Think Fast, Mr. Moto (1937)

Absolutely Fantastic

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Blistering performances.

Peter Lorre made his big screen debut as the deceptively mild mannered Moto Kentaro forever after in cinema history as Mr. Moto. This is the only film that Lorre did in the series for 20th Century Fox where we actually learn Moto's given name. He's strictly Mr. Moto from thereon.Think Fast Mr. Moto has him doing just that. Lorre had Clark Kent type persona down pat as crooks who don't know he is a detective just dismiss him to their peril. In this case Moto has been hired by the president of a shipping line to investigate his own company as rumors are being heard that it is being used for a smuggling racket for Asian artifacts. Doing that Lorre has to accompany the playboy son on an ocean voyage to Shanghai played by Thomas Beck. The young man is somewhat dissolute and his choice of companions isn't the best.Moto's mastery of jiu jitsu is exhibited for the first time here. One of the crooks here is a ship steward played by Joseph Rogers, a cockney who gets rather ruthlessly tossed overboard mid voyage.Of course in the end the crooks are rounded up and the steamship line's reputation is preserved. You're in for a treat as you see how he does it and how Lorre survives a gunshot wound to do it.Good debut for this movie series.

20th Century Fox presents its first in a series of eight mysteries based on a character in novel's by J.P. Marquand. Kentaro Moto(Peter Lorre)boards a ship from San Francisco to Shanghai. Moto gives the impression he is involved with international jewel smugglers. Aboard ship is the ship line's owner's son Bob Hitchings(Thomas Beck), who falls heavy for an intriguing White Russian Gloria Danton(Virginia Field). Moto suspects trouble with this shipboard romance. Bob's father also happens to be a legitimate gem dealer and warns him there may be smugglers aboard. Moto gets the idea that Miss Danton may be involved with criminal activity. And wouldn't you know it...there is a known murderer also making this trip. The story gets rolling when the ship docks in Shanghai and Gloria is nowhere to be found. As this crime caper concludes the quiet and compactly built Mr. Moto reveals himself as a special agent of the International Police. At times a bit silly, but overall very interesting. Other players include: Sig Ruman, Murray Kinnell, George Cooper, J. Carrol Naish and John Rogers.

Think Fast, Mr. Moto (1937) *** (out of 4)San Francisco's Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre) finds himself on a ship for Shanghai where he meets a young man (Thomas Beck) whose father owns the ship. Once in China we start to uncover a smuggling ring and a mysterious woman (Virginia Field) who has started a fling with the young man. The first film in Fox's series is a winning film even though the middle of the movie seems to lose focus on the actual story as we get a tad bit too much romance. For the most part the film moves at a very quick pace and delivers some fun performances. I found the middle of the film to get too bogged down with the romance between Beck and Field but other than that this film is a pretty good success. What works best of all is Lorre and his wonderful characterization of Moto. I'm sure some might be offended by Lorre playing an Asian but we have to remember when the film was made and this type of movie did show him in a very positive light. Lorre has some perfect mannerisms and really has the style of Moto down. I loved seeing Lorre during the fighting sequences because he was very believable even with his short size. Field and Beck were also good in their roles as was Sig Ruman and Lotus Long. J. Carrol Naish has a small supporting role as well.

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.