Product Description
Often typecast as a menacing figure, Peter Lorre achieved Hollywood fame first as a featured player and later as a character actor who trademarked his screen performances with a delicately strung balance between good and evil. His portrayal of the grisly child murderer in Fritz Lang’s masterpiece M (1931) catapulted him to international fame. Lang said of Lorre: "He gave one of the best performances in film history and certainly the best in his life." Today, the Hungarian-born actor is also recognized for his riveting performances in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The Maltese Falcon (1941), and Casablanca (1942).

The first full biography of this major actor, The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre draws upon more than three hundred interviews, including conversations with directors Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, John Huston, Frank Capra, and Rouben Mamoulian, who speak candidly about Lorre, both the man and the actor. Author Stephen D. Youngkin examines for the first time Lorre’s pivotal relationship with German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, his experience as an émigré from Hitler’s Germany, his battle with drug addiction, and his struggle with the choice between celebrity and intellectual respectability.

Separating the enigmatic person from the persona long associated with one of classic Hollywood’s most recognizable faces, The Lost One is the definitive work of a life triumphant and yet tragically tangled with so many failed possibilities. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Ein guter Buch
Awesome book.Since my recent introduction to the talents of Peter Lorre, I've become obsessed with anything circa 1920s-1940s, all of his films, and this book!I can't imagine there being any better out there.Truly a labor of love for Stephen D. Youngkin.This biographer doesn't mince words, cut corners, or pretty anything up.I imagine "The Lost One" to be a quite realistic look at this great actor's life, work, and personality.Youngkin seems to be a fair, but not fawning, biographer.I believe he has done well.

He Beat the Devil
Like all the other reviewers I'm staggered by Youngkin's accomplishment, which seems to me--perhaps profanely--even more impressive than Lorre's own.In a way, Lorre has found a biographer supreme, one beautifully blessed by all the gifts of sympathy and knowledge needed to translate an artist's work into contemporary times.How many of Lorre's peers have been given such a chance to live again?It's really shocking how few good biographies there have been of Hollywood stars, and even some of the most acclaimed (think of Gavin Lambert's Norma Shearer) have actually been among the most banal and simplistic.

Of course Lorre gave Youngkin a life really worth chronicling.If it wasn't the drug addiction, it was the dramatic life in Germamny observing and protesting the rise of Hitler, till he and Celia Lovsky found their way out in a sequence right out of Shearer's ESCAPE!The work with Fritz Lang, with Brecht, with Hitchcock, with Bogart, with Irwin Allen, with Roger Corman, each one of these phases could have made an interesting book, and Youngkin knows how to spread them out so that every angle is covered and yet our curiosity remains high.And the research and the interviewing is by itself amazing.Every time you turn around, Youngkin is eliciting revealing and wry comments from exactly the people you hope would comment on the particular situation he is writing about.Because the book has apparently been in motion for something like 30 years, his reach goes way back--he spoke with Frank Capra, with Hitchcock and Huston, with Broderick Crawford and Corinne Calvet--hundreds of actors, writers, directors and behind the scenes personnel.This research gives the book a depth and richness of point of view that elevates it to the Mount Rushmore of biography.

I wasn't always persuaded by Youngkin's critical judgments, and would rather put a staple gun to my face than have to watch SILK STOCKINGS again, for example--but now he's got me re-thinking, "Maybe it is a great performance stuck within a lousy film."Youngkin pulls the camera way back and takes us through Rouben Mamoulian's whole career, his way of astonishing audiences by revealing unexpected sides to their favorite stars.I didn't actually need all of that to get the point, but I hope he gets to do the DVD commentary for SILK STOCKINGS, for we need more enthusiasts and fewer haters.Why write a book about a man, even a drug-addled and morose one, unless you love him?

Peter Lorre finally gets prestige treatment.
Peter lorre was one of the most unique and fascinating actors ever to come out of the studio system in Hollywood. Anyone who has every seen his soft, silken acting or heard that lyrically menacing voice ever forgot it. I know that I never did. I have been a fan since seeing him go toe to toe with Cary Grant in Arsnic and Old Lace when I was in my teens.

Peter Lorre fans have cause for celebration with this book, which is full of tremendous insight and depth. It covers all of Lorre's life and does so with compassion and appreciation. This work never becomes a fan's love letter, though, as the author does not shy away from the star's less admiriable qualities (which I will leave to the reader to discover). But everything is put in context, which often provides a certain understanding. And what a fascinating context it is -from the German stage of Bertolt Brecht to the Hollywood horror of Roger Corman. It's worth noting that this book is extremely well researched and includes a complete Lorre filmography as well as a complete listing of his tremendous radio work (was ever their a voice better suited for telling stories over the radio?).

As the Author tells Lorre's story, the reader is treated to plenty glimpses into several Hollywood immortals, such as Humphry Bogart, Walter Huston, Sidney Greenstreet, and Lauren Bacall (with whom Lorre had a close friendship). And the writing style is very readable and smooth.

All I can say is, for all of us Peter Lorre fans, Thank you, Mr. Youngkin.

And while we are on the subject of Hollywood greats that never have been given an aurhorative bio, what about Boris Karloff. Mr. Youngkin . . .?

-Mykal Banta

The Marked Man
"He's crazy about me...all the degenerates are."Peter Lorre, speaking of his chimpanzee co-star in "Five Weeks in a Balloon."


From the beginning of his career, Peter Lorre was typecast.The classic German Expressionist drama, "M", set the tone for his entire career.Lorre said that from that point on, in people's eyes he was "forever the murderer".This was allowed to overshadow his incredible talent and his great aptitude for comedy. (His throwaway lines, like the one I quoted above, are priceless!)

His career spanned from experimental theater in pre-Nazi Germany, to classic noir films with Humphrey Bogart, to eminently forgettable films from the Sixties. (How odd that one ofhis last appearances was in "Muscle Beach Party"!)

Stephen Youngkin does an admirable job of chronicling Lorre's professional life, including the myriad missed opportunities--(of note: Malcolm Lowry's rabid interest in seeing Lorre play "the consul" in "Under the Volcano", and Lorre's own desire to produce a film about Kasper Hauser.Both of those projects, never realized, would have added so much to Lorre's cachet.)

The book overflows with examples of Lorre's humanity, professionalism,and wit.Unfortunately, the actor's personal battles with the demons of drug abuse and poor health, his unluckiness at love, and his profligate nature create an undertow of tragedy which no reader can escape. In the end, this is a deeply saddening and troubling book.Long after you have finished reading it, you will find yourself reflecting on the life of this brilliant and tormented individual, who indeed has a special place in the hearts of all the "outsiders" in the world.

Absolutely wonderful
First of all I am profoundly grateful, that finally someone took up the task to write a biography on one of the greatest actors of the 20th century. Mr. Youngkin did very good work especially in researching the very early years of Peter Lorre in Vienna and Berlin, which I assume must have been a quite excrutiating task. Nobody who ever saw the film "M" will ever forget the wonderful performance Peter Lorre gave. Even later on, nearing the end of his live, when he was doing B-movies, he gave them that certain Lorre-touch. It is a wonderful read and Mr. Youngkins work cannot be praised enough. Sometimes this biography makes you cry and laugh at the same time. Finally somebody did credit to this wonderful, wonderful actor. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

excellent biography/filmography of Peter Lorre
This book is a must-read for everyone interested in actor Peter Lorre.Unfortunately it is out of print but if you can get a hold of a used copy, it's well worth the price. ... Read more

Product Description
After coverning horror film icons Bela Lugosi, BorisKarloff, Lon Chaney, Jr. and Vincent Price, Midnight Marquee Presswanted to go in a slightly different direction for our fifth editionof the Actors Series, by highlighting quasi-horror man Peter Lorre.

While the other entries in the series were predominantly horror filmactors, Peter Lorre made many horror film appearances, but was neveractually considered a horror film star.Instead, it was Lorre'spersona, that of a quirky, deviant little man, sometimes charming,sometimes boiling over with venom, that made him a perfect match forhorror films.However, Lorre also played opposite such mainstreamstars as Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, KirkDouglas, Mickey Rooney and Bob Hope.Lorre felt just as comfortableenacting supporting roles in A films as he did starring in the Bs.This book takes an in-depth look at the film work of this versatileperformer by providing analyses of films such as M, Mad Love, The FaceBehind the Mask, The Maltese Falcon, The Raven and The Comedy ofTerrors as well as many of the other films that made Peter Lorre afilm legend. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Entertaining Read
This is a great book, an entertaining read. Certainly not a reference book although I am familiar of other books being written about Lorre presently. The chapter about the Moto films are nice coverage, though just a recap of the plots. Only gripe is the chapter about Lorre's radio work. As an old-time radio fan, I do ask readers not to take everything to heart. There are many mistakes in the radio chapter, [...] even John Dunning's Ultimate book that every old-time radio fan has is far more correct. I do wish a Lorre book comes out soon that is a reference. This is an entertaining read for any Lorre fan.

Numerous authors give well rounded picture
This is a very good source on both Peter Lorre and his films.Each film is reviewed by a different author so the emphasis, length and tone varies by author.By having this combination of authors all of the heights andshortcomings of Lorre's films are brought out.If you are a Lorre fan youwill find this a valuable resource, especially if you want to seach outLorre films to view - this will guide you to the better ones.Until adefinitive biography is written, this will give you some of the facts aboutLorre's life in a nutshell.

A fine effort, overall
Peter Lorre was blessed, and cursed, with the most distinctive screen persona of all time, including an absolutely unique voice that was quite easy to mimic--- I could do a great Lorre when I was 12. This volume surveys many of the important films in his long career.Though each filmis discussed by a different author, there is surprisingly littlerepetition. In some other volumes in the Midnight Marquee series, filmreviews have in fact beennothing more than semi-literate, or painfullyilliterate, plot summaries.I am happy to report that this is not aproblem with the current book. Although the discussions vary in quality,they are all very well researched and actually function as effectivecritical reviews of the films in question.Recommended highly. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fascinating nutshell
This is a great little book for the combined careers of Lorre and Greenstreet. It doesn't go into as much detail as thorough-going biographies (such as Stephen Youngkin's excellent life of Peter Lorre, "The Lost One"), but is none the worse for that. Highly readable, entertaining and informative - thoroughly recommended to all. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Stars Beyond A Biographical Graveside Guide
I was given this book recently by Jim Perry personally. It is a very good guide to some of the great Hollywood stars. It was very interesting to get some interesting facts on some of the late great Hollywood greats. I highly rec amend this book to anyone whom is fascinated with the stars. ... Read more

Product Description
A shy Catholic schoolgirl nurtures a secret passion for a dead Hungarian movie actor, while her precociously nubile best friend seeks adventure with real live men. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

First Web-review (published 2000) for "The Peter Lorre Companion"
Once upon a time in America there lived an intelligent and unusual man, an émigré from his homeland in a Europe demolished by the unceasing, decades-long activity of psychopaths, a rather unremarkable-looking fellow in real life who possessed, however, the gift of great acting ability, of being able to effect a miraculous transformation, many times over and with any manner of variations, before the movie-cameras.Yet, as if Fate had had it in mind from the beginning to offset his good fortune, he was cursed with short stature, public ungainliness, and an unpredictable and often self-destructive nature, with homely yet expressive features and a voice that would eventually be made the butt of jokes.

But there were also those (Humphrey Bogart being one) who saw something entirely different in him: a streak of nobility and stubbornness, something that drove him to constantly strive for perfection of his craft, notwithstanding the incomprehension which seemed destined to envelop him wherever he turned - a quality, in fact, of genius.

I'm hoping that many other readers will soon discover this intriguing first novel by the American writer Anne Sharp: a constantly-shifting and kaleidoscopic hybrid of both Bildungsroman and a lifetime's patient accumulation of the minutiae of film trivia, every aspect of which gradually fuses together to form a glowing love-letter to an actor, long-dead, with whom the narrator has obviously, hopelessly, fallen in love.

We first meet this narrator, a girl of eleven (creative and independent, bright yet lonely), suffering the bullying and viciousness of other girls at junior-high during the early Seventies.She has an older sister with whom she gets along, but her parents are at each others' throats and on the verge of divorce.Her mother, eschewing first the Methodist and then the Episcopalian church, had

"married a Jew.Not a very intense Jew.He had never had a bar mitzvah, and wasn't observant. Both my parents were so alienated from their nominal religions, in fact, that when my sister Yvonne and I were born they took us to the First Unitarian-Universalist in downtown Detroit, where something perfunctory was done to us with water and a rose which did not impart any of the usual benefits associated with baptism, such as eternal life or membership in a human community.But for years I didn't know this."

Having finished her schoolwork, the narrator is allowed during the week to watch the TV show Night Gallery on the portable television in her room, and afterwards reads such fare as the stories of Poe and Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, often far into the night.Then, the summer after she starts junior-high, "my mother sat me down one morning and asked why I didn't have any friends anymore.Mom must have worried, since being an outcast was something she associated with my father."

The narrator's father, altogether an interesting yet shadowy figure, and perhaps spurred on by the half-Russian side of his lineage, commits an almost Dostoevskian act, going to his daughters' school counselor to "talk about" how his wife is supposedly turning both daughters against him.It is the father, however, who is soon afterwards turned out of the house.

At this point I'll call the narrator 'Anne', for the sake of simplicity - although the astute reader will refrain from jumping to conclusions about the autobiographical nature of all that's presented in the novel, this 'uncertainty as to provenance' being one of the book's many interesting nuances.

Anne is transferred to St. Ladislaus, a Catholic girl's school, for Grade 9: "In the whole time I attended Lads I was never kicked once.But it wasn't just me.Human beings in general improve tremendously between the ages of fourteen and seventeen."There is some fine, very humorous description of the pitfalls awaiting her as she enters her teens, but it is at this point that the bravura of the movie-theme starts - and this, the most delightful and subtle thread of the novel, is what holds everything together, and accounts for much of the book's beauty.

Anne's mother, having sent her husband packing, begins to regularly watch a Public Television program, featuring foreign films, every Friday night.Her daughter joins her to watch such films as Grand Illusion, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Seven Samurai, Ivan the Terrible, The Blue Angel, and Knife in the Water. Thus is an ardent and intractable cinephile created.

"Not in a million years would my dad have let me watch movies like this.I had been an extremely phobic little girl.There was a talking clown doll, a Christmas present from an uncle, that made me run away and cry whenever I saw its face or heard its strangled, artificial voice.Yvonne was fascinated by the uniform reaction she got from me just by taking it out of its box.Eventually the box was stored in the basement, whereupon I refused to go downstairs."

The rather eccentric but strong-willed mother allows her daughters to stay up and watch a midnight double feature of Frankenstein and Dracula.Anne is immediately smitten with Karloff and Lugosi, and realizes herself that she's fallen in love with the movies, especially those filmed in black-and-white, in which "the clothes and the settings and the men were much more beautiful."

It is at this pivotal point that she watches the film M, and is devastated by the performance of Peter Lorre as a deranged yet pathetic killer of children:

"You must remember this.There's a city made of grey stone where it's always night.All the people are afraid of a little man who slips around in shadows, emerging whenever he sees a stray child.First he flirts her into the bushes, offering candy, fruit and toys.Then he sticks her with the switchblade he uses to cut up oranges, and leaves her for her mother to cry over."

There now enters into the young girl's life a confusing, addictive, and increasingly obsessive love affair (there is no other word for it) with that Hungarian actor who died not long after she was born.She is fascinated by his voice, by the "purling arabesques of his English pronunciation".She cannot rid herself of that "face of a Buddha in repose, his iridescent purr, his beckoning, exophthalmic gaze."Her coevals make fun of Lorre's voice: "I heard their mocking, cruel, ignorant mimicry and blushed and raged to myself." She watches every movie with Lorre in it that appears on television, even in the early morning, and drifts about the entire school-week "in a semi-hallucinatory state of sleep deprivation."While watching TV late at night, and to avoid waking the mother and sister, the narrator (reminding one of the secretive reading & television-watching habits of ourselves when young) uses an earphone hook-up to her television, so that she can listen to the movie without revealing herself, "spared that shame, at least."Having told others who her favorite actor is,

"People would make a face and say, "Well, what you mean is you like his acting.You're not in LOVE with him."

I would nod and turn away.I saw mental hospitals in my future.

He was so beautiful."

What could other people know, says the narrator, of "a fourteen-year-old girl trembling under this merciless thing that had crept over her when she was little, that she had hoped she would eventually grow out of, that she wasn't growing out of?"

Woven throughout the ongoing tale of her obsession are some wonderful digressions, following the Bildungsroman theme: outings with her father and sister; cigarettes and smoking in the movies; a look at the differences between how men and women become physically aroused; the movie-going experience in the 70's and a paean to the suburbs of Detroit; episodes from her girlhood and her friendships with the depraved Natalie, semi-depraved Valerie, and two irrepressibly aspiring film-makers named Neil and Dave; there is also the profound effect upon her of The Rocky Horror Picture Show; a very cutting and amusing demolition of the deplorable human being but excellent poet Brecht (with whom Lorre, unfortunately for his peace of mind, was often involved); and her first glimpse of her idol on the big screen, as Dr. Gogol in Mad Love.The narrator's father has remarried, and she briefly goes to see a psychiatrist - but is left no less confused and unimpressed by 'real life'.

This wealth of detail is interspersed with the frequent, always bracingly mordant and often melancholy interjections of someone agonizing over a vanished, once-desperately unhappy but tremendously gifted character actor: "For he had been a great artist, and terribly misunderstood."

"They say he was fascinated by the word "creep," often used to describe the characters he played.Rightly so, as it was the single most evocative word you could use to summon up that ur-creature at the pith of those parts he so famously played, small, close to the ground, eugenically suspect.With that perverse whimsy of his, he devised means of turning that hurtful pejorative back at the people who used it on him. He would claim that he had studied the etymological derivation of the word (originally spelled kreep, he insisted), and discovered it had originally meant something akin to "fellow," "regular guy," "mensch," in other words, the opposite of its current connotation.However, it had been corrupted through ill-usage by careless native English speakers [...] He'd go around calling people creeps, then declare that they shouldn't get mad at him; it was really a compliment."

Having arrived in America in 1934, Lorre's time in Hollywood is portrayed with great verve and humor, its elements of absurdity and the uncomfortable feeling of displacement the actor must have felt being perceptively-rendered.It was certainly a strange time in Hollywood, with a steady stream of European émigrés taking on character roles and often forced by their penury to become extras in a vast number of films.Austrian and German refugees, many of them Jewish, were typically being cast as Nazi spies or leaders; Russians and Poles were asked to play the very men who had tortured them, stolen their property, threatened their lives, or otherwise driven them from the Continent.

Hollywood had never seen the likes of such names: Conrad Veidt and Hans von Twardowski, Fritz Kortner and Vladimir Sokoloff, Erich von Stroheim and Martin Kosleck, Emil Jannings and Akim Tamiroff...Olga Baclanova, once a well-known singer and actress in Russia, was reduced to playing the hen-woman in Freaks; Leonid Kinsky may, sadly, be finally remembered only as Sasha the bartender in Casablanca. And then, of course, there was Peter Lorre:

"It was certainly extraordinary for anyone who looked like him, especially as ethnic as he did, to be allowed to work in that pantheon of Aryan beauties.There were obvious problems he might have corrected, like his weight and those terrible teeth (very naughty of him, in that land of grapefruit and cosmetic dentistry), that might have made them more inclined to take him seriously as a leading man.Though it was nearly impossible to make the baroque planes of that incredible face look conventionally handsome, even normal on film.Even the master von Sternberg failed at it.There are some portions of Crime and Punishment in which he shimmers like Dietrich, and in others he just looks like a shoat."

A bittersweet cadence intrudes near the end of this fascinating book, during which the narrator meets the first (perhaps that should be the second) serious love of her life, Brent, who is a DJ at a radio station and introduces her to punk music.She enters university, comes to terms with a grandmother's death, and briefly experiments with drugs.After having driven down to L.A. with her boyfriend, in search of a new beginning to their lives, there occurs a visit to Peter Lorre's tomb in the Hollywood Memorial Cemetery, where

"We found him right away, at the end of a long corridor lined with Armenians.There was nothing to mark him as anyone famous.There was a little brass plaque with his name and dates and those of his last wife, the one he'd had a child with, and who'd been about to divorce him when he died."

This novel, which provokes what nineteenth-century Russians often aptly referred to as "laughter through tears", is a wholly original and excellent piece of work. I will never look at that pitiable yet supremely talented actor, whose very soul somehow mirrored his body and produced an impression of something vaguely misshapen, in quite the same way again.

"During the seventies his estate sued a breakfast cereal company that promoted one of its products with a little blue cartoon ghost that looked and sounded fetchingly like him.The estate argued that he wouldn't have wanted to have been remembered that way.

But his life was spent making sure he'd be remembered as nothing else."

Mom of a Lorre fan
This is an extremely honest portrayal of a teenager who yearns for something other than what she has.The writing is literate, lyrical, and insightful.The content of the book contains much more insight into a young girl's psyche than just the obsession she has with the dead actor. The book is much less about Peter Lorre than about the author, and her coming of age in a society and culture that she feels left out of.

witty and poignant -- and a wonderful tribute to Peter!
Reading Anne Sharp's _The Peter Lorre Companion_ makes me think of all the girlhood loves I never outgrew and still relish to this day.I saw my first Peter Lorre film at age 27 (and fell hopelessly in love with the man) but like the author says, the book is mainly about her childhood and adolescence.Sharp writes about love, old movies, divorce, friendships, sex, families, Catholic schools and various obsessions with a great deal of humor, wisdom and sensitivity.Whether or not you're a Peter Lorre fan isn't the point -- if you have ever longed for a lover who is always there for you, who is real and yet mysterious and uniquely attractive, you will relate to these stories.I found I couldn't put the book down.Highly recommended!(and now, for those uninitiated into Lorre-love, go and rent "Mad Love" or the 1934 version of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much" and find out what all the fuss is about...)

"The Trouble With Angels" meets "Catcher in the Rye"
Or maybe not. Maybe the best way to describe it is a reverse "Lolita" where the little girl is chasing after the dirty old man of her dreams...whatever, it's brilliant. ... Read more

Product Description
Edgar Allan Poe's classic "The Pit and the Pendulum", told by Jose Ferrer, starts off this volume of "Suspense!", which also includes "Sell Me Your Life" (Lee Bowman), "Chicken Feed" (Ray Milland), "A Friend to Alexander" (Robert Young and Geraldine Fitzgerald), "Marry for Murder" (Lillian Gish), "Tree of Life" (Marc Stevens), "'Til Death Do Us Part" (Peter Lorre), and "I Won't Take a Minute" (Lee Bowman). 4 cassettes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Tales for the Imagination
Radio's most outstanding theatre of thrills was most certainly "Suspense." Whether it was a man spending the night in a haunted castle, a lonely woman stealing a baby, or a murderer among a bus of people trapped in a blizzard, listeners knew they could always rely on "Suspense" for excitement and entertainment.

The eight shows on this volume (9) include: "The Devil's Saint" -- (Peter Lorre)"The Morrison Affair" --(Madeleine Carroll) -- "In Fear and Trembling" --(Mary Astor) -- "The Clock and the Rope" -- (Jackie Cooper) -- "Return Trip" -- (Elliot Reid) -- "The Twist" -- (Michael O'Shea) -- "Fugue in C-Minor" -- (Vincent Price and Ida Lupino) "Knight Comes Riding" (Virginia Bruce and Howard Duff)

So there will be no confusion, the eight shows in volume 10, which for some reason is linked with 9, are as follows: The Pit and the Pendulum -- Jose Ferrer, Sell Me Your Life -- Lee Bowman, Chicken Feed -- Ray Milland, A Friend to Alexander -- Robert Young and Geraldine Fitzgerald, Marry for Murder -- Lillian Gish, Tree of Life -- Marc Stevens, Till Death Do Us Part -- Peter Lorre, I Won't Take a Minute -- Lee Bowman

"Her Knight Comes Riding" is especially good, with a twist ending you don't see coming. And silent film fans will enjoy Lillian Gish's turn starring in one of the finest shows ever to find its way into homes week after thrilling week.

Listening to this greatest of old radio shows will help you appreciate why it ruled the airwaves for so many years. These were quality productions with great stars and terrific writing. Our imaginations could run wild for a time and picture all that was happening, even the shocking parts.

Wait for those familiar and ominous bells with the lights out, as Autolite or Roma Wines takes you into a world of the imagination, and Suspense! ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: People From Ružomberok, Peter Lorre, Vlasta Průchová, Dušan Galis, Andrej Hlinka, Dušan Švento, Viliam Hýravý, Milan Luhový, Silvia Šuvadová, Marietta Žigalová. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 40. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Peter Lorre (26 June 1904 23 March 1964) was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner. He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M. Later he became a popular featured player in Hollywood crime films and mysteries, notably alongside Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet, and as the star of the successful Mr. Moto detective series. Lorre was born as László Löwenstein into a Jewish family in Rózsahegy (Hungarian)/Rosenberg (German), Kingdom of Hungary, part of Austria-Hungary, now Ruomberok, Slovakia. His parents were Alois and Elvira. When he was a child his family moved to Vienna where Lorre attended school. He began acting on stage in Vienna at the age of 17, where he worked with Richard Teschner, then moved to Breslau, and Zürich. In the late 1920s, the young 5 ft 5 in (165 cm) actor moved to Berlin where he worked with German playwright Bertolt Brecht, most notably in his Mann ist Mann. He also appeared as Dr. Nakamura in the infamous musical Happy End by Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, alongside Brecht's wife Helene Weigel and other impressive co-stars such as Carola Neher, Oskar Homolka and Kurt Gerron. The German-speaking actor became famous when Fritz Lang cast him as a child killer in his 1931 film M. When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Lorre took refuge first in Paris and then London where he was noticed by Ivor Montagu, Alfred Hitchcock's associate producer for The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), who reminded th...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=63740 ... Read more

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Chapters: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Peter Lorre, Otto Preminger, Romy Schneider, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Hedy Lamarr, Maximilian Schell, Francis Lederer, Erich Von Stroheim, Gregor Von Rezzori, Christoph Waltz, Curd Jürgens, List of Austrian Film Actors, Ludwig Stössel, Ilka Grüning, Lotte Lenya, Walter Riml, Igo Sym, Walter Slezak, Paul Henreid, Helmut Berger, Oskar Homolka, Sybil Danning, Eric Pohlmann, Joseph Schildkraut, Anton Walbrook, Boris Kodjoe, Louis V. Arco, Hubert Marischka, Carl Esmond, John Banner, Nora Gregor, Frederick Stafford, Vanessa Brown, Hans Moser, Peter Alexander, Birgit Minichmayr, Martin Weinek, Gustav Diessl, Sieghardt Rupp, Maria Schell, Leon Askin, Olga Engl, Caroline Vasicek, Bernhard Wicki, Karlheinz Böhm, Igor Breakenback, Helmut Qualtinger, Robert Stadlober, Judith Holzmeister, Ernst Arndt, Herbert Berghof, Helmut Dantine, Franz Tscherne, Helmuth Lohner, Liane Haid, William Berger, Barbara Valentin, Reggie Nalder, Susi Lanner, Monica Bleibtreu, Gusti Huber, Peggy Drake, Wolf Bachofner, Maria Perschy, Oskar Sima, Sissy Löwinger, Tilla Durieux, Hilde Krahl, Rudolf Forster, Adrian Hoven, Fred Berger, Agnes Esterhazy, Rolf Olsen, Walter Kohut, Mady Christians, Carl Möhner, Alfons Fryland, Paul Löwinger, Annie Rosar, Hans Unterkircher, Kurt Meisel, Ludwig Donath, Michael Schottenberg, Ady Berber, Ewald Balser, Susi Nicoletti, Maria Rohm, Magnus Stifter, Rudolf Zehetgruber, Dietmar Schönherr, Nina Proll, Karl Hellmer, Alexander Trojan, Herbert Fux, Erik Frey, Egon Von Jordan, Walter Ladengast, Joseph Egger, Heidemarie Hatheyer, Hermann Thimig, Eduard Linkers, Theodor Danegger, Erika Remberg, Erni Mangold, Rosa Albach-Retty, Erwin Leder, Willy Trenk-Trebitsch, Herb Andress, Nadja Tiller, Charles Goldner. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 391. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without char...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1806 ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Peter Lorre (26 June 1904 - 23 March 1964) was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner. He made an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M. Later he became a popular featured player in Hollywood crime films and mysteries, notably alongside Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet, and as the star of the successful Mr. Moto detective series. Lorre was born as László Löwenstein into a Jewish family in Rózsahegy (Hungarian)/Rosenberg (German), Kingdom of Hungary, part of Austria-Hungary, now Ružomberok, Slovakia. His parents were Alois and Elvira. When he was a child his family moved to Vienna where Lorre attended school. During his youth, Lorre was a student of Sigmund Freud. He began acting on stage in Vienna at the age of 17, where he worked with Richard Teschner, then moved to Breslau, and Zürich. In the late 1920s, the young 5 ft 5 in (165 cm) actor moved to Berlin where he worked with German playwright Bertolt Brecht, most notably in his Mann ist Mann. ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Rudolph Valentino, Mel Blanc, Paul Muni, Peter Lorre, John Huston, Janet Gaynor, Cecil B. Demille, Dee Dee Ramone, Fay Wray, Hattie Mcdaniel, Bugsy Siegel, Victor Fleming, Adolphe Menjou, Clifton Webb, Peter Finch, Louis Calhern, Tyrone Power, Florence Lawrence, Nelson Eddy, Norma Talmadge, William Desmond Taylor, Douglas Fairbanks, Marion Davies, Karl Dane, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, June Mathis, Maila Nurmi, Bebe Daniels, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Johnny Ramone, Carl Switzer, Nelson Riddle, Art Pepper, Don Adams, B. Reeves Eason, Ann Savage, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Eleanor Powell, Adrian, Mildred Harris, Estelle Getty, Barbara La Marr, Gregg Toland, Harvey Henderson Wilcox, Gene Stratton-Porter, Edgar G. Ulmer, Constance Talmadge, Harry Cohn, Renée Adorée, Peggy Shannon, James Cruze, Agnes Ayres, Darla Hood, Kenneth Harlan, J. Peverell Marley, Virginia Rappe, Bronisław Kaper, Henry B. Walthall, Victor Young, Franz Waxman, James Gleason, Steve James, Julia Faye, Leon Schlesinger, Eva Tanguay, Gladys George, Joseph Schildkraut, Rhea Mitchell, Sylvia Ashley, Louis Wolheim, Joan Hackett, Vito Scotti, Dark Cloud, Zoltan Korda, Charles Avery, Cass Daley, Bobby Dunn, Josef Swickard, Maude Fealy, Ed Gardner, Jesse Louis Lasky, Viola Dana, William Beaudine, Iron Eyes Cody, Harrison Gray Otis, Hannah Chaplin, Edwin Carewe, Erich Zeisl, William C. Demille, Tully Marshall, Jean Wallace, Ford Sterling, Arthur Charles Miller, Molly Dodd, Tom Forman, Arthur Lake, Andrew Arbuckle, Charles B. Middleton, Natalie Talmadge, Henry Lehrman, Estelle Taylor, Harold Switzer, Elmo Lincoln, Frank Keenan, Gertrude Astor, David Horsley, Gloria Dickson, Ben Lyon, George D. Wallace, Walter Jurmann, Frank Alexander, Fred J. Balshofer, Egon Brecher, Jeanie Macpherson, David White, Alan Crosland, Charles Chapl... ... Read more

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Two complete radio shows "exactly as broadcast" - Side 1: "The Black Cat"; Side 2: "The Queen of Spades". ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1018 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Signed essays ranging from 500 to 2,500 words, written by subject experts and edited to form a consistent, readable, and straightforward reference. Entries include subject-specific bibliographies and textual cross-references to related essays. ... Read more

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Chapters: Wolfgang Pauli, Max Reinhardt, Arnold Schoenberg, Paul Muni, Steve Reich, Harry Shearer, Peter Lorre, Raymond Kurzweil, Frederick Loewe, Billy Wilder, Barbra Streisand, Otto Preminger, Hedy Lamarr, Liev Schreiber, Fred Zinnemann, Thomas Gold, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Edward Bernays, Gerty Cori, Felix Frankfurter, Raul Hilberg, Ludwig Von Mises, Leo Birinski, Bruno Bettelheim, Eric Kandel, Shelby Foote, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Victor L. Berger, Max Fleischer, Carl Djerassi, Hilda Geiringer, Richard Neutra, Erich Von Stroheim, Stephen Samuel Wise, Paul Lazarsfeld, Hans P. Kraus, Isaac Mayer Wise, Wolf Leslau, Benny Feilhaber, Hans Conried, Irene Fischer, Sidney Hook, Walter Kohn, Theodore Bikel, Karl Landsteiner, Leah Remini, Josef Von Sternberg, Robert Karplus, Ira Schnapp, Walter Bricht, Eduard Bloch, Erna Furman, Karl H. Pribram, Gotthard Deutsch, Hans Kelsen, Herman Francis Mark, John Gottman, Bernard Spitzer, Emile Zuckerkandl, Emmerich Kálmán, Maria Altmann, Victor Frederick Weisskopf, Saul K. Padover, Artur Bodanzky, Mordkhe Schaechter, Rudolf Serkin, Efraim Racker, Gerda Lerner, Gina Kaus, Boris Kodjoe, Louis V. Arco, Sue Carol, Jascha Horenstein, Felix Rohatyn, René Spitz, Stephan Smith, John Banner, Wolfe Kelman, Leo Castelli, Rose Rand, Vanessa Brown, Martin Karplus, Beate Sirota, Erich Zeisl, Oscar Straus, Bernard Rudofsky, Henry Lehrman, Franz Mittler, Salomon Bochner, Lisette Model, Josef Gerstmann, Leon Askin, Nathan H. Juran, Hans Kmoch, Walter Abish, Egon Ranshofen-Wertheimer, Vicki Baum, Ricardo Cortez, Edgar Zilsel, Gustav Bergmann, Robert G. Neumann, Julius Steinfeld, Oskar Morgenstern, Alfred Grünwald, Hattie Carnegie, Hugo Riesenfeld, Arthur Schneier, Rudolf Dreikurs, Fritzi Massary, Alois Kaiser, Franz Alt, Erika Morini, Richard Oswald, Maurice Bloomfield, Eric Rosenblith, Joseph Lewi, Paul Czinner, Michael Artin, Severin Eisenberger, Frank Tannenbaum, E. Randol Schoenberg, Herbert Kuhner, Hei...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=72336 ... Read more

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Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear!Pull the covers up close and be chilled to sixty 30-minute old-time radio mystery programs, complete and unedited on twenty 90-minute cassettes.A full 30 hours of horrific fun!The Black Museum The Chain 1952Canvas Bag 1952The Mandolin String 1952The Clock Nicky 03-04-48Bad Dreams 04-25-48Bank Holiday 04-30-48Crime ClassicsIf a Body Need a Body, Just Call Burke & Hare 12-02-53The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln 12-09-53John and Judith: Their Crime and Why They Didn't Get to Enjoy It 12-16-53The Crime Club Silent Witnesses 03-27-47Sun Is a Witness 04-03-47Murder on Margin 05-22-47Dark Fantasy Death Is a Savage Deity 01-30-42The Sea Phantom 02-06-42W Is for Werewolf 02-13-42Escape The Killer Mine 02-11-51The Follower 02-18-51The Island 07-11-51The Haunting Hour Murder Wears a Strange Mask 1940sNo Escape 1940s'Til Murder Do Us Part 1940sInner Sanctum Mysteries Make Ready My Grave 04-23-46Murder Faces East 12-13-48Between Two Worlds 12-20-48Lights Out Prelude to Murder 06-15-43Murder Castle 08-03-43Battle of the Magicians 07-27-46The Molle Mystery Theatre Make No Mistake 04-30-48Close Shave 05-14-48Solo Performance 05-21-48Murder at MidnightWherever I Go 10-07-46Death's Goblet 10-21-46Dead Hand 05-01-50The Mysterious Traveler Queen of the Cats 07-02-44If You Believe 12-29-46The Lady in Red 05-23-50Mystery in the Air The Marvelous Barastro 08-07-47The Horla 08-21-47Crime and Punishment 09-25-47Quiet Please Pathetic Fallacy 02-02-48A Red and White Guidon 02-09-48Whence Came You? 02-16-48The Sealed Book Hands of Death 03-18-45King of the World 03-25-45Death Spins a Web 04-01-45The Screen Director's Playhouse The Uninvited 11-18-49The Spiral Staircase 11-25-49Dark Mirror 03-31-50The Shadow Murders in Wax 1938Aboard the Steamship Amazon 1938Carnival of Death 11-10-40Suspense The House on Cypress Canyon 12-05-46Ghost Hunt 06-23-49On a Country Road 11-16-50The Weird Circle The Bride of Death 1945Markheim 09-29-47Pistol Shot 1945The Whistler Witness at the Fountain 09-09-46The Brass Ring 09-16-46The Clever Mr. Farley 11-27-49 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

20 Tapes; 60 Programs; Includes 20 Different Mystery Series!
This deluxe boxed set is the Audio Cassette edition of Radio Spirits' release of "Old-Time Radio's Greatest Mysteries". It's a well-packaged collection of OTR (Old-Time Radio) programs, and is a veritable gold mine of classic radio mystery shows.

Some of the many series that are included on these tapes are: "Quiet Please", "The Shadow", "Inner Sanctum Mysteries", "Lights Out", "Escape", "Murder At Midnight", and, in my opinion, the greatest of all OTR "mystery" shows -- "Suspense". Of the three "Suspense" episodes included in this package, one in particular rises to the top of my "Best Of" list. And that would be a 1950 "Suspense" broadcast entitled "On A Country Road" (which stars Cary Grant). It's a beauty. Remember to turn ALL the lights off before cueing up that one in the cassette player.


This set includes ...............

>> 20 Audio Cassette Tapes (90 minutes each). Each tape includes three episodes from one specific OTR series.

>> 60 total radio programs (all uncut with excellent audio quality).

>> 30 total hours of OTR programming.

>> Plastic-case packaging. It's a "book" type of package, with each tape fitting firmly in its own recessed section of the case.

>> Handy fact-filled booklet, packed with information on all programs in this collection. This nice little booklet is 64 pages in length, and also includes many, many top-quality black-and-white photographs.

>> User-friendly and very easy-to-reference list of programs and episodes conveniently shown on the back side of the plastic case (complete with full episode titles and original air dates). This type of useful "on the box" list of shows means you don't have to search through the lengthy booklet in order to quickly find a particular show you might want to locate.

Here's a complete roster of the 20 different radio series that are represented within this nice-looking boxed set...........

Tape 1 -- "The Black Museum"
Tape 2 -- "The Clock"
Tape 3 -- "Crime Classics"
Tape 4 -- "The Crime Club"
Tape 5 -- "Dark Fantasy"
Tape 6 -- "Escape"
Tape 7 -- "The Haunting Hour"
Tape 8 -- "Inner Sanctum Mysteries"
Tape 9 -- "Lights Out"
Tape 10 -- "The Molle Mystery Theatre"
Tape 11 -- "Murder At Midnight"
Tape 12 -- "The Mysterious Traveler"
Tape 13 -- "Mystery In The Air"
Tape 14 -- "Quiet Please"
Tape 15 -- "The Sealed Book"
Tape 16 -- "The Screen Director's Playhouse"
Tape 17 -- "The Shadow"
Tape 18 -- "Suspense"
Tape 19 -- "The Weird Circle"
Tape 20 -- "The Whistler"

------------------------------

This stellar collection of Old-Time Radio mystery programs will appeal to any fan of the "bygone days", when whole families would sit together and wait to be entertained by just the sounds coming from their great-big, furniture-sized radio receivers. And 60 entertaining reasons to "go back in time" to the "Radio era" are assembled right here on these Radio Spirits' cassette tapes.

Better than TV
What a great medium for travel or just to pass the time.I bought this series after listening to old time radio program replays when i could catch them on my car radio.I am from Oklahoma and it was interesting to find that one of the programs that i really enjoyed originated in Oklahoma City.I also enjoyed the commercials which are humorous in todays context but give such a wonderful feel of thebygone era of my parents and grandparents.One commercial concerns sending cigarettes to veterans in a Muskogee,Okla. veterans hospital.I would recommend this series to anyone.It certainly makes a long drive enjoyable and is so much more stimulating and vivid than television.

Perfect!
I cannot recommend this product enough! I bought it because I've never heard an old time radio program like they used to put on before tv existed. It was amazing how the shows could come alive in your imagination without the aid of a television screen. The actors are skilled and the sound effects are wonderful. I wish they would bring back radio shows based on the mystery shows of the past. Its perfect for me because I can crochet and keep my eyes on my work while listening to the radio mysteries. Whether you're cooking in the kitchen or driving to work, you can still be entertained with these shows!

Some of the best of the old radio shows
I can't recommend this one highly enough.From Suspense's "Ghost Hunt" (listen to this one with the lights off and see if the chill bumps don't grab you), to "The Uninvited" (which was made into a movie that's just as creepy as this story), to all 3 of the Inner Sanctum Mysteries - there are just too many good ones to highlight them all.I really haven't found a better collection like this yet, and I think you'll love it too.If you haven't been introduced into how good OTR used to be, then this is a great way to be introduced to it.

Lots of fun
I got this from the local library. My favorite is Suspense. Those were great. I loved the Orson Wells Black Museum. I'm too young to have ever listened to shows on the radio but this really gives you a feeling for the nostalgia. ... Read more

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Throughout the 1930's, 40s and 50s, radio was the major form of communication and home entertainment - investing in big stars and lavish productions. The most popular and terrifying drama series at the time were "Inner Sanctum" with its famous squeaky door introduction and "Suspense". Now digitally remastered, CSA Word has resurrected three fabulous dramas from those series: "The Black Cat"; "The Corridor Of Doom" and "Nobody Loves Me". ... Read more