To celebrate Peter Lorre’s birthday (June 26, 1904), here are some of BFI’s 10 essential Peter Lorre performances from our collection. (THOSE EYES!!)
- M (HU DVD 56): Drama based on the actual case of the Dusseldorf murderer of children who is hunted by police, but is caught and tried by the city’s criminals.
- The Man Who Knew Too Much (HU DVD 3521): In this heart-pounding suspense story, spies kidnap a young girl, in an attempt to prevent her parents from revealing what they know about an assassination plot. The action takes you from the Swiss Alps to Britain’s Albert Hall and London’s East End.
- Stranger on the Third Floor (HU DVD 6404): A reporter provides eyewitness testimony that helps sentence a small-time loser to the electric chair for murder. When the reporter himself is fingered in a second murder, he realizes both crimes are the work of a furtive stranger – but will anyone believe him?
- The Maltese Falcon (HU DVD 130): After the death of his partner, private eye Sam Spade is dragged into a quest for a priceless statuette.
- Arsenic and Old Lace (HU DVD 5380): An easy going drama critic discovers that his kind and gentle Aunts Abby and Martha have a bizarre habit of poisoning gentlemen callers and burying them in the cellar.
- Beat the Devil (HU DVD 4564): Adventure story set aboard a steamer bound for Africa. The passengers attempt to outfox each other for illegal control of a piece of land they think has uranium on it.
Didn’t make the BFI list, but we also have:
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Casablanca!