The Mr. Moto Collection – Volume One

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C     Extras: C+     Films:

 

 

Think Fast, Mr. Moto (1937)   C-

Thank You, Mr. Moto (1938)   B-

Mr. Moto Takes A Chance (1938)   C

Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938)   B-

 

 

Though not as good or successful as Fox’s Charlie Chan series, reviewed on this site, scoring Peter Lorre as the Japanese secret agent/detective Mr. I. O. Moto was a coup and one of the most interesting and commercial roles of his career.  Lasting eight films, the series is still often remembered as a good B-movie series, but has also had to endure annoying attacks from the politically correct Left.  In fairness, some of the racial aspects of the film are more problematic than the Chan series, but even more aged is the idea of Moto as a spy three decades before the craze led by James Bond arrived.  The Mr. Moto Collection – Volume One brings together half the series, four films, in a solid DVD box set.

 

Lorre was still a hot commodity thanks to Fritz Lang’s M (1931, reviewed elsewhere on this site) and hoped to do only one film and move onto other Hollywood projects, particularly at Fox.  Though that did not work out, this is one of the early and too often hidden legacies of Lorre’s career.  The first half of the series here includes:

 

 

Think Fast, Mr. Moto is the debut film with Lorre establishing himself as the detective.  He does well, which is good, because the mystery is not that good, the film wastes too much time with his eccentricities that are more racial and dull than any kind of character development and that hurts the mystery and action all around.  It is interesting to see the fight scenes, since Lorre/Moto are small and supposed to be like the book.  Good thing this one was a hit, since the jewel heist plot only goes so far, though it turns out fans loved the Judo.  J. Carrol Naish also stars.

 

Thank You, Mr. Moto is a favorite of the series, with Moto looking for the tomb of no less than Genghis Khan.  When the competition becomes murderous, he decides to do something about it.  John Carradine is in the supporting cast and the series finally gets on with it in a better action mystery story that shows off Lorre to best effect. 

 

Mr. Moto Takes A Chance is the third film here, but fourth in the series since Fox seems to be withholding the third (Mr. Moto’s Gamble) for the next set.  This is an average entry as Moto works with a British agent to find weapons of some mass destruction in Indochina.  It is not awful, but it never gels.

 

Mysterious Mr. Moto is the fifth film in the series and final one in this set, as Moto heads straight to England to help Scotland Yard (guess Sherlock Holmes was too buys, dead, or “fictional” within the story) to uncover an assassin or two.  The result is another strong entry that is more like it for such B-movies.  Lorre has a script and cast to play against and finding himself in the role with Director Norman Foster getting the hang of the series, this might be its best entry.

 

 

As created by writer John P. Marquand, he only wrote five books, with only three existing at the time Lorre did the series.  The first two films claim to be based on his written materials, the latter two just the characters.  Along with Chan and the Boris Karloff Mr. Wong series, Asian detectives were always a hit in the B-movie detective cycle of the 1930s and 1940s. 

 

The 1.33 X 1 image has been restored as much as possible and the results are very good, though Think Fast is particularly aged, but this plays back very nicely.  It’s great to see any studio understand the value of such titles, then go back and give them top treatment.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is here in mono and slightly stereo-boosted versions that you will have to toy with until you figure out which work for you better.  Stereo tends to be a little better, but these soundtracks are from the 1930s and though Fox did some amazing work to clean them up, they are not always as clear as one would like them to be.  However, they work well enough and the combination is better than the films have been seen in decades.

 

Extras include trailers on Think Fast and Thank You, restoration comparisons on all four discs and different featurettes on each, running about 15 – 20 minutes each average.  Think Fast offers The Dean Of Hollywood A Conversation With Harvey Parry, about the stunts and behind-the-scenes on the film.  Thank You has Sol Wurtzel: The Forgotten Mogul, Chance features The Mysterious Mr. Lorre and Mysterious Mr. Moto gives us Directed By Norman Foster who directed all these films and many in the Chan series.  Like the first Fox/Chan DVDs, John Cork and Bruce Scivally created these fine featurettes.  Hope we see their work on the next set.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo