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peterlorrefanpage · 1 year
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“That bland smile of his is ten times as nasty as the frowns from lesser villains . . .”
Italian artist Paolo Garretto drew the above caricature of Peter Lorre to announce his upcoming role in Secret Agent (1936). Source
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While Secret Agent was in release in London, the artist Gitano created a portrait of Peter as "The General." Besides paint, he used skeins of black silk, a scarf, a gold earring, a boutonniere, and a tie-pin. Mmm, a tactile Lorre! Source
Speaking of imagery and such, Peter was allegedly gratified by impersonations, whether vocal or artistic. However, he had signed away his screen image as early as 1941:
"Warner Bros. held a patent on Lorre’s physical likeness, caricaturing the actor in animated cartoons that depicted a baby-faced villain with bulging eyes and nasal whine."
May 24, 1941, Warner Bros. released “Hollywood Steps Out,” which featured a gallery of stars. Eying a naked woman clothed only by a bubble, Peter Lorre says, “I haven’t seen such a beautiful bubble since I was a child.”
April 11, 1942: In Dr. Seuss’s “Horton Hatches the Egg,” a Peter Lorre Fish "spots the elephant atop a bird’s nest, pulls out a pistol, and shoots itself in the head, a scene later deleted by several television networks for its violent content."
Other animated appearances include:
“Hair Raising Hare” (June 8, 1946) with Bugs Bunny
“The Birth of a Notion” (April 12, 1947) with Daffy Duck
“Racketeer Rabbit”(September 14, 1946) with Bugs Bunny
Lorre's screen image also appeared in a 13-week episode of a Batman & Robin newspaper strip, entitled "The Two-Bit Dictator of Twin Mills," (October 30, 1944 - January 26, 1945).
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It's bugged me since I've known about it that Peter didn't even get any $$ for these images while he was alive - money he sorely could have used. But Warner Bros sure did.
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