#Barron Rudolph Maximillian Tagger

[angelamontoo]

Which Peter Lorre characters do you think are most likely to bite people and under what circumstances? Rn I think the best contenders for biters are The general, Gimpy and maybe Cairo

•THM ofc would bite someone mostly for fun and just as part of his general(heh heh) weirdness. I think if he's in a fight, he's too capable with weapons and possibly some kind of raw cunning to need to rely on biting to defend himself, although I also wouldn't be surprised to learn that hes bitten off someone's nose, face, fingers and/or other extremities in the past

•The Barron doesn't take as much joy in it, but I think he definitely would bite someone while he was putting on the Gimpy act. Usually only if they bothered him, but if he doesn't like someone, he'd probably use the act as an excuse to walk up to them out of nowhere and bite them(Ace Martin has definitely been nipped a few times). I dont think he'd be likely to bite someone in a fight. Again, he's typically too capable with weapons to need to rely on his teeth and even if he was unarmed I feel like he might see biting as a rather undignified strategy, at least in a fight with someone who knew his true identity

•Cairo is the most self conscious about how quick he'd be to bite someone. He finds it just as undignified as The Barron, but he's also a criminal who's pretty physically weak and not that much better with weapons so he's definitely bitten people in self defence before(if he hasn't bitten o Shaughnessy at least twice I'd be shocked). I also think if he was close enough with someone and they were OK with it, he'd bite someone playfully in a RAWR kind of way, but he'd never admit he does it to anyone else

#peter lorre #the maltese falcon #joel cairo #the secret agent #the hairless mexican #crack-up #its 9.30 am where i am and i didnt sleep at all last night #Barron Rudolph Maximillian Tagger

[angelamontoo]

Crack-up(1936) Directed by Malcolm St Clair

One of Peter Lorres most underrated films and characters. He gets top billing, which I find pretty cool, especially since he's billed quite low on some of the others I've talked about so far despite his characters having equal or greater importance to their respective films plot

Of the movies I've talked about today, it probably has the least noteworthy cast other than Lorre to me personally, but by no means a bad one.

A lot of people seem to strongly dislike Brian Donlevy as Ace Martin, but I enjoy him in the role and think he has a pretty fun dynamic with Peter Lorre. Ralph Morgan also gives a wonderful, understated performance as John R. Fleming, who keeps up his state of sorrow throughout the film, even in scenes where John is both silent and sharing the screen with a character played by known scene stealer, Peter Lorre

#crack-up #barron Rudolph Maximillian Tagger #ace martin #john r. fleming

[angelamontoo]

Ik all of the 2 other people who've seen crack-up can't stand Brian Donlevys acting in it, but tbh the more I watch it the more I enjoy Ace and Gimpys dynamic

Like, what's not to love? The Barron will call him a complete moron who he doesn't think deserves to live unprompted and Ace will just smile fondly in response

#crack-up #ace martin #it feels weird dying on this hill #cause its not like im inlove with ace martin as a character or anything #but i just dont understand why he gets singled out in particular by peter fans when i feel that pete has been in films with way more boring #and unlikeable leading men #eh idk #i admit id like ace way more if he didnt shoot gimpy at the end #but between that nice ending with the three of them #the fact that it was a selfless act #and thr fact that it wouldnt really make sense if he just let gimpy take the life preserver #i dont exactly hate him for it #if anything it makes me hate discount wilmer for being the one who gets to live because of the barrons forced sacrifice #Barron Rudolph Maximillian Tagger

[angelamontoo]

Grading every Peter Lorre character from a movie I've seen on a scale of 1-10 part 2

•Roderick Roskolnikov-Crime and Punishment(1935)

Naturally, it's nice getting to see Peter play a leading man. It's a shame he didn't get to play such characters more as we really feel for Roderick with his guilt, fear of getting caught, his feelings for Sonya, his protectiveness over her and his family and of course, his lack of faith in humanity. The scene that sticks out to me the most is when he falls to his knees infront of his mother and she tells the story about the kitten he nursed back to health as a child. Partially because it mirrors the scene where he does the same thing to Sonya, but also because I find is striking how the story contrasts with Roderick as we see him in the film. And I'm not even necessarily talking about how he killed someone at that point. He just seems like such a broken man and its both heartbreaking to think of him as once being such an innocent and sensitive child, yet also believable, giving how hard he tries to take care of his loved ones. Not to mention, that scene where he takes care of his sisters creepy, dickhead suitor is nothing short of iconic

6/10 I'm starting to feel guilty for how low I'm rating such complex characters, but the heart wants want it wants

•The Hairless Mexican-The secret agent(1936)

The general is a fun character. Definitely the most enjoyable thing about his movie, although that's nothing you can't say about any Peter Lorre character. Still, THM has some great qualities of his own. His unique fashion, all of the images of him with the dog, him being called a lady killer and replying "not just ladies" and my personal favourite moment, when he makes his lady friend do that shrill squeal and then mimics it. Idk why, but that moment just tickles me. If there's one thing that sours me to this funky guy, it's the fact that images of him and Joel Cairo sometimes get mistakingly used interchangeably. Not saying thats a flaw with the character or his film obviously, just grinds my gears and this seems like as good a place as any to whine about it. 5/10

•Colonel Gimpy/Baron Rudolph Maximilian Taggar-Crack-up(1936)

The thing I love most about Gimpy is that he allows Peter to play both a funny, adorable, seemingly innocent nitwit and a suave, cunning criminal mastermind in one film. Sure, there are other characters Peter plays who have elements of both types of characters-such as Cairo, whos attempts to seem like a capable, respectable businessman are undermined by how others treat him aswell as his frequent temper tantrums or Polo who's a good natured, sensitive dope who's capable enough at tricking people to keep performing the same scam with Tanya and Andre, but even when playing a part is still a sensitive, chipper klutz. However, unlike those two, who's true personalities show through their acts, nothing of Baron Tagger is visible to people who only know Gimpy, the harmless eccentric with the trumpet. His act is so convincing he can admit to shooting a man seconds before that man's death is announced on the radio and because Gimpy is obviously a harmless eccentric, the whole thing will be brushed of as an eerie coincidence

7/10. I'm gonna be saying this a lot, but Peter was too good for this flick

#peter lorre #the secret agent #the hairless mexican #crack-up #yknow i had it in my head that the first one of these would be an exception and most of tgese would be short #but fuck it this is fun #grade #roderick raskolnikov #crime and punishment #how the hell am i only now noticing i never even tagged the first character and film intil now??? #i guess while this was still incomplete in my drafts i started putting the tags in #realised i had no clue how to spell rodericks name #thought 'oh ill add that in right before i post it no worries' #and then just forgot to #i did have the first 3 or so entries completed in my drafts before i posted part 1 juat to make sure i didnt have them all too far apart #which i think i eluded to a bit whenever i explained what happened to part 3 #Barron Rudolph Maximillian Tagger