Der Verlorene

After eighteen years in exile Peter Lorre returned to the land of his birth for his one and only stab at directing. Based upon a newspaper article about a doctor who had killed his assistant and then stepped in front of a train, Lorre has fashioned a screenplay with the help of novelist Benno Vigny and esteemed director Helmut Kautner.

Like so many actors who take up directing he is very generous to his players and in particular allows his five actresses to shine. Individual scenes are extremely effective but these alas are achieved at the expense of overall structure. Despite oodles of atmosphere from superlative lighting cameraman Vaclav Vich, the film is weakened by a verbose script and an intrusive, over-orchestrated score. Suffice to say Lorre is riveting as Dr. Rothe but the entire enterprise required a firmer hand at the helm.

This is a film that Lorre evidently felt compelled to make but this bleak allegory of Germany's fatal flirtation with National Socialism and the nation's collective guilt in the person of a serial murderer was hardly likey to be welcomed by audiences of the time and such proved to be case.

That it has a haunting quality is undeniable and remains, in the words of David Thomson, "a direct imprint of a very troubled soul."

This unique German noir is a weird film, to say the least. A doctor at a vaccination clinic makes an interruption in his work, when another doctor comes there to assist him, who is a dark shadow out of his past. During the war he was a researcher achieving great findings and results, and that suddenly appearing man was his assistant, stealing his research results and selling them to the enemy, using his betrothed for a bait, so he stole both his work and his fiancée. Peter Lorre is the doctor who can't forgive his betrothed for her treason, so he strangles her in the most sensitive scene of the film (without showing the strangulation - it is only reported afterwards,) and from that moment on he is a lost man. All this is shown in flashbacks, as Lorre has a long talk with his old colleague while drinking and smoking, sorting things out, to reach a settlement. The film and the story is complicated, the flashbacks are confusing, the story involves both Nazi plots, bombings of Hamburg, another improvised murder, proving the liability of the psychopath Peter Lorre has grown into, and everything is draped in very dark shadows and abysmal moods, the character of the film is apocalyptic, and shadows play an important part in the cinematography. It is fascinating and weird, deeply disturbing and melancholy at the same time, poignantly pinpointing the mood of post war Germany among the ruins of both Hamburg and people, in a world where no one can feel at home or safe or any security any more.

Lorre, perhaps like Charles Laughton, had only this chance to direct. Like Laughton, Lorre made an excellent film, and encountered no problems whatsoever concerning complete control of the film, unlike Laughton, whose film was given a crude ending as a gift from the studio. This is a beautiful, poetic movie about horrible subjects, and the complicated reactions and perspectives one will have about these characters, especially Lorre's, teaches us much about Germany, the Nazis and aspects of the war in general. While there are passing similarities in content to Wilder's A Foreign Affair, Die Verlorne is so much the better movie, so much more poetic (perhaps than anything Wilder ever did), and so moving, in brutal ways, that it just has to be considered one of the best and most powerful and most depressing films ever made.

Somehow Peter Lorre wanted to make a comeback in post war Germany with this movie. He plays the principal role in Der Verlorene, a little guy stumbling through the Nazi years in Germany and ending up just wanting to put an end to his life (apparently based on a true story). He also directed and participated in the screen writing. And that was probably too much. The movie is ill paced and takes several unexpected turns which break down the narrative rhythm. The movie also seems to shift in an uneasy way into different genres. It starts out as a solid firm noir with a flashback, a love story, betrayal and a murder. Then Lorre reverts to his role in Fritz Lang's M and becomes a psychotic woman hater and mass murderer. Then, back in the noir mode, he stumbles inadvertently into the preparation for the assassination of Hitler (a real event that took place in 1944) and, believe it or not, the movie definitely becomes a kind of a black comedy. The main character ends up a tragic clown who can not be taken seriously (and I am pretty sure it was not meant that way). Some plot details are plainly ludicrous and do not work. An example: Lorre's character takes to strangling women who try to "make him hot". They are decidedly bigger and larger than he is and all look as if they would put up fierce resistance against a strangling Lorre, probably easily overpowering him. But they react like frightened lambs – I just had to laugh at that, or was I missing a crucial symbolic twist here? However, other aspects of the movie are interesting. The theme of betrayal and double cross are cleverly presented as the essence of every day life in Nazi Germany. The set design and the scenes shot on location somewhere in Germany create an oppressive atmosphere with darkened parlours, basement laboratories, bleak apartments and landscapes of ruins and emergency shelters. Actually, all the elements that make a good movie are there and in itself well presented: some good dialogue, the observation, the surprise moments, the suspense and even a car chase. There are some very good female parts. The game of flirting and sexual innuendo is presented in a frankness that was pretty drastic for the period, I guess. But these elements stand by themselves and unfortunately don't come together to form a good movie. Robert Siodmak's thematically related movie Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam was a much more convincing comeback with a film that transports American noir mode to Nazi Germany.

Der Verlorene is an extraordinary film noir not only as text but also in its context. This film disappeared after only ten days from german screens although most critics said that it´s the best german film after WW II. The reasons are very simple: First, it was too late. This film five years earlier in 1946 would have been the Trümmerfilm par excellance. Compare it to Die Mörder sind unter uns and you will see the huge difference. Second, in the upcoming era of Wirtschaftswunder no one in whole Western Germany wanted a reminder on what their industry and morality was build on: the Third Reich. Consider this, when Marlene Dietrich came back to Germany many people shouted: Go home! In the 1950s one producer said about Fritz Kortner: Hitler could have burnt more Jews. This way of thinking wasn´t elimated and still it´s not. Nowadays WW II is good for action flics (Saving Private Ryan and all this crap) or love stories (for example this desaster Enemy at the Gates). It´s depressing but one shouldn´t get mad over it. Just see Der Verlorene and you will see there were people how to handle this topic in an adequate manner. Maybe there are some filmmakers out there who still know. Let´s hope for it.