Ask - And Ye Shall Receive.

"Does anyone know," Ms. Cumber asks, "if Vincent Price and Peter Lorre ever starred in a movie together?" Why yes, Ms. Cumber, it so happens that the LEVIATHAN knows.

In fact, Mr. Price and Mr. Lorre starred in no less than five motion pictures together, not counting television (and who does?). A brief survey follows.

First (which is to say, for reasons to be revealed in a moment, last) there is The Comedy of Terrors (1964), directed by the great Jacques Tourneur, the mastermind behind both the original Cat People and the pioneering I Walked with a Zombie. This doesn't seem to have been one of Tourneur's (or Price's or Lorre's) finer moments.

Next up is The Raven (1963) (classy!), in which Price portrayed "Dr. Erasmus Craven," while Lorre stole the show as the fun-loving "Dr. Adolphus Bedlo" (ah, how fondly I remember his antics from Poe's poem!). Entrancingly, this film also stars Boris Karloff (as the incorrigible "Dr. Scarabus") and Jack Nicholson as "Rexford Bedlo"...which can only mean that, yes, the Lorre is father to the Jack.

In Tales of Terror (1962), another Poe-based romp, the pair teamed up again, Price in multiple roles, while Lorre anchored the show as the redoubtable "Montresor Herringbone."

Stepping back a few years to 1959, we find Price & Lorre (not to be confused with Fry & Laurie...

...although these two could almost pass for a younger...never mind) matching wits in The Big Circus (1959) (an imdb user was prompted to comment: "Stands as one of the greatest circus movies of all time," which raises the important question - what are the other greatest circus movies? Dumbo? Big Top Pee Wee?). Lorre plays "Skeeter"; one can only imagine.

And last but not least, we have The Story of Mankind (1957). I will let this elegant summary of the film's plot speak for itself: "The council of elders of outer space is deliberating on a very important subject: Must mankind be allowed to survive, or is it so esentially evil that it must be destroyed? A devil and an angel act as prosecutor and defense for the human race, and the movie presents in a very interesting way a series of episodes of the human history. What will be the final veredict? Innocent, or Guilty?" OK, well, it can't speak for itself, because someone has to tell you that this movie also stars Dennis Hopper as Napoleon Bonaparte! And Harpo Marx as Isaac Newton!! In fact, all of the Marx Brothers (except Zeppo) are in this movie, which is based on a novel by none other than Henrik Van Loon.

And if all of this seems too crazy to be true, here is the final (& most LEVIATHAN-y) factoid of them all. Who, you may wonder, first brought these two masters of the cinematic art together? To whose genius are we so deeply indepted? None other than the master of disaster, Mr. Irwin Allen. Where, you may wonder, have I heard that name before? In addition to Flood! (1976), Fire! (1977), and The Towering Inferno (1974), Mr. Allen is the man who brought you the original Poseidon Adventure (1972).

Wow.