Lookalikes: Peter Lorre and the Quiet Man

Private Eye has been running a regular feature for a couple of decades now, in which readers send in letters suggesting a particularly close resemblance between unconnected public figures. This week it’s the astonishing likeness between Jonathan Ross and the former dictator of Albania, Enver Hoxha.

I’ve been struck recently by the astonishing physical similarity between the great German-American horror actor, Peter Lorre, and a certain former member of the cabinet. Lorre, you may remember, made a name for himself portraying weird, mad and depraved villains. He played a child killer in Fritz Lang’s 1930s classic, M. Here he is with a photo of his mysterious double.

Lorre is on the left. The real mass murderer is on the right.

Lorre was, of course, a talented actor, whose films delighted millions and have become classics of their era. And the criminals and weirdoes he portrayed were entirely fictitious. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Ian Duncan Smith, whose incompetence and sheer malevolence is all too real, and has brought misery to untold millions as well as directly caused the deaths of 570 people, and worsened the mental health of a further quarter of a million plus.

One of the subtitles for Lang’s M was ‘The Murderer Is Amongst Us’. He is indeed. And so are his accomplices, Cameron and Osborne.

Tags: 'M', Albania, David Cameron, Enver Hoxha, Fritz Lang, George Osborne, Ian Duncan Smith, Peter Lorre, Private Eye