A chilling and utterly creepy performance by Peter Lorre is the definate high point of an otherwise pretty average movie. This is well worth seeing for Lorre's character, but the movie drifts a bit when he's not on camera.

A side of Peter Lorre's performing skills you must see. He portrays an out of control child killer. Heavy for a 1938 movie, but a must see crime drama.

I love this movie. It wasn't an easy film to get into at first, but I was soon hooked and I have loved it ever since. I have tried to show it to other people, and they have ended up falling asleep while I was riveted to my seat watching Peter Lorre in his brilliant performance. This was the film that both made him and broke him as an actor, in that it established him as a great actor but gave him the evil, creepy bad guy character type that he was never able to fully break away from.