The Lost One

The wonderful character actor Peter Lorre only directed this one film and it has a melancholic sense of self-reference that probably would have been difficult to follow. He returned to Germany (from which he exiled himself in 1933) in the doldrums days of the postwar national cinema and starred in this harrowing work about a scientist who has been trapped into working for the Nazis. The consequences of the relationship bring death and betrayal to his existence and eventually lead him to seek salvation in a refugee camp. Lorre directs fluently in a somewhat dated expressionist style that is reminiscent of the great German master, Fritz Lang. However, he soon returned to America where his later career proved to be unworthy of his undoubted talent.