Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation

I had never seen the Mr. Moto movies until recently. They really had potential when the first couple featured a kind of dark mysterious character. But then Hollywood got involved and created fluffy romances and silly plot elements and, if it weren't for Peter Lorre, almost ruined the series. The character of Featherstone, the British idiot who showed up in a previous episode, is not funny. He is pathetic as a drunken busybody. I agree with a previous reviewer that he could have been killed falling off the boat and it would have improved the story. He destroys all the flow to this episode. It is exciting enough, with two different criminal elements trying to steal the crown of the Queen of Sheba. Also, considering supposed seriousness of the efforts to protect this priceless artifact, the authorities are bumbling dunces. Lionel Atwell is tiresome and overstuffed. There is also the handsome, boring young guy who is in love with the obligatory attractive young woman. They contribute nothing. It's a shame that Peter Lorre's wonderful character has to shine in the face of all this. I know it's a B movie, but I guess they were trying to appease the Saturday afternoon crowds.

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.

Moto (Peter Lorre) starts out in the North African desert, where the fabled crown of the Queen of Sheba is unearthed by archaeologists. Moto travels with the artifact first to Hawaii and then to San Francisco, where various parties try to steal it, including a legendary criminal mastermind known only as "Metaxa".

This one is a bit over-stuffed with characters, and at times it seems a bit muddled, but it's still fun, and Lorre is a hoot. The identity of "Metaxa" isn't too difficult to figure out, but I liked seeing Moto get his own Moriarty

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.

Between 1937 and 1939, Twentieth Century-Fox made a ton of Mr. Moto films. However, towards the end of the series, it was obvious that the studio had "jumped the shark", so to speak. This phrase indicates that a TV show has passed its prime and the executives in charge decided to invigorate the show by fundamentally changing the formula. For example, with "The Brady Bunch" they introduced the annoying 'Cousin Oliver' and with "Family Ties" they introduced a freak baby who grew up six years in only one season! With the Moto films, they'd jumped the shark by introducing comic relief because they thought that these intelligent films needed to be re-tooled. In the previous film, Warren Hymer played an annoying wrestler. And, in this film the character Archibald Featherstone appears. Featherstone might just be one of the most annoying examples of comic relief ever, as you kept hoping someone (preferably Moto) would kill him just to shut him up!! Although he's supposed to work for the famed Scotland Yard, he shows all the intelligence and acumen of a brain damaged turnip. Again and again, his scenes were boorish and unnecessary and Peter Lorre just looks pained as he stands there and watches this buffoon "act". It's so bad that it truly destroys what COULD have been one of the better Moto films due to its clever plot.

As for the plot, the crown of the Queen of Sheba is discovered in the opening scene. Moto, now more of an international policeman than the amoral character he originally was, is on hand to protect the precious item from being stolen. In a great twist, several thieves all try to steal the crown independently of each other.

Overall, the film is watchable but is also ample evidence that the Moto series should have ended here. With WWII approaching, the films couldn't have survived much longer anyway, as having a sympathetic Japanese leading character simply wouldn't have been accepted in the US or in allied countries.