I must have been thinking of Street Scene.... sorry!

and Strictly Dishonorable WAS probably the 51 remake, which explains why I lost interest or fell asleep or went to do something else. I can't imagine having the 31 version on and not watching it. I read the play once, but really wanted to see it on the screen.

There's an Address Unknown thread here, in case someone didn't see it already:

http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/thread.jspa?threadID=151081&tstart=0

You have to see The Lady Vanishes! It's super!

A couple of other early Paul Lukas performances to check out are CITY STREETS (1931), he plays such a rotter in that one (it also has Gary Cooper and Sylvia Sidney in it too!) and STRICTLY DISHONORABLE (1931) which has a wonderful Preston Sturges script. TCM ran STRICTLY DISHONORABLE about 12 or 13 years ago. I hope since TCM has a deal with Universal that perhaps we will get to see both titles (CITY STREETS is a Paramount film).
TCM does on occasion show DOWNSTAIRS (1932) and one gets the pleasure of watching both Paul Lukas and John Gilbert.

I know....think how many fewer we'd have seen without TCM......two others that appear quite often are Berlin Express - he's really wonderful and unexpected in it... and Dodsworth.

And of course The Lady Vanishes.... but although he is good in it, and I love the movie, it isn't a favorite Lukas role for me.

Thanks, Scottman! I will definitely keep an eye out for it... maybe I'll even brave the suggest-a-movie site and put in a good word for Grand Slam. It sounds like my kind of movie....

I liked Paul Lukas in GRAND SLAM (1933) a comedy about playing bridge! Loretta Young co-stars as his wife and bridge partner. It would seem that a comedy about bridge playing would be all that interesting, but the dialogue in this film is a hoot. The next time TCM shows this, don't miss it!

Ah, visualfeast - I meant to record it but forgot to set up the recorder last night ... what a shame! I could kick myself.

I missed the end, but I saw the scenes in which he was interrogated by the German Baron about the letters. When he begged Elsa (well played by Mady Christians) to take his own letter (begging Max to stop writing to him) with her as she leaves him, it was so telling. He knows he has been awful, and why she is leaving, but instead of begging her for forgiveness, he cravenly begs her to take the letter that he thinks will keep him in good with the Nazis! And Lukas makes you understand it.... even as you abhor what he is doing.

I had to leave after the Baron came back to say that his wife had been interrogated. I was sure she was going to be held by the Nazis, but they didn't. The letter had been torn up, leaving Martin to dangle...

All in all, it was an amazing film, and the image of Lukas' fearful face is imprinted on my mind.

Paul Lukas has got to be THE most underrated actor of all time.

In my younger years, I never paid too much attention to him - yes, I thought he was great in Watch on the Rhine, but other than that, I didn't know much about his career.

Then I got TCM, and over the last two years, I've seen him in pre-codes like Downstairs and Captured ; and mid thirties films like The Casino Murder Case and I Found Stella Parish.

This morning I awoke to find him in Address Unknown. I didn't get to watch most of it due to family stuff like getting the kid off to school, and a furnace on the fritz.

I do hope that someone else saw this amazing performance, because if I had not been literally pulled away because of these obligations, I would have sat fascinated for every minute of this film. Lukas was so fine, never stagey or overdone, his sense of increasing panic was played with such chilling reality, that I found I must start a thread showing my appreciation. I wish I had recorded it.

Born in Hungary, under the name Lukacs Pal, he started his career there, becoming famous in as a light comedian and leading man. In Germany and Austria, he worked with Max Reinhardt, as did so many of his contemporaries.
He came to the U.S. In 1927, and became a citizen in 1933.