Think Fast, Mr. Moto

... loosely based on the books by John Marquand, from 20th Century Fox and director Norman Foster. After a series of murders occurs in San Francisco, the mysterious Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre) boards a cruise ship to China, where he befriends Bob Hitchings (Thomas Beck), the son of the owner of the cruise line. Bob has fallen for a moody passenger named Gloria (Virginia Field). Once they make landfall in China, things get dangerous for them all.

This initial outing in the series is different in at least one respect: Mr. Moto's motives and allegiances are kept a mystery for most of the picture. In fact, he's even presented as a possible suspect, or at least in league with the villains. Despite it being another regrettable instance of casting, Peter Lorre is outstanding as Moto, charming, funny, mischievous, and just a little creepy. His performance elevates what would have been just another routine mystery programmer of the day.

This was the first by 20th Century-Fox in a series of several films which tried to emulate the success of their own popular Charlie Chan series. THINK FAST, MR. MOTO introduced us to Peter Lorre's portrayal of a seemingly meek and mild mannered Asian man in glasses who secretly becomes a very clever and rough and tumble detective, excelling in martial arts and physical combat. The story involves jewel smuggling aboard a cruise ship, and while it comes off a tad clumsy the film remains brisk and enjoyable mainly because of Lorre's characterization, but also through the use of some very good seasoned professional actors (in this case, Sig Ruman and J. Carrol Naish). **1/2 out of ****

Ah, the Thirties. What could be more elegant and enjoyable than an ocean liner to the Orient, with two heartbreakingly beautiful people having a shipboard romance while criminal intrigue sort-of-kind-of goes on around them and they are watched over by a genial Japanese man who may or may not be a good guy? And that's really about all there is to the slapdash plot of the first movie in the Mr. Moto series. Yes, there's something about diamond smuggling and murder, but the main point of this story seems to be to introduce the world to the polite but dangerous gentleman from Japan.

And that is something that surprised me about this little movie (it clocks in at under 70 minutes) -- just how dangerous Mr. Moto is. Throughout the first hour he is presented as someone who's more interested in making an allegiance with the smugglers than stopping them. The movie begins with him in disguise looking into the San Francisco end of the smugglers, seeing -- but not reporting -- a murdered body and getting away so he can quietly head for Shanghai. He shows he's a black belt in jiu-jitsu by tossing a few disrespectful drunks around, including the son of the man who owns the ocean liner he's traveling on. And he kills a killer in such a way that no one can find the body...then calmly, albeit a bit sadly, continues his secretive journey. It's not until the last few minutes of the movie that his real purpose and superior intelligence is revealed. To have a Japanese man out-thinking all the sneaky Caucasian minds around him is really quite startling for 1937, considering the casual xenophobia of the time.

"Think Fast, Mr. Moto" may be an obvious attempt to capitalize on the hugely popular (and usually much better) "Charlie Chan" series of mysteries, but it works very well in its own right. Peter Lorre does a fine job (of course) pretending to be Japanese, but something that I've never understood is why Thomas Beck never got to be big in Hollywood. He has such a natural grace in front of the camera, and he's extremely good-looking. The same holds for Virginia Field, though she did have more of a career than he. The production values are above average for a "B" movie and the pace is relatively brisk. If they'd just done a better job with the script, it could have been on the same level as "Charlie Chan in Shanghai." But as it is, it's still surprisingly fun.

WITH THE SUCCESS and high popularity of the CHARLIE CHAN Series of movies, the logical next step was for some one to bring us another outstanding sleuth of Oriental extraction. There would be inevitable comparisons and "copycat" accusations. Certainly there is some similarity and there are some definite signs of, if not stealing, at least borrowing from the established CHAN franchise.

BUT THAT IS where the similarities end. For Moto is much more of a solitary operator; even though he does employ some operatives in this, the first movie in the series. Also, Moto's deducting appears to be much more introspective, silent and quietly disarming to friend and adversary alike.

THAT THE CHARACTER proved to be popular enough to have his own series of seven more entries into the series was largely due to the performance of the former Laszlo Lowenstein; now known to the world as Peter Lorre.

BUT THIS STAR'S tour de force, excellent production values, talented & ample supporting cast and memorable musical score wasn't enough to carry the series for more that its three years and eight movies. For the year was 1937 and the Imperial Japanese war machine was already conducting a war of conquest against China; after having conquered Manchuria in 1931.

THE ATROCITIES OF Pearl Harbor, Manila and Singapore, among others, would soon follow. The days of a Japanese super sleuth on our movie screens were numbered.

This was the first of the eight Mr. Moto movies but not necessarily the best of the early group, although not bad. I thought the second and third ones were the best of the first grouping of four. This got bogged down a little too much early on with Thomas Beck's infatuation with Virginia Field ("Gloria Danton"). In subsequent Moto movies, the romance angle was lesser and Moto featured more, which is better. However, some of the sappy guy's lust for his girl turns out to tie in with the head crook, so all is not lost in having to sit through the dull romance spots. (Dull because the dialog was affected, especially Beck's as "Bob Hitchings," the son of the shipping magnate and the man pursuing Gloria.

When the script featured the crime angle (smuggling), as in the beginning and in the last 25 minutes, it's interesting and gets involving. The long break in the middle of the film makes it easy for the viewer to lose track what exactly is going on here: who is smuggling what. We have to piece things together again when the action re-gains in the last third of the film. There is an interesting twist near the end and we hear Mr. Moto sum everything up a la Charlie Chan.

The exotic setting is Shanghai and viewers can enjoy the hectic sets with lots of people running to and fro; obnoxious British and Americans making racist statements to the locals, treating them as insignificant young kids and, of course, all the Asians played by the Anglos. That was part of '30s Hollywood, and you just accept it.

The last 40 percent of this movie makes up for any shortcomings and makes the viewing worthwhile. Mr. Moto is definitely one cool guy, who seems to have it all - except height. Peter Lorre was just great playing this role and I hope I get the opportunity to see all eight feature films in the series. I always enjoy his disguises, too, even though they don't fool us for a minute!