Brick Up Your Fears

Peter's fond of a sherry or five
When they're gone he'll get merry, revive
When with roseate glow
He disposes of foe
Who, in bondage, is buried alive.

David Cairns

 

Happy new year! Let's raise a glass to Peter Lorre, shown here in the wine-tasting sequence from "The Black Cat," the middle episode of Tales of Terror (Roger Corman; 1962). In the film, Lorre chains and bricks up Vincent Price in his cellar, as in Poe's "The Casque of Amontillado."