(1940)
Directed by Boris Ingster
Starring John McGuire, Margaret Tallichet, Elisha Cook Jr., Peter Lorre, Charles Waldron, Charles Halton, Ethel Griffies

This film proves once again that no matter how long you’ve been a film fan, there are always more titles to discover that you might not have known about. Now thanks to Warner Archives, I have to the chance to see a film starring (well, sort of) one of my favorite actors from the classic eras, Peter Lorre.

Now even though Lorre is top billed, he is barely in a supporting role. While he is the title character, he only appears in a few scenes, but they were obviously using his name to hype of the film, especially since the rest of the cast didn’t have any of the star status needed to promote it. But while it’s not one of the best of that era, there is still more here to be appreciated.

The film is about a newspaper reporter who witnesses a crime… well sort of. He actually just sees a man leaving the scene of a crime, not technically committing it. But it is enough for the poor soul to be convicted for the gruesome murder. Granted, being a star witness is getting him some press, which is doing his career quite a boost, so he’s not complaining. When his fiancée Jane (Margaret Tallichet), starts questioning whether this man Briggs (Elisha Cook Jr.) is actually guilty, since there really isn’t much evidence to him actually murdering the victim, our reporter Michael (John McGurie) gets a little irritated about the whole situation. He was just doing his duty, but not realizing the full impact of those actions, while Jane just can’t get the idea out of her head that maybe this man is innocent.  When Briggs is eventually convicted, he frantically pleads of his innocence, but to no avail.

Shortly after the trial, after celebrating his new raise and promotion, Michael tries to smuggle Jane back to his apartment, before getting busted by his landlady and noisy neighbor, Mr. Meng (Charles Halton). But later, he sees this mysterious stranger leaving this Mr. Meng’s apartment, trying to confront him before he runs out of the building and disappears into the night. Michael goes back to his apartment but then realizes he can’t hear the loud snoring he usually does from his neighbor. He then starts to dream that Meng was actually murdered and now he’ll get the blame for it because of past confrontations with him, in front of witnesses.

This sequence is where we get to see some very interesting camerawork, resembling some sequences akin to the German expressionism films of the 1920s and really sets the film apart from what was currently being made at the time. In fact, this film is often cited as one of, if not the first Film Noir sub-genre. Not necessarily due to its air of mystery, such as not who the killer is, but how innocent people get caught up in the story and are now in trouble.

When we find out that Meng was actually murdered, Michael starts to worry that his nightmare is going to come true, and what happened to Briggs is now going to happen to him. If they could only find this stranger that he saw coming out of the apartment…

Lorre apparently owed RKO two days on a contract, so they stuck him in here. While he is only in a few scenes, he really does steal every second. Just 9 years after his big breakthrough with Fritz Lang’s M (1931) and right before he exploded with his appearances in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1942), Lorre could still captivate the audience. No matter if he was playing the villain, the hero, or the strange sidekick, he always had the audience watching him. And for good reason. While McGuire and Tallichet do an okay job here, it is Lorre’s movie. Hell, even Cook Jr. makes a strong impression. Then again, with a career that was just 10 years old, this was Cook’s 20^th film, leading him on to be a very successful character actor that lasted another 40 years, making over 200 film and television appearances.

The disc comes with some Warner Bros. cartoons, which I’m still confused at, but are a kind of nice walk down memory lane. But the cool extra here is the disc has three episodes of the radio series Mystery of the Air, Beyond Good and Evil, Crime and Punishment, and Mask of Medusa, all featuring Lorre. Thanks AV Entertainment for getting us this review copy, which you can purchase from through the link HERE.