Peter Lorre Filmography

Red Skelton: A Career of Laughter

Red Skelton: A Comedy Scrapbook

Synopsis: Here's a look back at a bunch of the funniest scenes that appeared in the long-running Red Skelton Hour series. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Milton Berle: The Second Time Around - Legends

The Comedy of Terrors

Actors: Joe E. Brown, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone

Synopsis: On the verge of bankruptcy, undertaker Vincent Price hits upon a novel method of drumming up business. Together with his cringing assistant Peter Lorre, Price sneaks into the homes of wealthy old men under cover of night and smothers the sleeping occupants to death--then collects a hefty Read More

Muscle Beach Party

Actors: Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Luciana Paluzzi, John Ashley, Don Rickles, Buddy Hackett

Synopsis: The Beach Party Gang meets a coterie of muscle-men who try to take over their spot on the beach in Muscle Beach Party. Surfing sensations Frankie (Frankie Avalon) and Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) have their security threatened when Flex Martian (Rock Stevens) and a collection of well-oiled Read More

The Patsy

Actors: Jerry Lewis, Ina Balin, Everett Sloane, Phil Harris, Keenan Wynn

Synopsis: Toward the end of Jerry Lewis's Paramount studio period, Lewis slapped together this bitter comedy about Hollywood phoniness and fame that has to be the most rancid portrait of the Hollywood star system in the Rat Pack era this side of Clifford Odets. When a famous entertainer suddenly is killed Read More

The Raven

Actors: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Hazel Court, Olive Sturgess

Synopsis: Although Roger Corman narrowly managed to avoid self-mockery in his pulpy, flamboyant adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe tales, it appears that the director chose this opportunity to let loose with outright parody; the result is a wonderfully entertaining romp with tongue planted firmly in cheek. The Read More

Five Weeks in a Balloon

Actors: Red Buttons, Fabian, Barbara Eden, Cedric Hardwicke, Peter Lorre, Herbert Marshall

Synopsis: With Five Weeks in a Balloon, 20th Century-Fox hoped to cash on the success of the studio's earlier Jules Verne adaptation Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1959). The plot is set in motion when 19th-century explorer Fergusson (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) volunteers to head a balloon expedition to Read More

Tales of Terror

Actors: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Debra Paget, Maggie Pierce

Synopsis: Roger Corman's Tales of Terror stars Vincent Price in a trio of short stories, liberally adapted by Richard Matheson from the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The film gets off to a rousing start with "Morella," in which Price's bitterness over the long-ago death of his wife results in tragedy for his Read More

The Jack Benny Show: The Peter Lorre/Joanie Sommers Show

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Actors: Walter Pidgeon, Joan Fontaine, Barbara Eden, Peter Lorre, Michael Ansara, Robert Sterling

Synopsis: Walter Pidgeon is the nominal star of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, portraying Admiral Harriman Nelson, the designer of the submarine Seaview, a glass-nosed research submarine. The sub embarks on her shakedown cruise under the polar ice cap as the movie begins. Upon surfacing, however, the crew Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Man From the South

Synopsis: One of the best-remembered of all the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes, "Man From the South" is a typically twisted tale from the pen of Roald Dahl. The scene is Las Vegas, where a middle-aged gent named Carlos (Peter Lorre) approaches a brash young gambler (Steve McQueen) with a peculiar wager. Read More

The Left Fist of David

Synopsis: This is a pilot program for television that was never produced. This is about a pair of art dealers who constantly become involved in mysterious doings. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Scent of Mystery

Actors: Denholm Elliott, Liam Redmond, Peter Lorre, Paul Lukas, Peter Arne, Beverly Bentley

Synopsis: Produced by Mike Todd Jr., Scent of Mystery was a misguided attempt to introduce a new gimmick to motion pictures. The plot involved the apparent murder of a mystery woman (Beverly Bentley, at one time the wife of writer Norman Mailer) and the disappearance of several valuables. Denholm Elliott, Peter Lorre Read More

The Big Circus

Actors: Victor Mature, Red Buttons, Rhonda Fleming, Kathryn Grant, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre

Synopsis: Victor Mature, in one of his last leading man performances, plays Hank Whirling, the owner of a financially shaky circus who is trying to get back on his feet, despite cutthroat competition from a rival organization. He also has a younger sister (Kathryn Grant) to watch out for. After arranging Read More

Hell Ship Mutiny

Synopsis: In this South Seas adventure, a sea captain teams up with lovely island princess help her vanquish the brutal smugglers who are forcing her people to dive for pearls. There are French colonialists on the island and a judge is there to ensure justice. Unfortunately, he is crooked, and after the Read More

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Diplomatic Corpse

Synopsis: While on vacation in Mexico, a wealthy woman dies in the back seat of the car owned by her daughter Janet (Mary Scott) and son-in-law Evan (George Peppard). Reporting the woman's demise, the couple returns to find that the car has been stolen -- and with no corpse, they will be unable to claim Read More

The Buster Keaton Story

Actors: Donald O'Connor, Ann Blyth, Rhonda Fleming, Peter Lorre, Larry Keating

Synopsis: The Buster Keaton Story is the sublimely inaccurate life story of immortal film comedian Buster Keaton, played by Donald O'Connor. The film begins with young Buster appearing in his parents' circus acrobatic act (the real Keatons never appeared in a circus, but were vaudevillians instead). After Buster Read More

Playhouse 90: The Jet-Propelled Couch

Actors: Donald O'Connor, David Wayne, Peter Lorre, Gale Gordon, Phyllis Avery

Synopsis: This semicomic Playhouse 90 episode was based on a true case history, as related in The 50 Minute Hour, a book by psychologist Dr. Robert Lindner. Although Donald O'Connor receives top billing in the role of Lindner's counterpart Robert Harrison, the real star of the proceedings is David Wayne as Read More

Silk Stockings

Actors: Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Janis Paige, Peter Lorre, George Tobias, Joseph Buloff

Synopsis: Silk Stockings, a musical version of the 1939 Greta Garbo film Ninotchka, was adapted for the stage by George S. Kaufman, Leueen McGrath (the then-Mrs. Kaufman) and Abe Burrows, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The Broadway production, starring Hildegarde Neff and Don Ameche, ran 478 Read More

The Story of Mankind

Actors: Ronald Colman, Hedy Lamarr, Vincent Price, Agnes Moorehead, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Peter Lorre, Dennis Hopper, Chico Marx

Synopsis: Future "Master of Disaster" Irwin Allen produced this curious but inarguably fascinating adaptation of Henrik Willem Van Loon's best- selling historical volume. A Celestial Tribunal has been convened to decide the fate of the Earth after the invention of nuclear weapons, with The Devil (Vincent Price Read More

The Sad Sack

Actors: Jerry Lewis, David Wayne, Phyllis Kirk, Peter Lorre, Joe Mantell

Synopsis: In his second solo starring film after breaking with Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis plays cartoonist George Baker's classic GI misfit The Sad Sack. Lewis' constitutional inability to do anything right brings him under the scrutiny of gorgeous Army psychiatrist Phyllis Kirk. She discovers that Lewis Read More

Congo Crossing

Actors: George Nader, Virginia Mayo, Peter Lorre, Michael Pate, Rex Ingram

Synopsis: George Nader stars as David Carr, a construction engineer operating in the Belgian Congo. In true jingoistic fashion, Carr wants to introduce the local natives to civilzation by re-zoning the Congotanga Falls region. Because this region is currently exempt from extradition, a small colony of Read More

Promise to Murder

Synopsis: This crime drama comes from an episode of the Climax TV series. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Meet Me in Las Vegas

Actors: Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Agnes Moorehead, Lili Darvas, Jim Backus

Synopsis: A whole slew of guest stars makes Meet Me in Las Vegas a special treat for movie buffs. The central plot concerns wealthy rancher Chuck Rodwell (Dan Dailey), who takes a Vegas vacation with his mother (Agnes Moorehead). At the same time, ballerina Maria Corvier (Cyd Charisse) also arrives in Las Read More

Around the World in 80 Days

Actors: David Niven, Cantinflas, Robert Newton, Shirley MacLaine, Charles Boyer

Synopsis: Razzle-dazzle showman Michael Todd hocked everything he had to make this spectacular presentation of Jules Verne's 1872 novel Around the World in 80 Days, the second film to be lensed in the wide-screen Todd-AO production. Nearly as fascinating as the finished product are the many in-production Read More

Disneyland: Monsters of the Deep

Synopsis: With cheerful shamelessness, Walt Disney managed to use several first-season episodes of his Disneyland TV anthology to plug his newest live-action theatrical feature, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Disney introduces this episode by strolling into his studio's "Monster Room", where reams Read More

Operation Cicero

Fifth Wheel

Casino Royale

Actors: Barry Nelson, Peter Lorre

Synopsis: This live television adaptation of Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, much more closely adheres to the source material than the jokey 1967 version with David Niven and Woody Allen. When a dangerous Russian spy manages to lose millions of his country's money, the spy attempts to Read More

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Actors: Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, Peter Lorre, Robert J. Wilke

Synopsis: This 1954 Disney version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea represented the studio's costliest and most elaborate American-filmed effort to date. Kirk Douglas plays a trouble-shooting 19th century seaman, trying to discover why so many whaling ships have been disappearing of late. Read More

Beat the Devil

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre

Synopsis: Humphrey Bogart stars as one of five disreputable adventurers who are trying to get uranium out of East Africa. Bogart's associates include pompous fraud Robert Morley, and Peter Lorre as the German-accented "O'Hara", whose wartime record is forever a source of speculation and suspicion. Becoming Read More

Der Verlorene

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Peter Lorre, Karl John, Johanna Hofer

Synopsis: Der Verloreue (The Lost One) was the only directorial effort by actor Peter Lorre. In keeping with Lorre's established screen persona, this is a tale of stark terror, disillusionment and defeatism. The actor stars as Dr. Rothe, a German research scientist who during WW2 discovers that his fiancee Read More

Quicksand

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Jeanne Cagney, Barbara Bates, Peter Lorre, Taylor Holmes

Synopsis: Mickey Rooney, with his kid roles and musicals behind him, went for a major change of image in this harrowing film noir. He gives what many consider to be the best performance of his career as Danny Brady, a well-meaning grease monkey whose life is destroyed in less than a week. Danny finds Read More

Double Confession

Actors: Derek Farr, Joan Hopkins, Peter Lorre, William Hartnell, Naunton Wayne

Synopsis: The presence of Peter Lorre assured a modicum of American business for the British meller Double Confession. It all begins when the wife of Jim Medway (Derek Farr) turns up dead. Since the evidence points to murder, the embittered Medway does his best to pin the "killing" on his wife's lover Read More

Rope of Sand

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Sam Jaffe

Synopsis: Producer Hal Wallis evidently hoped to recapture the magic of his earlier Casablanca with 1949's Rope of Sand. To that end, he hired three of Casablanca's supporting players: Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, and Peter Lorre. This time, Henreid is the villain, a sadistic police inspector named Paul Read More

Casbah

Actors: Yvonne De Carlo, Tony Martin, Peter Lorre, Märta Torén, Hugo Haas

Synopsis: Casbah is a musical remake of the 1938 film Algiers, which was itself a remake of the French film Pepe Le Moko. Tony Martin stars in the old Jean Gabin/Charles Boyer role as Pepe Le Moko, a master thief who lives in the Casbah section of Algiers. A French police inspector (Peter Lorre) would love Read More

My Favorite Brunette

Actors: Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney, Jr., John Hoyt

Synopsis: Just as Bob Hope's My Favorite Blonde (1942) was a takeoff on Alfred Hitchcock, Hope's My Favorite Brunette was a lampoon of the noirish "hard-boiled detective" school popularized by Raymond Chandler. Awaiting execution on death row, Hope tells the gathered reporters how he got into his present Read More

The Chase

Actors: Robert Cummings, Michèle Morgan, Peter Lorre, Steve Cochran, Lloyd Corrigan

Synopsis: Originally slated for release through Monogram Pictures, The Chase was ultimately distributed by United Artists. Adapted by Philip Yordan from Cornell Woolrich's The Black Path of Fear (a perennial of the radio series Suspense), the film stars Robert Cummings as Chuck, shell-shocked ex-GI. Read More

The Black Angel

Actors: Dan Duryea, June Vincent, Peter Lorre, Broderick Crawford, Wallace Ford

Synopsis: With an ingenious script by Roy Chanslor, this modest, but imaginative film noir is notable for the strong performance by lead actor Dan Duryea Alcoholic musician Martin Blair (Duryea) becomes the prime suspect when his cheating wife is murdered, until it is determined that he was "sleeping Read More

The Beast with Five Fingers

Actors: Robert Alda, Andrea King, Peter Lorre, Victor Francen, J. Carrol Naish

Synopsis: This movie is an early horror film classic and certainly one that a well-rounded horror movie aficionado should not miss. An invalid concert pianist dies, leaving a will that does not include his personal secretary Hilary Cummins (Peter Lorre) as a beneficiary. Furious, the left-out yes-man cuts Read More

Three Strangers

Actors: Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Joan Lorring, Robert Shayne

Synopsis: On the eve of the Chinese New Year, three strangers make a pact before a small statue of the Chinese goddess of Destiny. The strangers are Crystal Shackleford (Geraldine Fitzgerald), married to a wealthy philanderer; Jerome Artbutny (Sidney Greenstreet), an outwardly respectable judge; and Johnny Read More

The Verdict

Actors: Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Joan Lorring, George Coulouris, Arthur Shields, Rosalind Ivan

Synopsis: The novel The Big Bow Mystery by Israel Zangwill had been filmed in 1928 as The Perfect Crime and again in 1934 as The Crime Doctor. This 1946 version was the best and marked the directorial debut of Don Siegel. It also paired the popular duo of Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet for the last Read More

Confidential Agent

Actors: Charles Boyer, Lauren Bacall, Wanda Hendrix, Peter Lorre, Katina Paxinou, Victor Francen, George Coulouris

Synopsis: A Graham Greene novel was the source of the Warner Bros. espionage thriller Confidential Agent. Charles Boyer stars as Denard, a former concert musician operating as anti-Fascist secret agent in the Spanish Civil War. While negotiating with the neutral British for some much needed fuel supplies Read More

Hotel Berlin

Actors: Helmut Dantine, Andrea King, Raymond Massey, Faye Emerson, Peter Lorre

Synopsis: Vicki Baum, the author of the novel Grand Hotel, also wrote this similarly structured tale about a group of disparate characters brought together in a towering hotel in Germany as the nation teeters on the verge of collapse near the end of World War II. Martin Richter (Helmut Dantine), a Read More

The Mask of Dimitrios

Actors: Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson, Peter Lorre, Victor Francen

Synopsis: Zachary Scott made his screen debut in this clever bit of film noir that has gained a cult reputation in recent years. Dutch mystery novelist Cornelius Leyden (Peter Lorre) is travelling through Istanbul when he meets Col. Haki (Kurt Katch), head of the secret police and a big fan of Read More

The Conspirators

Actors: Hedy Lamarr, Paul Henreid, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Victor Francen

Synopsis: This Casablanca-esque spy thriller set during WWII centers on the exploits of the notorious "Flying Dutchman," a fugitive resistance leader from Holland who heads for Lisbon where he hooks up with other members of the underground. One of them is a beautiful young woman, and none of the others Read More

Hollywood Canteen

Actors: The Andrews Sisters, Robert Hutton, Jack Benny, Joan Leslie, Julie Bishop, Bette Davis, John Garfield, Betty Brodel, Sydney Greenstreet, Barbara Brown

Synopsis: The West Coast's answer to Broadway's Stage Door Canteen, the Hollywood Canteen was created as a GI morale-booster by film stars Bette Davis and John Garfield. The Canteen was established so that Our Boys on leave in Tinseltown could have a good time with good food and good dancing -- and, as a Read More

Arsenic and Old Lace

Actors: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Jack Carson, Peter Lorre, Edward Everett Horton

Synopsis: Arsenic and Old Lace is director Frank Capra's spin on the classic Joseph Kesselring stage comedy, which concerns the sweet old Brewster sisters (Josephine Hull, Jean Adair), beloved in their genteel Brooklyn neighborhood for their many charitable acts. One charity which the ladies don't advertise Read More

Passage to Marseilles

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Michèle Morgan, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Philip Dorn

Synopsis: Designed as a followup to the enormously successful Casablanca, Passage to Marseille utilizes the talents of many of the on- and off-screen personnel of the earlier Warner Bros. classic. Unfolded in a complex flashback-within-flashback structure, this is the story of Matrac (Humphrey Bogart), a Read More

Background to Danger

Actors: George Raft, Brenda Marshall, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Osa Massen

Synopsis: Eric Ambler's intriguing novel Uncommon Danger is brought down to a Republic serial level in Warner Bros.' Background to Danger. George Raft, who always seems miscast, plays an American undercover intelligence agent operating in Turkey. Sultry Osa Massen passes on some valuable secret papers to Raft Read More

The Cross of Lorraine

Actors: Jean-Pierre Aumont, Gene Kelly, Cedric Hardwicke, Richard Whorf, Joseph Calleia

Synopsis: The time is World War II. A group of disillusioned French soldiers are approached by Nazi troops and promised safe passage to their homeland. The Frenchmen willingly surrender, only to discover that their next destination is a German concentration camp located near a Gallic village. The Read More

The Constant Nymph

Actors: Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine, Alexis Smith, Charles Coburn, Peter Lorre, Brenda Marshall

Synopsis: Warner Bros.' The Constant Nymph was the third filmization of Margaret Dean's 1924 novel; the first two were filmed in Britain in 1928 and 1933 by producer Michael Balcon. The plot was substantially the same in all three versions: A self-centered European musician (Charles Boyer) is idolized by a Read More

Casablanca

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre

Synopsis: One of the most beloved American films, this captivating wartime adventure of romance and intrigue from director Michael Curtiz defies standard categorization. Simply put, it is the story of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a world-weary ex-freedom fighter who runs a nightclub in Casablanca during Read More

Invisible Agent

Actors: Ilona Massey, Jon Hall, Peter Lorre, Cedric Hardwicke, J. Edward Bromberg

Synopsis: Universal's "Invisible Man" series does its bit for the war effort in this slyly tongue-in-cheek action melodrama. Jon Hall stars as Frank Raymond, grandson of the man who invented the invisibility formula several pictures back. When Nazi agents try to coerce the secret formula out of Raymond, he Read More

The Boogie Man Will Get You

Actors: Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, "Slapsie Maxie" Rosenbloom, Jeff Donnell, Larry Parks

Synopsis: In this silly but enjoyable rip-off of Arsenic and Old Lace, Boris Karloff plays an addlepated scientist who is experimenting with bringing the dead back to life. To do this, he has "killed" several travelling salesmen and placed them in suspended animation in his basement. Karloff is fiercely Read More

Mr. District Attorney

Actors: Dennis O'Keefe, Florence Rice, Peter Lorre, Stanley Ridges, Minor Watson

Synopsis: There were two separate 1940s film series inspired by Philips H. Lord's radio weekly Mr. District Attorney; the first was produced by Republic, the second by Paramount's Pine-Thomas unit. Republic's inaugural entry, appropriately titled Mr. District Attorney, eschews the sobriety of the radio Read More

The Maltese Falcon

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Ward Bond, Barton MacLane, Gladys George

Synopsis: After two previous film versions of Dashiell Hammett's detective classic The Maltese Falcon, Warner Bros. finally got it right in 1941--or, rather, John Huston, a long-established screenwriter making his directorial debut, got it right, simply by adhering as closely as possible to the original. Read More

All Through the Night

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt, Kaaren Verne, Jane Darwell, Frank McHugh

Synopsis: Humphrey Bogart plays Gloves Donahue, a rough-hewn but essentially decent New York gambler. The Runyonesque plot gets moving when Gloves tries to find out what's holding up his favorite restaurant's daily shipment of cheesecake. Paying a call on the bakery, Gloves stumbles into a Nazi spy ring