I suppose in a way my introduction to Lorre was not Lorre himself, but a kid in a high-school production of Arsenic and Old Lace doing his best Lorre-as-Dr-Einstein impression (which was pretty decent
That's charming. Most people's Lorre is pretty broad.
I have not yet managed to write about it for a variety of reasons, but last month I actually managed to see The Lost One (Der Verlorene, 1951), Lorre's only film as director, and it was great. Plotwise, it's about three movies packed into the same runtime, but it has all its symbols lined up correctly and all the structure under the surface is perfectly timed and it is ultimately a serial killer movie which does not in the least resemble M (1931). The print we saw had the worst subtitles ever—sans-serif white on a rather washed-out black-and-white print, meaning nobody I was seeing it with including me got more than two-thirds of the dialogue unless it was German I didn't need a dictionary for—but that can't be a feature of all of them. I'd love to see it restored. It demonstrated very clearly that Lorre should have directed more films, except that in 1951 he had managed to make a movie that absolutely nobody in Germany wanted to see and nobody in America either.
no subject
That's charming. Most people's Lorre is pretty broad.
I have not yet managed to write about it for a variety of reasons, but last month I actually managed to see The Lost One (Der Verlorene, 1951), Lorre's only film as director, and it was great. Plotwise, it's about three movies packed into the same runtime, but it has all its symbols lined up correctly and all the structure under the surface is perfectly timed and it is ultimately a serial killer movie which does not in the least resemble M (1931). The print we saw had the worst subtitles ever—sans-serif white on a rather washed-out black-and-white print, meaning nobody I was seeing it with including me got more than two-thirds of the dialogue unless it was German I didn't need a dictionary for—but that can't be a feature of all of them. I'd love to see it restored. It demonstrated very clearly that Lorre should have directed more films, except that in 1951 he had managed to make a movie that absolutely nobody in Germany wanted to see and nobody in America either.