George Raft

[Western Guy]

In an interview towards the end of his life, Raft recalled Lorre as a "mean little guy". He seemed to enjoy needling George (maybe, like his good friend Bogart, trying to see how far he could go before Raft took a sock at him). During the filming of BACKGROUND TO DANGER, Lorre stole George's hat and paraded about the set wearing it. George apparently tolerated it, but did finally knock Lorre on his butt during the scene you mention, although the story that George (and Mack Gray) told was that with Raft tied to the chair, Lorre took advantage of Raft's helplessness and began to blow smoke in George's face. George asked - then warned Lorre to stop, but Lorre continued. When Raft was finally untied, he ran into Lorre's dressing room and clobbered him. Mack Gray later said: "This was one time a guy really deserved it."

Cagney gives a different account. In his version, Lorre was giving some advice on a scene to George and in doing so, took George by the arm. George didn't care much for being physically guided around the set and told Lorre just to let go of his arm and tell him his suggestion. Lorre again took Raft by the arm, ignoring him, and finally about the third time, Raft gave Lorre a sock on the jaw, telling him very nicely: "I told you not to do that."

[charliechaplinfan]

I do like Peter Lorre, he's always watchable and he's acted in all kinds of roles, sounds like he had some impish qualities, I wonder what version of the story is right? There's no reason for George to lie and he obviously still held a grudge after all those years, Jimmy must have heard the story wrongly. I wonder if he needled anyone else during his career? Bogie was famous for needling people especially when drunk. Did he ever needle George? Or was he wise enough to know that George was one guy who would rise to the bait and knock him on his behind? Do you think it ever mattered to George how big the other person was that he lashed out at? Was he ever knocked onto his behind? In the famous picture of him and Eddie G it looked like he was pretty nimble and getting out of the way.

Can't wait to watch You and Me, that will be tomorrow's treat.

[Western Guy]

George got slugged a few times. Wallace Beery koed him during the making of THE BOWERY. He got slugged by actor Gene Raymond in a nightclub and later was hit by Oscar Levant at Swifty Lazar's New Year's party.

Don't think Bogie ever needled George, but he was critical of his talents as an actor. Bogie and Mack Gray did have a famous shouting match on the Warner lot when Raft refused to work with Bogart in MANPOWER.

George was pugnacious. Don't think it really mattered to him how big his opponent was if the guy got him made enough. The Wallace Beery dustup is a good example.

[JackFavell]

Makes you wonder if Lorre and Bogart ever dusted it up, or were they needling buddies?

[intothenitrate]

According to the bio I read, Lorre and Bogart seemed to have had a solid friendship. Bogart tweaked Lorre during the filming of All Through the Night, when Lorre was getting serious about the female lead Kaaren Verne (eventually his second wife). Bogart took extra liberties as a leading man to taunt Lorre, who took it as amiably as he could. During its peak, their friendship seemed to have been based on a shared disaffection with studio life. When Bogart settled into a happy domestic situation with Lauren Bacall, Lorre lost a drinking buddy. The friendship cooled a little more when Lorre got into more and more trouble with his narcotics use.

[JackFavell]

Thanks, ITN! I could picture the two getting into trouble together.

[Western Guy]

Bogart was also generous when it came to giving the always-cash strapped Lorre money. Often Bogart would just reach into his pocket, pull out a handful of bills and hand them over - without even having to be asked. He knew of Lorre's financial straits and was sympathetic.

The irony is that when Bogart hired Lorre for BEAT THE DEVIL, he paid him a pittance of a salary compared to what other key players in the cast were getting.

[JackFavell]

Now why did he do that? Was he just burned about having lent him so much previously?

[Western Guy]

Hard to say, Wendy. Maybe Bogie was generous on a personal level but when it came to business he was considerably more shrewd.

[JackFavell]

That makes sense to me.

[charliechaplinfan]

Two completely different pots of money.

I have the Peter Lorre biography The Lost One to read, he sounds like quite a character with quite a career and from one actor who acted for Fritz Lang to You and Me With George Raft and Sylvia Sidney. What a curiosity of a film, it starts off as typically Lang with a song by Bertolt Brecht and then develops into a really sweet romance, one of the sweetest in George's films, in fact one of the sweetest of the thirties, a superb scene of George and Sylvia using an escaltor. He's an ex con taken on by a soft hearted department star owner, he falls in love with the sweet Sylvia and can't belive that any woman would marry him because of his record so decides to leave town because he can't stand living so close to Sylvia and not being able to marry her but she has a sweet and kind heart and does marry him. Up to this point it's so obviously Lang then it wanders, things don't run smoothly and this is where the movie twists a little unbelievably as all the ex cons get together to raid their employer but they are grassed up by Sylvia who has quite a scene with the guys and a chalkboard (a young Robert Cummings can be seen here). Sylvia comes off the better in the way her role is written, unfortunately to get the story point across George's character has to behave as a bit of a chump and the ending is one of those happy ever after for everyone endings. It is a good film, but a film f 2 halves, the first could have ranked with the likes of Fury but the second half pulls away and makes it a pleasant way to spend 90 minutes and is a look at a George playing a nice guy with a past but basically a decent guy who's left the tracks, unfortunately as things go wrong he leaves those tracks again but thankfully he has Sylvia in his corner. Sylvia Sidney is such a great actress and she's never better than in the role of a kind shop girl.

Stone, lend me a hand I found this great clip on youtube of Little Richard and George Raft. His dancing is amazing. What is the film?

[youtube][/youtube]

[ChiO]

SIDE STREET (1929)

[CineMaven]

Thanxx for the clip Alison. Thanxx for the answer Chi0.

[youtube][/youtube][youtube][/youtube]

George certainly could cut a rug. And a man who can cut a rug can probably "cut a rug." I wonder if Georgie got some of those groovy moves from Snake Hips Tucker? Wonderful combining George's dancing to Little Richard's tooty fruity. A most incongruous pairing...that works well.

[Western Guy]

Yup, ChiO beat me to it, but it is from SIDE STREET, one of the films George made between QUEEN OF THE NIGHT CLUBS and SCARFACE. Gotta love Georgie's snake-like moves. A complaint always leveled against George was that he was a "stiff" actor. Well, those fluid dance moves prove otherwise.

BTW: Good line delivered by George in YOU AND ME: "I'm telling you this is a good racket and there isn't a racket I haven't tried."

Wish TCM would put out a 4-movie George Raft set, as they recently did with Glenn Ford.

[charliechaplinfan]

I think he's a fabulous dancer, it really captures the time. He's regularly twirling a lady around the dance floor in his movies but it's very pedestrian compared to this. Does anyone know what song he's dancing to? I'd read that he was doubled in the two dance movies he made with Carole Lombard, apparently because she couldn't dance very well. I can understand doubling Carole but why double George? As much as I love Fred Astaire and all his movies, I wish Hollywood would have made more room for those two hoofers from New York, Cagney and Raft alongside. I can't see George having the same attention to detail that Fred had but every once in a while would have been a treat. Stone, do you think the dance on youtube is the kind of dance he was famous for on Broadway? He was self taught too, it reminds me a little of our Strictly Come Dancing, which in America is known, I think, as Dancing with the Stars, some people have natural rhythm others can never learn it and sometimes they have both a natural sense of rhythm, good timing and grace. But only rarely does a Fred Astaire or George Raft come along.

I really liked You and Me, sure it went a bit corny at the end but it had some sweet moments and the leads had great chemistry together. I wonder if Sylvia ever wrote about her film career?

Stone, I've noticed that the book, The Films of George Raft that was listed on amazon.uk is showing as currently unavailable, no price or release date. I wonder if it hit a snag? I wonder if it will create a gap in the market for you one day.