Director: Norman Foster
Writers: Howard Ellis Smith, Norman Foster, Wyllis Cooper (uncredited), Charles Kenyon (uncredited), J. P. Marquand (based on his original story)
Producer: Sol M. Wurtzel
Cast: Peter Lorre, Thomas Beck, Virginia Field, Sig Ruman, Murray Kinnell, John Rogers, Lotus Long, J. Carrol Naish, Geoge Cooper, Frederick Vogeding, George Hassell, Bert Roach, Charles Tannen, Howard Wilson
Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre) is a small, soft-spoken, Japanese gentleman that befriends Bob Hitchings, Jr. (Thomas Beck), aboard a steamship leaving San Francisco and bound for Shanghai, China. Hitchings is the son of the owner of the steamship line that is being used by smugglers. Young Hitchings has been sent by his father to look into the problem at the Hitchings Shanghai branch. Mr. Moto also accompanies young Hitchings to Shanghai. Hitchings is unaware of Mr. Moto’s interest in this smuggling operation and Moto’s motives are unknown.
The Flashback Fanatic movie review
20th Century Fox was already enjoying great success with their Charlie Chan film series. Since the Mr. Moto stories were very popular, Fox must have thought that another Asian hero in another series of mystery films would go over just fine. However, their eight Mr. Moto films were very different from the Chan series. In contrast to a friendly police detective hero with a large family of offspring, Mr. Moto is a mysterious loner with a vague and changing affiliation to organizations that he operates for. In the film series, Mr. Moto is not an agent for the government of Japan but an international detective. In this first Moto film, he refers to his detective work as a hobby while conducting an investigation on behalf of the Japanese trading company he manages. In the later films, Moto is an agent of Interpol.
Hungarian actor Peter Lorre had earned a lot of accolades for his talent. However, when he arrived at Fox the studio did not seem to know just what to do with this distinctive personality. Starring Lorre in a B-film series may have seemed like a professional dead end, but the Moto films proved to be very popular. It is Lorre’s presence that elevates these films and makes them the great fun that they are. Lorre’s Mr. Moto is a hero you can believe in because he is so unusual. Like Sherlock Holmes or Tarzan, it requires a character with a very offbeat background and personality to be capable of the extraordinary feats and behavior that are required in these adventures. I do not believe for one minute in the derring-do, steely nerve, and lightning-quick aptitude of the generic and conceited louts that so many contrived and bloated action movies now pass off as heroes. Those snarky clowns may be goal-oriented to achieve what society deems success, but they demonstrate with every contemporary catch phrase that they are never going to have the exceptional character to become heroic in ability or motivation.
Think Fast, Mr. Moto is the first of the eight Moto films starring Peter Lorre. It is interesting to realize that for most of this story we never really know what Mr. Moto is after. He seems mild-mannered and pleasant, but is revealed early on to be capable of stealth and violence. In addition to being a master of disguise and jiu-jitsu, he is bilingual, demonstrates incredible sleight-of-hand dexterity with cards, and can instruct a bartender how to mix a hangover cure (I really ought to write that one down). Moto’s array of talents is not only impressive and intriguing; it is believable due to the unique dynamic of Peter Lorre in this role. His Mr. Moto is a character unlike any other. It is only someone this unusual that could achieve so much prowess and intelligence.
Nowadays, we take for granted the brutality and cold-blooded behavior in our favorite movie heroes. But this was not something that Sean Connery’s James Bond or Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry pioneered, though they both were controversial in their day. In this very first Mr. Moto adventure, we are presented with a hero that will kill without hesitation or regret. It is not done with a sense of bloodthirsty machismo, but just as a matter of necessity required to survive and accomplish his mission. Indeed, a title appropriate to many installments in this series would be Don’t Mess with Mr. Moto.
The Mr. Moto films were distinct from their prose source by making the Mr. Moto character much more central to the stories. They wisely still maintained Moto’s mystique. Usually we are introduced to Moto already in the midst of his mission, and we have to get brought up to speed in later scenes to find out just what Moto is after. In this first film of the series, we are not even sure if Moto’s motives are just. Mr. Moto keeps his adversaries and his audience guessing.
In addition to the Mr. Moto action and intrigue, there is the romance provided by handsome Thomas Beck, as Bob Hitchings, Jr., and beautiful Virginia Field, as Gloria Danton. Beck is a likable enough presence that doesn’t wear out his welcome and ogling Field is always a pleasure. Both Thomas Beck and villain Sig Ruman would return as different characters in the next Moto film. Virginia Field starred as two other characters in two later entries of the series.
Speaking of romance and returning performers, Lotus Long portrays a switchboard operator that Mr. Moto seems to put the moves on. It turns out she is some sort of operative working with Moto on this case. Later billed as Karen Sorrell, Long would portray another similar character in Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938).
I was completely won over with Peter Lorre and Mr. Moto with the very first Moto film I saw. Here was a formidable character with the humility, humor, intelligence, and ability that make him likable and intriguing. His stories were brisk entertainments that were free of the artifice and posturing of the modern action movie. Mr. Moto and his adventures are both exotic and believable. That is what makes them fun.
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