Stranger on the Third Floor

press release:

STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR

USA | 1940 | 35mm | 64 min.

Director: Boris Ingster; Cast: Peter Lorre, John McGuire, Elisha Cook, Jr.

Lorre is the title character and a newspaper reporter’s chief suspect in a murder case. This crazily inventive and expressionistic thriller helped lay the groundwork for the classic Hollywood film noir style. “Latvian émigré director plays up the mental anguish of the hero through flashbacks, subjective voice-over, and a stylized dream sequence reminiscent of avant-garde European cinema.” (David Bordwell, Reinventing Hollywood). Print courtesy Library of Congress.

followed at 8:15 p.m. by: THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS

USA | 1946 | 16mm | 88 min.

Director: Robert Florey

Cast: Peter Lorre, Robert Alda, Andrea King

Lorre is Hillary Cummins, devoted assistant to concert pianist Francis Ingram and a dabbler in the occult. After Ingram meets a tragic end, the severed hand from his corpse appears to be responsible for a number of murders at a remote Italian villa. Lavishly directed on a B-budget by the stylish Florey, The Beast is also marked by one of Lorre’s most intense, tormented portrayals. Print courtesy Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research.

Peter Lorre: The Mad and the Bad

On Wednesdays beginning June 20, we will pay tribute to one of cinema history’s most fascinating and compelling performers, the great Peter Lorre (1904-1964). Hungarian born, the naturally intense Lorre exploded onto movie screens as a haunted and hunted child killer in Fritz Lang’s German masterpiece M in 1931. Emigrating to the U.S. in the mid-1930s, Lorre used his large, expressive eyes and uniquely accented speech to his advantage, appearing in dozens of Hollywood productions over 30 years as both leading man and supporting player. This selection of quintessential Lorre roles demonstrates his oft-caricatured, yet inimitable style of transforming traditionally two-dimensional movie villains into recognizable and frequently sympathetic humans with equal doses of dry, sardonic humor and passionate outbursts. The series also includes Lorre’s lone directorial effort, The Lost One.

All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public.