel that was adapted into a classic film
• A novel fictionalizing a classic film or an actor/actress from old Hollywood

A total of 6 books must be read, but they can be from any of the categories listed above.

And if you complete all 6 reviews by Saturday, September 15, 2018, you will be eligible to win one single disc DVD-MOD from Warner Archive movie of your choice.

The contest is also open internationally.

Many books about or related to Peter Lorre fall in the categories above. Here are a couple of suggestions ~

The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre (2005), by Stephen D. Youngkin, tells the story of Peter’s life and career, beginning with his birth on June 26, 1904, in Rosenberg, Hungary, through his school years, his start in European theater, his film career in Germany, England, and the United States, and his work in radio and television.

Included are interviews with members of Peter’s family – two brothers, daughter Cathy, first wife Celia Lovsky, and sister-in-law Barbara – and actors, directors, producers, writers, and behind-the-scenes crew who worked with Peter on films, television, and radio.

The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre may be purchased from Amazon U.S., Amazon Canada, and Amazon U.K, as well as other booksellers.

Published in 2018, The Life and Times of Sydney Greenstreet, by Derek Sculthorpe, discusses the career of Peter’s most popular co-star at Warner Bros. Studio in the 1940s.

Peter appeared in nine movies with Sydney Greenstreet, beginning with The Maltese Falcon in 1941 and ending with The Verdict in 1946. The two actors also appeared on radio together in the 1940s.

The Life and Times of Sydney Greenstreet may be purchased from Amazon U.S., as well as other booksellers.

More information about the contest may be found on Raquel Stecher’s blog Out of the Past. Happy reading!

Undersea Adventure with Lorre in New York State

The Capitol Theatre, located in Rome, New York, continues its “Family Favorites Series” with Walt Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) on Friday, June 1, and Saturday, June 2, 2018.

On Friday, the movie will be shown at 7 pm. On Saturday, the movie will be shown at 2 pm, as well as 7 pm.

Admission is $6.50 for adults; $5.50 for seniors, veterans, and students; and $4.50 for Friends of the Capitol Theatre. Children age 12 and under will be admitted for free with the purchase of a paid ticket. Tickets may be purchased at the cinema box-office before each show. Tickets may also be purchased through the venue’s website. A nominal booking fee will be added to each ticket purchased on-line.

The Capitol Theatre is located at 220 West Dominick Street in Rome, New York.

Parking is available on West Dominick Street in front of the theater. Parking is also available in a lot off Erie Boulevard.

For more information, please contact the Capitol Theatre at 315-337-6277.