148 “At first it … we were kidding”: Foster, interview.
148 “‘On Your Toes … at Mr. Moto’s’”: “Mr. Moto a la Charlie Chan,” Variety, Feb. 17, 1937.
148 “Continental horror specialist”: ibid.
148 “The first Moto … were the rest”: Foster, interview.
149 “ridiculous situation”: ibid.
150 “unusual sinister quality”: ibid.
150 “Menace in nature … ally of justice”: Mr. Moto’s Gamble, pressbook, 1938.
150 “Instead of wrecking … of his talent”: Douglas W. Churchill, “Hollywood Picket Line,” NYT, April 18, 1937.
151 “shooting is characterized … moved the tree”: Douglas W. Churchill, “Cleaning and Blocking Hollywood’s Old Hat,” NYT, Aug. 22, 1937.
151 “In those days … and that’s it”: Ames, interview.
152 “poor copy”: Lisa, “A Letter from Lisa,” in “The Opening Chorus,” Silver Screen, March, 1938.
152 “95 percent … studio publicity departments”: Capra, Name above the Title, p. 315.
152 “A stickler for … movie stunts himself”: 20th Century-Fox publicity releases, MHL AMPAS.
153 “came out of it completely cured “: Statement of Peter Lorre, Feb. 27, 1947, USPHS DHHS.
153 “on and off … name, Peter Lorre”: ibid.
153 “Were you surprised … would help me”: Parry, interview.
153 “Don’t give me … hell at that”: Sherman, interview.
153 “Though Peter didn’t … just too expensive”: Foster, interview.
154 “Peter was not … funny, charming way”: Ames, interview.
154 “In the mornings … be making faces”: Foster, “Hollywood by Roller Coaster.”
154 “I’m sorry Peter … make a picture”: Foster, interview.
154 “Sickness … he used to”: Parry, interview.
154 “He was a … cope with him”: Ames, interview.
155 “I would hear … put it in”: Parry, interview.
155 “brain above brawn”: 20th Century–Fox publicity release, MHL AMPAS.
155 “Harvey … do it again”: Parry, interview.
155 “This particular night … in those days”: Ames, interview.
156 “In the long … as physical assault”: B.R. Crisler, “Mysterious Mr. Moto of Devil’s Island,” NYT, Sept. 19, 1938.
156 “horror, brutality, and murder”: California Congress of Parents and Teachers, “Thank You, Mr. Moto,” MHL AMPAS.
156 “Peter Lorre was … click with audiences”: “Think Fast, Mr. Moto,” Variety, Aug. 18, 1937.
156 “As Mr. Moto … for many years”: 20th Century–Fox press release, MHL AMPAS.
157 “I’m tired of … in the ass”: Parry, interview.
157 “Nothing, I make faces”: Lenya, interview.
157 “Mr. Moto was … good dramatic story”: Joe Duncan, “Mr. Moto Roles Childish, Rebellious Mr. Moto Says,” Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal, Oct. 21, 1944.
157 “He hated the … thing he did”: Brandt, interview.
157 “found the Mr…. I was ‘sick,’”: Denman Kountze Jr., “Peter Lorre: Typed Actor Is Boring to the Audience,” Omaha (NB) World Herald, Oct. 1, 1963.
157 “We’re like a … Want a divorce”: Foster, interview.
158 “was very sorry … my good will”: Dr. Oskar Samek to Eli Leslie, Nov. 11, 1937, Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek, Karl Kraus contra, p. 293.
158 “that we can … with Dr. Hunter”: Eli Leslie to Ivor Montagu, Nov. 19, 1937, Ivor Montagu Collection, BFINL.
158 “for not having … a little bronchitis”: Peter Lorre to Ivor Montagu, ca. Nov. 1937, ibid.
158 “You must know … are forgiving us”: Cecile Lorre to Hell Montagu, April 19, 1939, ibid.
159 “sold him up the river”: I. Yergin, interview, June 23, 1976.
159 “there was something … was just bored”: Ames, interview.
159 “Don’t Buy Jap Goods”: “Rambling Reporter,” HR, Feb. 2, 1938.
159 “continued solving high … heart and soul”: Frank Chin, “Confessions of a Number One Son,” Ramparts, March, 1973.
160 “we would like … in the future”: Sol M. Wurtzel, memo to E.C. Delavigne, Dec. 4, 1939, TCFLF UCLA.
160 “Peter, apparently, has … sink his teeth”: Jimmie Fidler, “Movie Medley,” Chicago Sunday Times, July 10, 1938.
161 “the way he’s … a deserved reward”: Jimmie Fidler, “Fidler in Hollywood,” unidentified clipping, PLS.
161 “Peter Lorre, as … him in 1939–40”: “These Popular Series,” HR, April 19, 1939.
161 “I had him … German in uniform”: Dunne, interview.
162 “somewhat mentally disordered … of the road”: 20th Century–Fox press release, MHL AMPAS.
162 “with a delightful … a melodramatic thriller”: Four Men and a Prayer, Darryl F. Zanuck, script conference, July 11, 1936, TCFC USC.
162 “monk-like, odious character”: Four Men and a Prayer, draft screenplay by Sonia Levien, cast of characters, July 7, 1936, TCFC USC.
163 “Chaney’s results were … would be different”: 20th Century–Fox publicity release, TCFC USC.
163 “reasonably censorable”: Joseph I. Breen to John Hammell, Paramount, Sept. 20, 1934, MPAA PCA.
163 “I think at … with pacifistic doctrine”: B.P. Schulberg to Joseph I. Breen, Feb. 4, 1937, ibid.
163 “There is a … for any reason”: Joseph I. Breen, report to B.P. Schulberg, Feb. 5, 1937, ibid.
164 “international political reasons”: B.P. Schulberg to Joseph I. Breen, Feb. 22, 1937, ibid.
164 “he has left … on another meanie”: “‘Frankenstein’ Plan for New Team Flop,” HR, Oct. 24, 1938.
164 “go comic”: “20-Fox Ends Month’s Lull, Three Pix Roll,” Variety, Jan. 25, 1939.
164 “because of too … ‘Mr. Moto’ series”: “Peter Lorre Bids Adieu to 20th for Freelancing,” HR, July 19, 1939.
165 “very anxious to … of the country”: Kenneth Thomson to Frank Gillmore, Aug. 12, 1938, Associated Actors and Artistes of America Collection, Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, Bobst Library, New York Univ., New York.
165 “I hope the … in a while”: 20th Century–Fox publicity release, MHL AMPAS.
165 “Mr. Peter Lorre … piece of acting”: “I Was an Adventuress,” Times (London), Sept. 16, 1940.
166 “Hollywood has used … not his talent”: Theodore Strauss, “Island of Doomed Men,” NYT, June 10, 1940.
166 “I think we … laughed like hell”: C. Barton, interview.
167 “thrown together quickies”: unidentified newspaper clipping, PLS.
167 “Meet me in … run after him”: C. Barton, interview.
168 “fifty-fifty … great”: Frank Orsatti to Mr. Joe Nolan, RKO Studios, Aug. 19, 1939, RKO Radio Pictures Studio Collection (Collection 3), ALSC UCLA.
168 “After all … this young man”: Lee Marcus, interdepartment communication to Joe Nolan, Aug. 28, 1939, ibid.
168 “urban nightworld”: Ottoson, American Film Noir, p. 168.
168 “light-and-shadow … on the screen”: “Eccentric Camera Work Marks Drama,” Stranger on the Third Floor, pressbook, 1940.
169 “I remember that … same type roles”: Margaret Tallichet Wyler to author, May 20, 1975.
170 “This snack … agony in itself”: ibid.
170 “visual italics”: Foster Hirsch, The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir (New York: A.S. Barnes, 1981), p. 57.
170 “first true film … to that time”: Film Noir: An Encyclopedia Reference to the American Style, ed. Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward (Woodstock, NY: Overlook, 1979), p. 269.
170 “three notable heavies”: Butler, interview.
170 “the script writers … devoted to them”: Bosley Crowther, “You’ll Find Out,” NYT, Nov. 15, 1940.
171 “charity fracas … first-class riot”: “Comedians Nip Leading Men,” LAT, Aug. 9, 1940.
&
nbsp; 171 “the most hideous … in film history”: Hull, Film in the Third Reich, p. 173.
171 “black masterpiece”: Manvell and Fraenkel, German Cinema, p. 75.
173 “I put on … of a mask”: Guernsey, “Peter Lorre, Who Is Nothing like His Roles.”
173 “Artist agrees, at … opinion of producer”: Synopsis of Employment Contract, Nov. 30, 1936, TCFLF UCLA.
174 “He had terrible … room with you”: Ames, interview.
174 “The role was … already been cast”: Paul Jarrico to author, May 20, 1975.
174 “eloquent statement on … the American dream”: James Monaco and the editors of BASELINE, The Encyclopedia of Film (New York: Pedigree, 1991), p. 337.
174 “I don’t think … this particular venture”: Don Beddoe to author, Dec. 27, 1979.
174 “didn’t keep his … not always possible”: Robert Florey to Raymond J. Cabana Jr., March 4, 1978, author’s collection.
175 “one of his … the unforgettable M”: Florey, Hollywood d’hier, p. 198.
175 “was wicked, frequently … in good taste”: Don Beddoe to author, Dec. 12, 1979.
175 “His was a … glistening-eye approach”: Don Beddoe to author, Aug. 6, 1973.
5. BEING SLAPPED AND LIKING IT
Epigraphs: Humphrey Bogart to Peter Lorre, in The Maltese Falcon (1941); Lorre, quoted in Don Alpert, “Lorre Laughs When It Hurts,” LAT, Jan. 20, 1963.
1. The film was retitled Dangerous Female for television release.
2. Director Jean Negulesco recalled that he “got the go-ahead from Jack Warner for the remake” of The Maltese Falcon and worked on a shooting script “for four hopeful months” before heading east to make an army short. However, when he returned, he learned that Warner had taken the project away from him and given it to John Huston. Things I Did, p. 115.
3. In his autobiography, Huston called it “Faustian worldliness.” An Open Book, p. 79.
4. Lorre pulled the same trick on Judith Anderson in his next film, All Through the Night. Not privy to the prank, however, when she learned about it, she chased him with a hairbrush. Huston, interview.
5. This is the most complete telling of one of Lorre’s favorite and often-told Bogart anecdotes.
6. According to Thomas Mann biographer Donald Prater, Lorre’s “embrace of Katia (Katharina Mann) on one occasion was so violently emotional that he gave her a love-bite on the arm.” Thomas Mann, p. 281.
7. A restraining order postponed publication of the newspaper articles until December 4, 1938, by which time the spy trials had concluded.
8. On May 14, 1941, Warner Bros. had announced plans to costar George Raft and Olivia de Havilland in All Through the Night, whose July 28 starting date, pointed out Variety, conflicted with Raft’s commitment to RKO for The Mayor of 44th Street (in which he ultimately did not appear). However, according to an August 4 letter from Sam Jaffe, Bogart’s agent, to Steve Trilling, Raft had actually refused the role of Gloves Donahue in All Through the Night, preferring to be placed on suspension rather than play a “heel” who “is willing to throw money away in gambling and refuses to assist members of his own family.” Edwin Shallert, “Raft Refuses to Play ‘Heel’ Role at Warners,” LAT, Aug. 1, 1941. When he stepped down, Bogart, who had “pinch-hitted for Raft and been kicked around from pillar to post,” reluctantly stepped in. De Havilland, busy trying to Hold Back the Dawn at Paramount, could not stop the clock at Warner Bros. and missed her entrance. Sam Jaffe to Steve Trilling, Aug. 4, 1941, WBA USC, reprinted in Behlmer, Inside Warner Bros., p. 156. By August the studio still had not filled the female lead. Hal Wallis’s first choice was Ingrid Bergman, held under very tight contract to David O. Selznick. With shooting under way, he finally settled for Karen Verne.
9. Budgeted at $643,000, nearly twice the budget of The Maltese Falcon, All Through the Night proved the exception to the rule and performed well at the box office. William Schaefer Collection, USC Cinema-Television Library, Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles.
10. Already she had added a second a to her first name. Said Barbara: “She liked that. It sounded a little bit Scandinavian, those double ‘a’s. Then everybody said ‘Karen,’ so she just gave up and dropped it.” Sykes, interview, Sept. 15, 1984.
11. Released as Missing Ten Days in the United States.
12. Catharine Lorre, whom Karen and then-husband Jim Powers (an editor for the Hollywood Reporter) adopted after her parents’ deaths, remembered her stepmother telling of hearing Lorre’s distinctive voice. Jim Powers worked as a reporter and critic for Daily Variety, as editor for the Hollywood Reporter, and later as director of publications for the American Film Institute and West Coast editor of American Film Magazine.
13. Capra announced his decision to join the Signal Corps on December 12; he took his army oath on January 29, 1942, at the Southern California Military District Headquarters in Los Angeles. McBride, Frank Capra, p. 449.
14. Warner Bros. bought the motion picture rights to Joseph Kesselring’s Bodies in Our Cellar for $175,000 in April 1941.
15. Reference to the production of Captain America, “Minoco to Produce ‘Capt. America’ in N.Y.,” Variety, Sept. 30, 1942.
16. Reference to Lorre signing with Music Corporation of America, “Inside Stuff—Pictures,” Variety, Feb. 10, 1943.
17. In an earlier performance, broadcast January 3, 1943, Lorre had read: “I’m just a little guy trying to get along.” A rattled Allen, apparently intending to play off the “ahead” pun, ad-libbed, “Well, I know that. I know that, but you’re not getting along in this vein. You’re not trying to get a head, you mean, and you’re not getting mine, if that’s what you had in mind.”
18. “Lorre took particular delight in letting Hardwicke finish a lengthy speech,” recalled film historian William K. Everson, who visited the set of “The Man Who Lost His Head” (Climax!) in 1956, “and then tearing his hair in mock despair. ‘They’ll need English subtitles if you keep talking in that accent!’ he’d scream, ‘let’s do it over in American!’” “Peter Lorre,” p. 16.
19. At this rate, the actor would receive $10,500 per picture the first and second years of his contract, $15,000 the third, $18,000 the fourth, and $21,000 the fifth.
20. When an uncredited actor, whose vocal mannerisms closely resembled those of Peter Lorre, appeared on radio’s I Love a Mystery in July 1944, the William Morris Agency sent a letter to the program’s advertiser asking that the program cease and desist from impersonating its client’s voice without his consent. Grams, I Love a Mystery Companion, pp. 123–24.
21. “The appearance of Artist at and the rendition of his services … without additional compensation” in one radio broadcast with respect to each motion picture in which he appeared for “advertising and exploiting” purposes presumably didn’t carry this stipulation. Agreement, June 2, 1943, Peter Lorre legal file, WBA USC.
22. The “exclusive deal” provided for forty out of fifty-two weeks—$1,000 weekly, with a $250 salary increase each of the first five years and $500 thereafter.
23. Paramount did not release a film titled The Private Eye.
24. According to a letter in the Paul Kohner Collection at the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin, the agent had sent Lorre a script of the same title in 1940 and then written to ask how he liked the part. Film historian Tom Weaver disallows the idea it might have been the same film: “Universal’s Chamber of Horrors would have been an all-star ‘monster rally’ movie in the wake of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man—unimaginable in 1940, when such things were years in the future.” Tom Weaver to author, Feb. 9, 2000.
25. The Hollywood Reporter‘s “RKO Picture Will Gag Horror Films,” June 4, 1943, spared Lorre the promised displacement.
26. Greenstreet received first billing and Lorre fourth, behind Scott and Faye Emerson.
27. David O. Selznick wanted it clearly understood that before bothering to read the story, he was setting Ingrid Bergman’s salary for any possibility in The Cons
pirators (originally titled Give Me This Woman) at $175,000 for ten weeks. Steve Trilling, interoffice communication to Hal B. Wallis, June 8, 1943, JWC USC.
28. Whereas the studio held Lorre to $1,750 per week with a six-to-eight-week guarantee per picture, Greenstreet’s three-year option, as of 1945, included two pictures per year, with a five-to-six-week guarantee and a salary that graduated from $3,500 the first year to $4,166.66 the third. R.J. Orbringer, interoffice communication to J.L. Warner, Feb. 26, 1945, JWC USC.
29. According to Variety, the William Morris Agency asked $4,000 per week for Lorre’s services. “Morris Office Seeks to Extend Lorre Dates,” Variety, Aug. 23, 1944.
30. During the 1930s through the 1950s, Wilson did it all, contributing crime stories to The Bishop and the Gargoyle, biographies to These Four Men, dramas to Academy Award Theater, and comedy to Songs by Sinatra and The Big Show.
31. Lorre’s contract stated that “the Artist agrees to conduct himself with due regard to public convention and morals, and agrees that he will not do or commit any act or thing that will tend to degrade himself in society or bring him into public hatred, contempt, scorn or ridicule, or that will tend to shock or offend the community or ridicule public morals or decency or prejudice the Producer or the motion picture industry in general.” Agreement, June 2, 1943, Peter Lorre legal file, WBA USC.
32. According to a memo from Henry Blanke to Roy Obringer, dated January 14, 1943, Frank Gruber also worked on the story; “To the characters John Huston had, we have added a private detective on the order of the one portrayed by Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon.” WBA USC.
33. Andrea King might well have had Clark Gable’s Fletcher Christian in mind, although MGM, not Warner Bros., produced the 1935 classic.
34. In the late 1930s playwright Arch Oboler had scripted Lights Out, radio’s ultimate horror show, into a late-night institution. Wanting to write, cast, and direct, he put in for his own show. NBC gave him a slot in spring of 1939 and Arch Oboler’s Plays was airborne.
35. The release cut did not charge Lorre with the murder of the pianist, played by Victor Francen. Rather, it explained his death as an accident. However, the crux of the plot conformed to Siodmak’s original premise.
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