Your Mid-Summer Dose of Peter Lorre Audio

July 27, 2008

Your Mid-Summer Dose of Peter Lorre Audio

Many the past girlfriend has been confused by my love for Old Time Radio. There is no question that OTR fans are predominantly male. I'm not sure why this is, but I imagine it's because women have taste. For me, a lot of OTR's appeal has to do with the sound quality, the movie serial-esque music and the plethora of unbilled but familiar sounding character actors. I always get a big thrill when I hear Arthur Q. Bryan as a vacuum salesman or June Foray as a cowhand or Paul Frees as anything. Part of the fun is that gratification one gets from identifying the mystery voice. Of course Peter Lorre was no mere character actor, but his voice is one of the most enjoyable to listen to as he sweats, screams or murders.

Peter Lorre starred in a painfully neglected radio series titled Mystery in the Air that was filled with nice sinister touches. I was filled with that aforementioned gratification when I first heard an episode and realized that the voice of the announcer on the show was that of Henry (soon to be Harry) Morgan from Dragnet, M*A*S*H and thousands of other shows. Lorre became the host of a repackaging of OTR re-runs in the late fifties, in which he would introduce episodes of The Whistler, Inner Sanctum or Mr. and Mrs. North that did not necessarily feature him in the cast. Some of these are also featured below.

Mystery in the Air
The episode The Black Cat is insane. Peter Lorre gets crazier and crazier throughout the episode until he breaks down completely - it is the epitomy of those wild Peter Lorre impressions you always see in cartoons but never actually seem to see Peter Lorre do himself. A must listen.
Here's an episode in which Peter Lorre plays a creepy hypnotist and magician who has an unhealthy competitiveness with another creepy hypnotist and magician.
Listen to eight simultaneous episodes via an automatic audio player here.

Suspense

Probably the most famous of the intense radio dramas of the forties and fifties, Suspense, unlike its many copy cats, featured some of the biggest Hollywood giants in starring roles. It also featured an expensive live orchestra with music often composed or conducted by the legendary Bernard Herrmann. Here we have four episodes featuring Peter Lorre.

Til Death Do Us Part (1942)
The Devil's Saint (1943)
A Moment of Darkness (1943)
Nobody Loves Me (1945)

Guest Appearances
Inner Sanctum with Peter Lorre
The Martin & Lewis Show with guest Peter Lorre
Lorre on a 1939 edition of The Jack Benny Show
Peter Lorre appears in an episode of the popular but over rated comedy Duffy's Tavern
Mr. and Mrs. North with host Peter Lorre

Posted by Listener Kliph Nesteroff on July 27, 2008 at 12:29 AM in MP3s, Radio | Permalink

Comments

I love Peter Lorre, and OTR. Yes, I am a white male. Anytime I mention Peter Lorre and somebody asks who he is, I just wince and cast them an evil glare.

Then I ask, "You seen Casablanca?" and if they answer "Yes," I reply, "Then you have absolutely NO EXCUSE to be asking me who Peter Lorre is." If they haven't seen Casablanca I usually say, "Bogey doesn't get the girl" and leave it at that.

Thanks for the MP3s. I can't wait to listen to "The Black Cat." I vaguely remember it, but it's been far too long.

Posted by: Jim | July 27, 2008 at 03:52 PM

Thanks for your post on Peter Lorre and OTR. I'm a woman who has loved Peter since 1973, and I have a large collection of his radio shows. My favorite "Mystery in the Air" episodes are "Beyond Good and Evil" and "The Queen of Spades". When I first became a Lorre fan, I didn't think I would get to hear any of his radio performances. They were performed live, so how could copies exist? Well, I was delightly surprised in the mid-1970s when I discovered all the dealers in OTR. (I also compiled a list of Peter's radio work for the appendix of the Lorre biography "The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre", by Stephen Youngkin.)

Posted by: cheryl | July 27, 2008 at 08:44 PM