Der Verlorene

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.

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.

This is probably a good movie, but it's hard to tell because at many key moments throughout the movie it is difficult to read the subtitles. Because the movie is in black and white, white subtitles keep showing up on white background and so, unless you understand German, you only catch snatches of important conversations. This is particularly a problem in the last fifth of the movie that involves a scene in a large house where a plot to kill Hitler is being hatched (I think). What that had to do with Dr. Rothe (the Peter Lorre character) killing his fiancee and his subsequent choice about which Nazi to shoot I have yet to figure out. After the movie, I asked total strangers in the audience what was going on in that house and they didn't know either.

I suggest that any distributor who is looking to make some money from this movie should consider producing a new edition with yellow subtitles that will stand out on both black and white backgrounds. Without those, this will remain a movie that is well-known only in Germany.

So heavy and so depressing, as any post-World War II German film - with flashbacks - would be.

Peter Lorre, in real life addicted to morphine, came out of rehab and returned to Germany, where he directed and starred in a film, The Lost Man, in 1951.

Lorre is a scientist, Dr. Karl Rothe, who after the war was presumed dead and therefore was able to change his name to Neumeister. During the Nazi era, he learns from those over him that his discoveries are being sold to the enemy - by his fiancee.

In a rage, he strangles her. Now he works as a doctor in a refugee camp, but is reminded of his past in the presence of the man who was his assistant during the war, Hosch, who was involved in the investigation of The Night of the Long Knives.

The "Night Of The Long Knives" was a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate Hitler's power and alleviate the concerns of the German military about the role of Ernst Röhm and the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazis' paramilitary organization, known colloquially as "Brownshirts."conspiracy.

That Neumeister has become completely unstable is demonstrated not only in his narration of the flashback, in which he tells Hosch that he intended to kill him, but in his problems with women. At one point, he murders a woman while on a train.

Lorre did a magnificent job in both his acting and direction. The end of the film is just as miserable as the rest of it. It's powerful, but don't have any sharp objects in the house.

DER VERLORENE is one of these films that at first seemed to me very confusing and brought me the sensation "i am not following...".I rated it 8 out of 10 mainly because of the wonderful film-noir atmosphere,the black and white photograph,the very well filmed scenes on the streets of "old" Hamburg and ,above all,the extraordinary last minutes.

Then,time passed and months later ,i still have that strange feeling in my mind ,i have been dreaming with that loneness and absurd madness of the main character-the doctor played by Peter Lorre.So i decided to include DER VERLORENE amongst my personal list of best films ever and change my vote to 10 out of 10.

Sometimes a good work of art takes its necessary time to mature as a good wine!.In my humble opinion that is the case of this film.