Peter Lorre M number 4 1931 Baby Onesie

"The actor became much better known after director Fritz Lang cast him as child killer Hans Beckert in M (1931), a film reputedly derived from the Peter K�rten case. Lang said that he had Lorre in mind while working on the script and did not give him a screen test because he was already convinced that Lorre was perfect for the part. He believed that the actor gave his best performance in M and that it was among the most distinguished in film history Sharon Packer observed that Lorre played the loner, [and] schizotypal murderer, with raspy voice, bulging eyes, and emotive acting (a holdover from the silent screen) [which] always make him memorable."

I first became obsessed with photography and motion pictures while growing up in post WW2 Manila in the Philippine Islands in the late 1940's/early 1950's. Film noirs were a particular influence. But my first love remains the theater. I acted in numerous amateur productions from 1958 to 1978. In 1979 I earned a MA in drama from the University of Arizona; earlier getting a BA in English from the University of Minnesota, where I co-founded the first film society on campus and ran it for four years. While at the U of A, I studied with the master black and white photo essayist W. Eugene Smith (1918-1978) the last year of his life. I am the last person cited in Jim Hughes' definitive biography of Gene, as I wrote about attending his final...