Both a skilled actor and a unique screen presence, Peter Lorre was one of the movies' most memorable personalities. Lorre appeared on the stage and had several small film roles in Europe before coming to international attention in 1931 in Fritz Lang's "M." Lorre's performance as the child-murderer set the standard for all sexual psychopaths on film since. Initially, his cherubic face and protruding eyes project the perfect mask of innocence. But as the film progresses and the massed forces of the police and the underworld close in on him, that innocence collapses into a series of feral
