Harun Farocki once said that “hardly a film prefigured fascism as accurately as M, and hardly a film has recaptured fascism as accurately as Der Verlorene.” The star of both films is Peter Lorre, and The Lost One was Lorre’s sole directorial effort. He also wrote the novel the film is based on and co-wrote the screenplay. Lorre plays Dr. Karl Rothe, a German scientist who tries to adapt to postwar Germany, but is overwhelmed by guilt for his crimes during the Third Reich. Clearly influenced by prewar expressionist cinema—including direct allusions to his character in Fritz Lang’s M (1931)—Lorre’s actors are captured in foreboding shadows or haunted half-lights. Nominated for the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival, the film was a financial failure. German audiences remained unwilling to confront their own culpability and instead flocked to the escapist Heimatfilme. Much like Charles Laughton after The Night of the Hunter, Lorre would return to his acting career in Hollywood.