Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937)

 ☆ ☆ ½

Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937) – N. Foster

Over there on youtube, I found a lot of complete (free) movies; presumably the copyright has lapsed.  As some might recall, I used to watch the mystery movie on Channel 38 (Boston) with my Dad on Saturday nights – Sherlock Holmes (Rathbone, of course), Charlie Chan (I prefer Oland, Dad prefers Toler), and yes, Mr. Moto. Peter Lorre starred as the Japanese detective (clearly a cultural faux pas these days, especially with that make-up) in the 1930s after his work with Hitchcock (e.g., The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1934; Secret Agent, 1936) and prior to his career in noir (e.g., The Maltese Falcon, 1941).  In this second film in the series, Moto is in China, searching for the missing scroll that will help to uncover Genghis Khan’s missing treasure. Interestingly, we don’t quite know whose side Moto is on – the film opens with him in disguise, killing an attacker. Then later, he seems to have killed another baddie who was admittedly about to shoot his friend, the man whose family owns the other six scrolls (that all the baddies are after).  This man (but not his mother) is played by someone with actual Asian heritage at least.  Distractingly, there is also a white couple who are involved as witnesses to all of the goings-on (perhaps they are audience surrogates for a Hollywood that assumes all of its viewers are white).  Perhaps I shouldn't bring a 21st century lens to an 80 year old film but it is hard not to in this case. At any rate, I didn’t find this Mr Moto film (reputedly the best of the series) to be particularly engaging (despite some solid character actors), but I accept that the screen writers didn’t resort to the traditional whodunnit formula. But really what should I expect from a B-movie?