The Lost One

by Stephen D. Youngkin

  5. In 1953 the reallocation of surplus German prisoner-of-war funds provided for the construction of six additional America Houses in Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hannover, Munich, and Stuttgart. U.S. House, Committee on Government Operations, German Consulate–America House Program, H. Rpt. 83-168, 83rd Cong., 1st sess., 1953, p. 1.

  6. During the casting process, Lorre flew to England and located Johnny Lockwood at the Empire Theater in Chiswick. He told him he had a part for him in his new film and invited the actor to return to Germany with him the next day. “Of course I could not accept his offer and leave the show I was in,” said Lockwood. “It was just one of the crazy things Peter would do.” Lockwood to author, Oct. 23, 2001.

  7. Top-billed as screenwriter, Lorre received no credit as coproducer. However, according to an undated agreement in the Arnold Pressburger Papers, all decisions relating to the production “are to be joint ones between Arnold Pressburger and Peter Lorre.”

  8. An orchestra conductor at Berlin’s UFA Palace, Willy Schmidt-Gentner (1894–1964), “a diligent old man,” according to C.O. Bartning, composed more than eighty film scores, beginning with Der Student von Prag in 1926. Carl O. Bartning, interview by Corinna Müller, July 30, 1983, author’s collection.

  9. This document is identified as the “Arbeits—Manuskript des Peter Lorre—Film” (Persönliches Manuskript P.L., 25.4.51.) and was likely reconstructed by C.O. Bartning after the rough-cut copy of the film burned in a lab fire.

  10. Perhaps too psychological for Brecht, Lorre’s externalizing of an inner reality recalls the whitening of his face to indicate fear in the 1931 production of Mann ist Mann.

  11. In the only surviving copy of this script, once belonging to set designer Franz Schroedter, the strangulation is prefaced with several pages of what can only be described as sexual foreplay. Inge nervously twists a necklace around her fingers. Rothe grabs it, wraps it around his own fingers, and ties her hands with it. “You’re hurting me,” she complains before lapsing into submission. The necklace breaks. His face appears tense, his expression lascivious. The “Horla motif” takes musical form. A frightened Inge clutches Rothe, pinning his arms to his sides, then bites the palm of his hand. He reaches for a lock of hair hanging over her forehead and tenderly brushes it over her eyes, then lets his hand slide to her throat. He tightens his grip. A bundle of “passive desire,” Inge surrenders with a remote laugh. Rothe stares at her with “a strange, unknown expression.” His face goes out of focus. When the scene clears, one sees the gruesome details in the mirror. Inge’s lifeless body hangs in Rothe’s hands, which hold tightly around her throat. She glides to the ground. His hand restlessly sweeps over his face as he looks in the mirror, a scene intentionally reminiscent of that in the laboratory basement.

  12. The use of the word Totmacher dates back at least to the Schroedter script, which includes the same scene.

  13. In the Schroedter script, Helene tells Rothe, “It is so seldom that one finds today a good looking man your age who hasn’t been drafted.”

  14. With the eternally transient Lorre, it is hard to know whether the Wohnungsamt (Housing Office) frequently reassigned him to new living quarters or whether he importuned the authorities to relocate him as opportunities opened up and insolvency closed in. During production, he lived on the Elbchausse, where he joked about buying a cannon and shooting across the bows of the outgoing ships; in a house on the grounds of a margarine factory in Barmbeck; in “noble quarters” in Harvestehude; and in an apartment at the corner of Magdalenenstrasse and Böttgerstrasse. Eggebrecht to author, July 12, 1985.

  15. The Schroedter script gives more attention to the individual murders, both contemplated and committed, in one long flashback, opening with Rothe walking the railway tracks outside the refugee camp (once a prison) remembering things that happened four years earlier. “Fear … fear …,” he says again and again, “each time with a new emphasis,” a script note indicates, “in one case with horror, in another with irony, indifference, cynicism, and finally with the emphasis of liberation.” He resumes, “But where did it begin, if it is now at an end?” A gap of fifty script pages (which must have included the second-billed Elfe Gerhart as “Christa Feldt,” who does not appear in pages 55–205) finds Dr. Rothe at the bacteriological department of the Tropical Institute: “I was never what one would call a happy person—however, I was never painfully aware of it. I knew no strong emotions at all.” The story proceeds linearly, without the political conspiracy, to Rothe’s falsified death. The story then returns to the refugee camp and what would become the opening and closing scenes of the film. “Fear—? Fear—?” Rothe repeats the word (his last) “with the clear impression of freedom” before meeting his death. The lifting of the railway gate visually underlines the idea, acknowledged by few contemporary reviewers, that the doctor dies a free man.

  16. Lorre later claimed to hold all distribution rights to Der Verlorene outside Germany. “Lorre Offers ‘Team’ Idea for Production,” Variety, July 11, 1952.

  17. For his role as actor, Lorre received twenty thousand deutsche marks. Arnold Pressburger Papers, author’s collection.

  18. Though he would have been loath to admit it, Brecht, at least on one occasion, crossed over to Mann’s camp. After listening to German students belt out some traditional anti-Semitic tunes, including “Saujud” (“Jewish Swine”) at the 1950 Munich Oktoberfest, Brecht kicked over the bench that he, Eric Bentley, and Ruth Berlau were sitting on and stomped out. “And they say these people have changed! Good liberals now, are they? I know this sort! They will never change!” Eric Bentley, “The Last of Brecht,” London Magazine 24 (Nov. 1984): 42.

  19. According to Bartning, the resistance story evolved out of Eggebrecht’s influence.

  20. Green Thursday is also known as Maundy Thursday.

  21. The first page of the Schroedter script warns: “It is the obvious, decent duty of every co-worker that he should keep the production secret, that he will not give this book to others, and that he will not publish anything from it…. Any misuse of this text can lead to civil and criminal penalties.”

  22. This is possibly a reference to the Bonner Bundeshaus (Committee for the Movies at the Home-Department), which awarded film prizes and supporting premiums for films that not only entertained but “serve[d] the cultural advancement and development of taste.” “Verleihung der deutschen Filmpreise,” Der neue Film, April 28, 1952.

  23. The trailer, however, was approved for children over ten years of age.

  24. Reference to Egon Jameson’s authorship of the serialization for Münchner Illustrierte in Film Press (Hamburg), Aug. 15, 1951. In 1996 Belleville Verlag (Munich) published a trade edition of the serialized story and credited Lorre as author, again at Egon Jameson’s expense.

  25. Stamps on Lorre’s passport would seem to confirm a note in the Frankfurter Allgemeine, Sept. 6, 1951, reporting that after rumored rejection by the Biennale committee, Lorre planned to arrange a private premiere of Der Verlorene in London. Failure to clear the film with British customs, however, forced cancellation of the showing.

  26. Film historian Marta Mierendorff believed that contemporary reviewers “put the lust murder in the center of the film, making it a psychiatric case which could play in all societies. This approach allowed them to minimize the Third Reich events, to neutralize it completely. They did not understand or did not want to understand that Lorre worked with a contrast: The murderous state politics, ‘legal killings’ against a private killing. What happened to Lorre in this story could not happen in a democratic society. The background of the murder had something to do with Schuld und Sühne [guilt and atonement]. Lorre was a private murderer, but contrary to the sanctioned murders he WANTED to be punished and was betrayed of punishment because in this political surrounding, a murder meant nothing. He was a murderer with a conscience. Er sühnte! [He atoned!].”

  Marta Mierendorff to author, Feb. 2, 1988.

  27. From September 1, 1951, to Mar
ch 22, 1952, the FBL reviewed 306 Kulturfilme, of which 189 received the Prädikat “valuable” and 16 the Prädikat “especially valuable.” Filmblätter (East Berlin), March 28, 1952.

  28. According to Der Grosse Duden: Etymologie (Mannheim: Bibliographisches Institut, Dudenverlag, 1963), p. 618, in 1948 an orchestra leader for the NW German Rundfunk coined the malapropism when he referred to sentimental film and theater productions as “schnulzig” instead of “schmalzig.”

  29. Robert Koch (1939) was based on the life of a German doctor who advanced the theory that infectious diseases were caused by bacterial organisms; Germanin (1943) told the story of a German physician who discovers a cure for sleeping sickness, in effect challenging the loss of rights to colonies in Africa after World War I.

  30. In the Schroedter script, scenes of destruction play a greater part in visually documenting the postwar setting.

  31. In a “Notice of Sale of Personal Property at Private Sale,” Robert Shutan and Alan S. Pitt, attorneys for the Administratrix (Annemarie) of the Estate of Peter Lorre, offered to sell “an undivided forty percent (40%) interest in ‘Der Verlorene,’ a film produced in 1952 in which decedent owned a forty percent (40%) interest in said film with respect to net proceeds from English speaking countries. Location of the negative is unknown. Said film never has been distributed in English speaking countries nor is it contemplated that it ever will be so distributed.” No. P 481, 356, Nov. 21, 1967, Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles.

  32. Rudolf Katscher changed his name to Rudolph Cartier in 1942.

  33. Reference to the proposed film production of Alfred Neumann’s The Patriot, Neumann to William Dieterle, March 20, 1951, Forschungsarchiv Marta Mierendorff, Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German-Swiss Studies, Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles.

  34. Reference to foreign press reports of European offers, “Augen sehen dich an,” Der Spiegel (Hannover), July 4, 1951; Rolf Thoel, “Unter dem Vulkan,” Die Welt (Hamburg), Feb. 24, 1952; P, “Welt im Ausschnitt,” Das grüne Blatt (Dortmund), Feb. 24, 1952.

  35. A film poster from Lorre’s Las Manos de Orlac (Mad Love) picturing a murderer’s hands “laced with blood” also reinforces the recurring motif of what Ken Moon terms “unwilled impulsion” that will end in death: “I think I’ve seen the Peter Lorre movie somewhere,” says Hugh, the Consul’s brother. Malcolm Lowry commented, “He’s a great actor but it’s a lousy picture…. It’s all about a pianist who has a sense of guilt because he thinks his hands are a murderer’s or something and keeps washing the blood off them.” Perhaps not so coincidentally, as in Mad Love, the female side of a love triangle involving the Consul and Hugh is named Yvonne, a one-time movie actress. Ken Moon, “Lowry’s Under the Volcano,” Explicator 46, no. 3 (Spring 1988): 38; Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano (New York: New American Library), p. 110.

  36. Why Lowry established a connection between Lorre and the Hungarian director is unknown. In the 1920s, Fejos emigrated to the United States, where he worked for Universal before going back to Europe and directing both documentaries and feature films. After returning to America in the late 1930s, he devoted himself to anthropological research. Perhaps Lowry confused Fejos’s 1933 Austrian production Frühlingsstimmen (Spring’s Voices) with Frühlings Erwachen.

  37. Reference to his contractual agreement with the Plymouth Theater for a stage production of Pierre La Mure’s Moulin Rouge, Walter Anatole Perisch, “Lorre geht zum Broadway,” Der Mittag (Düsseldorf), Dec. 30, 1951.

  QUOTATION SOURCES BY PACE NUMBER

  311 “I removed myself … experience on occasions”: Frischauer, “Mr. Murder.”

  311 “making faces”: “Lorre’s ‘Lost One,‘” NYT, July 20, 1952.

  311 “rapturous acclamation”: C.T., “Hippodrome,” Manchester Guardian, July 26, 1949.

  311 “The Brits were … funny he was”: Johnny Lockwood to author, Oct. 23, 2001.

  312 “Mr. Lorre will … go to bed”: “London Parents Warned about Lorre Video Show,” NYT, Aug. 18, 1949.

  312 “ruin his image”: Lockwood to author.

  313 “a clinically let … under certain conditions”: Promotional literature for Wigger’s Kurheim, undated, author’s collection.

  313 “She was very … stay off morphine”: Sykes, interview, Sept. 15, 1984.

  314 “We were sitting … edge of going”: ibid.

  314 “the Peter Lorre stamp”: Elmo Williams to author, June 9, 1975.

  315 “Peter Lorre taught … captivated by him”: Ken Annakin to author, July 24, 1975.

  315 “Lorre is so … and mutual admirers”: Double Confession, pressbook, 1950.

  315 “It was the … a convenient hotel”: Sykes to author, July 8, 1985.

  315 “a penny … very highly intelligent”: Sykes, interview, Sept. 15, 1984.

  316 “for your eyes … an enormous effort”: Peter Lorre to Elisabeth Hauptmann, EHA.

  317 “During the war … This is important”: Eileen Creelman, Picture Plays and Players: “Peter Lorre Discusses ‘Rope of Sand,’” New York Sun, May 18, 1949.

  317 “we who are … among these unfortunates”: Jack Cosgrove, “Lorre in ‘Toils’—At Vet Hospital,” Baltimore News-Post, March 5, 1949.

  317 “They tell me … the script demands”: “Peter Lorre Worries: Is He Bad Enough?” Quicksand, pressbook, 1949.

  317 “I would find … hands with me”: “Actor Praises Men in Hospitals,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, Oct. 11, 1944.

  317 “I don’t sing … dance, you know”: “Peter Lorre Worries.”

  317 “In the United … also in Germany”: “Kein Platz für zwei Mörder.”

  317 “Such visits … very humble man”: “Peter Lorre Worries.”

  317 “Lorre has returned … totally forgotten one”: Kilian Karg, “Das Untier vor den Toren,” Münchner Merkur, March 3–4, 1951.

  317 “psychological task”: “Kein Platz für zwei Mörder.”

  317 “a land of … means of existence”: Botting, From the Ruins of the Reich, p. 123.

  318 “great wilderness of debris”: Shirer, End of a Berlin Diary, p. 132.

  318 “sordid caricature of humanity”: Gollanz, In Darkest Germany, p. 90.

  318 “like wild animals … seven or so”: Botting, From the Ruins of the Reich, p. 130.

  318 “godless destruction … nihilistic contempt”: Gollanz, In Darkest Germany, pp. 184, 37, 232, 230.

  318 “What would you … work of art”: Kirkley, “Theater Notes.”

  319 “a psychological study … women he meets”: “Das ‘Untier’ antwortet,” Münchner Merkur, April 28, 1951.

  319 “The original idea … compulsion to kill”: Bartning, interview.

  319 “In refugee camp … my new film”: “Kein frei erfundener Film,” Der Verlorene, pressbook, 1951.

  320 “Movies that are … come about again”: Fr. Porges, “Film ist Gemeinschaftswerk: Peter Lorre über Filmarbeit und Zukunftspläne,” Abendpost (Frankfurt am Main), March 10, 1954.

  320 “I had promised … make this film”: Peter Lorre, interview by Martin Jente von Lossow, “Interview with Peter Lorre and Egon Jameson at the premiere of Der Verlorene in Frankfurt,” Dokumentationsband Zeitfunk, Hessischer Rundfunk (Frankfurt), Sept. 18, 1951.

  320 “If my film … made for nothing”: “Kein frei erfundener Film.”

  320 “Lorre was a … the Vidocq part”: Halliday, Sirk on Sirk, p. 68.

  320 “risk-happy”: Gerhard Midding, “Arnold Pressburger,” Filmexil/Exilfilm, Pr 5, June 21, 1995.

  320 “Desperate to make … as an actor”: Pressburger, interview, Dec. 1, 1983.

  320 “a production team … or a play”: “Peter Lorre Seems Stuck with a Hit, and the Idea Really Appalls Him,” York (PA) Gazette and Daily, Sept. 19, 1952.

  320 “the responsibility to … of departmental overheads”: “Archer Winsten’s Reviewing Stand: Peter Lorre, Shadow & Substance,” New York Post, April 5, 1955.

 
320 “In making frequent … weak”: “Kein Platz für zwei Mörder.”

  320 “a truly good and remarkable film”: Porges, “Film ist Gemeinschaftswerk.”

  322 “is going to … women this time”: gdt., “Bestie Mensch,” Hamburger Echo, July 22, 1950.

  322 “Lorre wanted to … cannot be disputed”: Axel Eggebrecht to author, May 26, 1983.

  322 “it was completely … have denied it”: Bartning, interview.

  322 “it was just … of Hitler Germany”: NYT, Sept. 23, 1951.

  322 “Germany of the … meaning of M”: Peter Lorre, quoted in Tom Granich, “Le intervisté di ‘Cinema’-Lorre: Mtorna con Lo sperduto,” Cinema, n.s. (Mailand), no. 71, Oct. 1, 1951.

  322 “was afraid of … was known for”: C. Lorre, interview, Oct. 15, 1980.

  322 “I do not … of creative effort”: Kirkley, “Theater Notes.”

  323 “radiantly fascinating”: HA, “Lorre herzlich begrüsst,” Hamburger Abendblatt, Aug. 11, 1950.

  323 “as fresh as ever”: Brecht to Hauptmann, Sept. 1950, in Brecht, Werke, Briefe 3: 1950–1956 (1998), 30:38.

  323 “Listen, we are … And come”: “To the Actor P.L. in Exile,” in Brecht, Poems, p. 418.

  324 “that he has … with Peter Lorre”: contract, Arnold Pressburger Papers.

  325 “he walked up … radiation, this aura”: Trowe, interview.

  325 “Yes, make it … or the actress”: “Filmregie mit den Augen,” Der Verlorene, pressbook, 1951.

  326 “I knew in … and overcoming it”: Renate Mannhardt, “Peter Lorre war mein Regisseur!” Der Verlorene, pressbook, 1951.

  326 “She wasn’t really … devoted to Peter”: Pressburger, interview, Dec. 1, 1983.

  326 “How is it … for women’s tastes”: Meadow, interview.

  326 “Peter loved women … beck and call”: B. Silverstone, interview.