El retorno de Mr. Moto

Mr. Moto (Henry Silva) goes undercover to find out who has been blowing up oil wells and trying to gain total control of all the oil leases from a petroleum-rich Middle Eastern country.

The previous series of eight films was in the late 1930s and starred Peter Lorre, but Moto faded away for a number of reasons. The biggest probably being WWII. Was the character gone forever? Nope. Finally in the 1960s, director Ernest Morris brought the character back after his long absence. It was a one-off, but a decent one. Silva's Moto is very subtle compared to Lorre's in his speech and appearance, but it is still effective. Why a new series did not spring from this is unclear.

I'm not one of the reviewers who apparently lined up to bash this movie; I think that 20th Century-Fox guaranteed it a hostile reception by inviting comparison with the fondly-remembered Peter Lorre series of thirty years before. On its own it's a efficiently-produced crime thriller that moves along briskly and offers some genuine surprises and suspense to open-minded viewers. It's been suggested by some (including Henry Silva himself, in the DVD's audio commentary) that Silva is physically unsuited to play an oriental, but the same could be said of the Hungarian Peter Lorre in the earlier series, or the Swedish Warner Oland who became the definitive Charlie Chan. And it's worth mentioning that Henry Silva has convincingly played characters of various nationality over the years.

A beautiful letterboxed transfer of this film can be found as an extra on the final disc of the Peter Lorre/Moto DVD series; I found it well worth seeing for its entertainment value as well as Henry Silva's fascinating audio commentary.

Right from the start I thought it was a young Jack Palance in the title role. It took me ages to realise it was Henry Silva who'd picked up the mantle investigating just who was up to no good in the oil-rich Middle East. The Foreign Office and the oil company are both worried that this is all part of a plan to destabilise the oil markets and to see the latter forced into bankruptcy when it's leases expire and are not renewed. "Moto" quickly smells a rat and that sees him start to sport a delicate pencil moustache and impersonate a Japanese industrialist in the hope that he can smoke out the perpetrator before political turbulence in the tiny emirate causes chaos. I'm afraid that though it was worth a go, Silva hasn't the charm or the glint in his eye of Peter Lorre and that really makes this struggle. The concept is formulaic and the supporters - Terence Langdon and Suzanne Lloyd - don't do much to help. Nor does the unlikely casting of Marne Maitland as an embattled Sheikh in charge of his desert kingdom (in Ealing, West London). It does pass the time amiably enough, but there is a question about why resurrect the character if the plan was to put this little creative effort (and cash) into it. Disappointing, sorry.

Once the viewer recovers from the shock that star Henry Silva plays Mr. Moto totally straight--no awful accent or taped eyelids here--the truth emerges: The Return of Mr. Moto is a boring quota quickie. Shot on the cheap in black and white by producer Robert Lippert, the only concessions to art are a few nice set ups by cinematographer Basil Emmott, who had been shooting British films since the early 1920s. The story involves oil concessions in the Mid-East (some things never change!) but the film looks and plays like one of the many West German Edgar Wallace krimis of the period, with lots of people skulking around shadowy corners. The only thing missing is Klaus Kinski.

Any mst3k fan knows what Lippert means. Super cheap, lots of car driving, stock footage and talk rather than show. Moto character is unrecognizable to 30's Moto. For 1965 the plot to control oil is the most interesting aspect of this bore. The 5 is for sharp b&w photography.