Peter Lorre alert! (Today on TCM)

Updated on April 30, 2010 By Ken Begg 7 Comments

I’ve mentioned before that I have never seen the films Lorre co-starred in with Sidney Greenstreet in the wake of Maltese Falcon and Casablanca (where, tragically, the two never share the screen).  Tonight TCM helps with that by showing Background to Danger, a crime meller starring George Raft, who is supported by Lorre and Greenstreet.  The film plays at 8:00 PM EST, and is part of a set of Raft movies being featured this evening.  (This morning they played a batch of Eve Arden movies.  I love TCM!  Too bad I had to go to work and miss them.)

The late night Friday cult movies tonight / tomorrow morning are Incubus, the Satanism curio starring William Shatner and filmed in Esperanto (!!!!), which oddly is actually pretty good, plays at 2:15 EST.  It is followed at 3:45 by Brotherhood of Satan, a pretty decent ’70s Satanism film.

Pin It



Related Posts

  • I STRONGLY recommend the Mask of Dimitrios and Three Strangers as among the best of the Lorre/Greenstreet pairings. Check them out. You’ll be glad you did.

  • Those are at the top of my list, but sadly they are not available on DVD. Again, I’d LOVE a box set of the various movies the two made together.

  • Rock Baker

    If Brotherhood of Satan is the one I’m thinking of, I think it started strong but sort of fell apart at the end. I’d explain, but I’d hate to ruin it for someone who hasn’t seen it and is thinking of checking it out tonight. If it is the same picture, it did have some really good moments, it just didn’t work for me as a whole. But who knows, you all may like it better than I did.

  • sandra

    Also worth watching is The Verdict: Greenstreet is a Scotland Yard inspector foreed to retire after he makes a mistake that leads to the hanging of an innocent man, and Lorre is his best friend, a womanizing rake :-D The two of them were a great team.

  • Man, you guys are killing me. They really need to get these films out on DVD.

    Sadly, Background to Danger was pretty lame. Lorre and Greenstreet didn’t appear together much, and although Lorre was enjoyable as always, it was a pretty minor and mediocre espionage thriller, even with those two in it.

  • BeckoningChasm

    I like to think “Peter Lorre alert!” is part of some kind of alarm system, like “Godzilla approaching!”

  • TheCasey

    I DVR’ed Incubus and started watching it this weekend. I’m glad you told me that was Esperanto, because after watching the first half-hour or so, I still had no idea what the language was. I think I’d settled on Portu-talian or something.