Peter Lorre

Winnie Slade, a young divorcee, buys an old historic house from nutty Professor Billings, who lives there with his daffy housekeeper and bizarre neighbors, in order to convert it into a hotel. She allows them to continue to live on the property – unaware that the Professor continues to experiment unsuccessfully on traveling salesmen, the bodies of whom have filled the cellar. They are joined by a variety of eccentric characters including a quack doctor who doubles as the town’s sheriff, Winnie’s frenetic ex-husband, an oddball choreographer, a punchdrunk traveling salesman, and a lunatic escapee from the Italian army.Read More »

Synopsis:
According to a legend, if three strangers gather before an idol of Kwan Yin (the Chinese goddess of fortune and destiny) on the night of the Chinese New Year and make a common wish, Kwan Yin will open her eyes and her heart and grant the wish. In London 1938 on the Chinese New Year, Crystal Shackleford has such an idol and decides to put the legend to the test. She picks two random strangers off the street, and puts the proposition to them. They decide that an ideal wish would be for a sweepstakes ticket they buy equal shares in to be a winner. After all, everyone needs money and a pot is very easy to divide equally, right?Read More »

Synopsis:
Mr. Grodman was a respected superintendent at Scotland Yard until a mistake in an investigation caused the execution of an innocent man. He takes the blame and is dismissed, replaced by the obnoxious, gloating Buckley. Feeling vengeful, Grodman would like nothing more than to see Buckley look foolish on the job. His friend Victor Emmric, an artist with macabre tastes, wouldn’t mind either and soon a mysterious murder occurs that may provide them with the chance.Read More »

Synopsis:
Waldo Trumbull (Vincent Price) is an amoral undertaker in 19th-century New England who takes to murdering people to have enough cash to support his drinking habit. Desperate for money after a widow stiffs him for a burial, Trumbull and his assistant, Gillie (Peter Lorre), decide to kill the wealthy Mr. Black (Basil Rathbone), their landlord, to whom they’re indebted. But murdering Black proves to be quite a challenge, as he seems to keep recovering from death every time they do him in.Read More »

Quote:
The horror of the faces: That is the overwhelming image that remains from a recent viewing of the restored version of “M,” Fritz Lang’s famous 1931 film about a child murderer in Germany. In my memory it was a film that centered on the killer, the creepy little Franz Becker, played by Peter Lorre. But Becker has relatively limited screen time, and only one consequential speech–although it’s a haunting one. Most of the film is devoted to the search for Becker, by both the police and the underworld, and many of these scenes are played in closeup. In searching for words to describe the faces of the actors, I fall hopelessly upon “piglike.”Read More »

Quote:
Bob (Leslie Banks) and Jill Lawrence (Edna Best) are on a winter sports holiday with their teenage daughter. When their friend Louis Bernard is shot whilst dancing with Jill, he tells Bob of an assassination about to take place in London.

Fearing that their plot will be revealed, the assassins kidnap their daughter in order to keep the Lawrence’s quiet.
Bob and Jill return to London and take matters into their own hands.
In this movie we can beside Leslie Banks and Edna Best also see Peter Lorre.Read More »