As per usual, you're making me think I need to re-watch this movie. I watched it seven or eight years ago, in the first wild rush of my crush on Peter Lorre. It was a frustrating experience, as most of my film experiences with Peter Lorre characters are.
I felt a lot more harshly about it than you do. It was impossible for me to not see his character as yet another warmed-over M, with the added layer of his being in America this time, where the audience is supposed to hear his accent and see his face and instinctively fear him as immigrant/not-us/outsider/freak, because the filmmakers think we're bigots. (*editing out rant*)
But, for what it was (yet another gentle little murderer) it was quite good; I appreciated the fact that he's extraordinarily kind to animals and that this doesn't really clash with the fact that he may have to kill someone to stay free. One thing that never changes about Lorre's characters, because he couldn't really change his height even if he changed his voice, face, and wardrobe, is that he's eternally childlike and uses that for all it's worth. Women trust his characters even when they know they shouldn't, because he's a winsome little boy. Soft, pleading hands; hopeful little smiles; big bunny-rabbit eyes.
(And if Lorre-portrayed stranglers existed in the real world, none of them could ever succeed at murdering their victims, because he'd be so easy for a victim to pick up and drop-kick. No one would take him seriously. In movie-world, for that matter, no one quite takes him seriously either, and THAT IS THEIR MISTAKE.)
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I felt a lot more harshly about it than you do. It was impossible for me to not see his character as yet another warmed-over M, with the added layer of his being in America this time, where the audience is supposed to hear his accent and see his face and instinctively fear him as immigrant/not-us/outsider/freak, because the filmmakers think we're bigots. (*editing out rant*)
But, for what it was (yet another gentle little murderer) it was quite good; I appreciated the fact that he's extraordinarily kind to animals and that this doesn't really clash with the fact that he may have to kill someone to stay free. One thing that never changes about Lorre's characters, because he couldn't really change his height even if he changed his voice, face, and wardrobe, is that he's eternally childlike and uses that for all it's worth. Women trust his characters even when they know they shouldn't, because he's a winsome little boy. Soft, pleading hands; hopeful little smiles; big bunny-rabbit eyes.
(And if Lorre-portrayed stranglers existed in the real world, none of them could ever succeed at murdering their victims, because he'd be so easy for a victim to pick up and drop-kick. No one would take him seriously. In movie-world, for that matter, no one quite takes him seriously either, and THAT IS THEIR MISTAKE.)