The only film directed by Peter Lorre cloaks the psychological aspects of German reconstruction in an offbeat murder mystery set in bombed-out Hamburg. Reflecting both the expressionism and the reportage-style realism of Lang's M, it develops in a precise movement through flashbacks that punctuate the narrative. The story involves a Nazi scientist operating in postwar Germany under the assumed name of Neumeister (New Master). When he meets a former Gestapo agent, he becomes fatally haunted by a murderous past in which he allowed his crime to be covered up “for the good of the state.” Based on an actual incident, The Lost Man is informed in style and tone by the grief Lorre felt when, frustrated with McCarthy-era Hollywood, he returned to his native Germany, its recent horrors in their strange denouement. Lorre provided himself one of his best roles, and always considered this his crowning achievement. But by 1951, the theme of unassuageable guilt was less than popular in Germany, and Lorre subsequently returned to Hollywood.