Mr. Moto und sein Lockvogel

The fact that this story mostly takes place in Honolulu certainly gives credence to the idea that this film was originally meant by 20th Century Fox to be for the Charlie Chan series. So instead of Honolulu PD's finest going undercover during an archaeological expedition its the soft spoken Japanese private investigator that does.

Peter Lorre is undercover, but that's soon blown on shipboard by G.P. Huntley playing an upper crust British twit who has a knack for turning up in the wrong place at the wrong time, but actually by accident helping Moto. Some priceless artifacts are recovered from the dig and are to be displayed in a museum in Honolulu. And there's a mysterious master crook at large known to be seeking said items for theft.

With such likely suspects as Joseph Schildkraut and Lionel Atwill in the cast you can imagine either of them as the master crook, but there are others whose behavior might make them suspicious. I will say it isn't Huntley although if he had been the brains behind all the villainy that would have been a real interesting twist.

The Moto series came to a close with relations with the Japanese getting downright unfriendly. And certainly Peter Lorre was going on to bigger and better things.

It's hard to dislike a Mr Moto film, not only because of the stylishness with which they were all made but because, of course, Peter Lorre is so ingratiating in a role tailor-made for him. He is just excellent in the part and it is a pity there were only eight entries in this charming series. As for MR MOTO TAKES A VACATION, I can recommend it quite highly.

Like others I will offer the one caveat: the rather irritating "comic relief" character. Hollywood had such marvelous actors available to play the typical "silly-ass" Englishman that it is a wonder why they allowed this gentleman to take the role and to overplay it so gratingly. The writing here could have been tightened up a bit, and the reliable Norman Foster could have toned him down a few pegs.

But much of this is balanced by other delights in the film, starting with dear, old Willie Best in a wonderfully funny (and beautifully directed) cameo. Bob Hope called Best one of the best actors he'd ever worked with. It's easy to see why here. He is as lovable as everyone's favorite bumbling Uncle, a sort of compendium of both Laurel and Hardy. Also distinguishing its interesting cast is the great Joesph Schildkraut, an actor incapable of giving a bad performance. He was one of the masters of his profession.

Charming, fun, and magnificently photographed in rich, lustrous black and white, I really don't think you could go wrong with this one.

Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (1939)

** (out of 4)

Eighth and final entry in Fox's original series once again finds Peter Lorre in the role of Mr. Moto. This time he must fight off countless bad guys who are trying to steal a priceless crowd previously owned by the Queen of Sheba. This final entry isn't the weakest of the series but it might be the most disappointing. I was highly disappointed in this one because it features a pretty good cast but there's really nothing that works overly well here. The movie certainly a long way from being bad but at the same time there's just not enough good stuff here to make the film worth viewing. The actual story is a fairly interesting set up but not enough is done with it as we pretty much get cardboard bad guys popping up at various spots and doing something bad. There's really no heart or soul behind any of the writing and in the end the movie just comes off as a low grade "B" movie rather than something unique like a lot of the films in this series. Lorre finds himself giving another good performance and we've also got decent work by Joseph Schildkraut, Virginia Field and Lionel Atwill. Atwill is pretty much wasted in the film but it's always nice seeing him. G.P. Huntley plays the comic relief here and his awful character really brings the film down several notches. I'm not sure who the director thought would find this performance funny. Black character actor Willie Best also appears briefly. Fans of the series will certainly want to check this one out but it's doubtful many others will find any type of entertainment here.

Disguised as a German archaeologist, Moto (Peter Lorre) helps unearth the priceless crown of the legendary Queen of Sheba and sans disguise defends it from a variety of thugs and criminals.

Plenty of good fights, an excellent plot, and the beard... man, what a beard. Lorre should have had a beard in more of his films.

At this point, the Moto series was winding down, Lorre was getting sick of doing them, and it would not be the least surprising if director Norman Foster was ready to move on, too. At least they had one thing going for them in this installment: Lionel Atwill, an actor probably best known for his 1930s horror films.

Mr. Moto takes on a mysterious jewel thief known as Metaxa out to steal the recently-unearthed Crown of Sheba. This last Peter Lorre Mr. Moto movie starts out fun but then unwanted comic relief George P. Huntley shows up. Huntley as Archie Featherstone ranks among the worst examples of forced comedy I've ever seen. Why they felt they needed to ruin an otherwise enjoyable Mr. Moto movie with this idiot is beyond me. He even appears in blackface at one point! To make matters worse, he teams with racist caricaturist Willie Best not long after.

A good supporting cast including Lionel Atwill, Joseph Schildkraut, and pretty Virginia Field can only do so much. The writing is pretty thin, as well. They even reuse a bit from the previous Moto film, Mr. Moto in Danger Island. In that one, Moto (faking appendicitis) arrives by ship and is picked up by an ambulance. After the ambulance departs, two men come rushing up in a cab exclaiming that they are the real ambulance drivers and the two men with Moto are imposters. Well a very similar bit is used here, except instead of an ambulance it's an armored truck with two imposter drivers.

It's not surprising this is the end of the Moto series. The U.S. would be at war with Japan in a couple of years so it would have been impossible for Fox to continue making movies with a Japanese hero. Besides, if this is an example of where the series was headed it's better they stopped here. It was a decent series with Peter Lorre always giving a good performance even when the material didn't deserve it. This one's probably the worst of the lot but still watchable. When Huntley's not around, it's actually entertaining.