This Hollywood Duo Made 9 Great Movies Together (Including Casablanca)

Casablanca was one of nine movies to feature the duo of Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet. Widely regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time, the legendary 1942 film never would have become the cinematic icon that it is today without Casablanca’s star-studded cast. Featuring a handful of Hollywood’s most talented actors at the time, Casablanca delivered Academy Award-winning performances from Humphrey Bogart and Claude Reins, as well as some of the most memorable roles in the careers of Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid.

For some, like Bergman and Bogart, Casablanca was their first and last collaboration. But for two of its supporting cast members, Casablanca was just the second in a string of movies to utilize both their talents. The film, when viewed on its own, doesn’t hint at the recurring partnership between Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre in Hollywood, as the actors never shared a scene. But that’s not the case for several of their other movies, which showed off their onscreen chemistry. Together, the two helped create some of the greatest entries in the film noir genre.

Syndey Greenstreet & Peter Lorre Appeared In Nine Movies Together

All Of Their Joint Appearances Occurred Between 1941 And 1946

Over the course of their careers, Greenstreet and Lorre crossed paths a total of nine times. This was partially a result of both being character actors contracted to Warner Bros. Their first film together was The Maltese Falcon, where they both held supporting roles as key figures in the movie’s central mystery. Greenstreet played the menacing villain known as “The Fat Man,” while Lorre plays his associate and one of the film’s secondary antagonists, Joel Cairo. They reunited with Bogart just a year later in Casablanca, but their characters never met, as Lorre’s character died before Greensheet’s Fearri showed up.

In addition to appearing separately in other Humphrey Bogart movies, the pair joined the actor in Passage to Marseilles, a 1944 film that also featured another returning Casablanca cast member, Claude Reins. In keeping with their previous roles, Warner Bros. cast them in Background to Danger, a spy movie that allowed them to work with another of Warner Bros.’ leading actors, George Raft.

The two maintained busy schedules with their film appearances often overlapping, resulting in Greenstreet and Lorre having nine shared credits by 1946. After that, the duo didn’t work together again, as Greenstreet retired from acting in 1949, just a few years prior to his death in 1954. As for Lorre, he passed away a decade later in 1964, having appeared in well over a hundred films at that stage in his long Hollywood career.

Both Peter Lorre & Sydney Greenstreet Are Film Noir Legends

They’ve Contributed A Lot To The Film Noir Genre

With both character actors employed by Warner Bros. it’s not exactly surprising that Greenstreet and Lorre wound up occupying the same screen more than once, but the sheer number of movies they’ve made together certainly feels like a calculated decision by the studio. That can likely be attributed to where their talents lied; in their own ways, both felt at home in the film noir genre.

Peter Lorre was adept at playing slimy, despicable characters, an archetype tailor-suited for film noir. Film noir movies are defined by their willingness to wade into morally gray territory, often avoiding squeaky-clean protagonists and clear-cut “good vs. evil” storylines. That’s why an actor like Lorre, who thrived when playing characters representing the worst traits in humanity, was a natural fit for supporting roles in great film noir movies, such as The Maltese Falcon and Passage to Marseilles. Something similar can be said of Sydney Greenstreet, who could effortlessly demonstrate an air of mystery, one that usually gave off sinister vibes.

Despite Having Small Roles, Sydney Greenstreet & Peter Lorre Were Crucial To Casablanca’s Success

Peter Lorre & Sydney Greenstreet Both Had Memorable Roles In Casablanca

Neither Peter Lorre nor Sydney Greenstreet were major characters in Casablanca, but both factored into what made the film work so well. Though Lorre’s Ugarte wasn’t a villain, there was an unscrupulous, shady side to him that helped set up one of Humphrey Bogart’s best quotes in Casablanca. When asked by Ugarte if he hated him, Rick bluntly said, “If I gave you any thought, I probably would.”

Similar to Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet also left a lasting impression in Casablanca, albeit in a different way. The aspects of his onscreen persona that make him perfect for film noir translated just as well to Casablanca, but with an interesting twist. Playing a crime lord with mysterious intentions, Greenstreet comes across as a character not unlike the many other villains he’s brought to life, thus making his decision to seemingly help Victor leave Casablanca by pointing him in Rick’s direction a surprising act of selflessness. This move brought depth to his character, making him a great, nuanced addition to Casablanca’s cast.

Sydney Greenstreet & Peter Lorre’s Last Three Movies Made Them The Stars

They Shine The Spotlight On Two Of Casablanca’s Best Supporting Actors

In contrast to their two most famous films, Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon, their last three movies cast Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre as the leads. Presumably as a result of the pair’s growing popularity over the last few years and their knack for film noir, the two were given chances to carry The Mask of Dimitrios, The Verdict, and Three Strangers squarely on their shoulders in 1946.

Even with them as the stars, none of the three films strove to reinvent Lorre and Greenstreet as heroic leads. Rather, they leaned into the questionable natures of the characters they had played in the past, helping the films to craft dark stories steeped in moral ambiguity. Three Strangers, for instance, saw a woman and two men with complicated pasts (played by Greenstreet and Lorre) get shares of a sweepstakes ticket that winds up becoming extremely valuable. Greed and other factors inevitably put them at odds, setting up a violent finish.

Ultimately, Three Strangers, The Verdict and Mask of Dimitrios weren’t massive hits and were never revered as cinematic masterpieces in the same vein as Casablanca. That said, all three are gems of the film noir genre, complete with intriguing mysteries and complex characters. But their greatest legacy, of course, is the well-deserved spotlight given to Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, two of the most underrated actors in Casablanca.