Portrait of an eventful artist’s life full of contradictions and contrasts – at 11:05 p.m. on ORF 2
Vienna (OTS) – The role of the child murderer in “M – A City is Looking for a Murderer”, the legendary film by Fritz Lang, made Peter Lorre world famous and at the same time was his downfall. The round-faced Austro-Hungarian émigré, who fled Hitler and found refuge in Hollywood, appeared in more than 80 films there, including “Casablanca” and “The Trail of the Falcon” – always in the role of the villain. As a master of the ambiguous game, he spent his life trying in vain to shed the image of the murderer that clung to him. The film “Peter Lorre – Behind the Mask of Evil?” by Evelyn Schels – as a “dokFilm” premiere on Sunday, June 16, 2024, at 11:05 p.m. on ORF 2 – shows an eventful story marked by the history of the 20th century Artist’s life, full of contradictions and opposites.
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The film portrait, created in 2024, traces the contours of the complex actor personality Peter Lorre. His life reflects both contemporary history and film history, as he worked with giants such as John Huston and Humphrey Bogart. It was an eventful life full of contradictions, humor, sadness and conflicts. His inner demons dictated Lorre’s incomparable playing. He played to survive; morphine helped him compensate for the stark lack of complex roles in a Hollywood that didn’t want nuance.
Peter Lorre was married three times, twice to actresses whom he demanded to give up their jobs. He met his third wife in a rehabilitation clinic in Germany, he became a father with her late in life, and their daughter was born in 1953. At the end of his career in Germany, Lorre fulfilled a dream with the script for the film “The Lost”, which he directed and played the main role: a doctor who becomes a murderer.
Statements by film directors Volker Schlöndorff and Christian Petzold, Lorre biographer Stephen D. Youngkin, film historian Alexander Horwath and writer Robert Schindel accompany the filmic narrative of the life story of an artist who is still fascinating today, between glamor and wealth, drugs and bankruptcy.