Mr. Moto Takes a Chance (1938)

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Mr. Moto Takes a Chance (1938)** (out of 4) Fourth and so far least entertaining film in the series has Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre) doing some work in the jungles of Cambodia. Soon a female pilot (Rochelle Hudson) crash lands as well as two reporters all of whom are about to witness a high priest perhaps commit a murder. This is certainly the weakest of the first four films, which is something I really wasn't expecting because I thought seeing Moto in a jungle would lead to a lot of entertaining things but it didn't. What really killed this film for me was the supporting characters because I found all of them to be incredibly weak. The two newsreel reporters were added for comic relief but I found them only annoying and not funny. The Hudson character was quite annoying as well. The villain of the film is also poorly written and I found him to be incredibly stupid in the things he tried doing. What makes all of this even stranger is that Moto is pretty much in the background for most of the film and I even wondered at times why he was there at all because there was so little of him. Foster's return to the series isn't anything too spectacular and I couldn't help but wish there was more here than there actually is. The overused stock footage is another issue, although the set design was pretty good.

Mr. Moto is posing as an archaeologist but in reality he's investigating reports that there is soon to be an uprising against the colonial government. Soon after he arrives, an Amelia Earhart-like woman conveniently "drops in" as well as two wildlife documentary film makers--making this part of rural Thailand about the busiest place in the entire country!! Some things about MR. MOTO TAKES A CHANCE are very good and make this a stand out film. First, instead of being stuck on a cruise ship or in the big city, Moto is in Thailand--a nice departure indeed. Second, like the earliest Moto films, our hero is NOT above killing his enemies--making Moto quite the different from Charlie Chan. Later Moto films are quite different, with Moto acting almost exactly like Chan--so in general, the later the films were made the worse they were.Unfortunately, the film also had more than its share of dopey moments, such as the bats that flew up out of the trap door. Not only were they obviously fake, but you could very, very clearly see the strings! There was also an overuse of stock footage. While fortunately the animals were correct (such as Asian elephants, tigers and orangutans) but sometimes the clips were a bit grainy and seemed like they were thrown in for padding. In addition, the one cameraman character (the obviously "goofy" one) was a bit annoying. He seemed to be some sort of unnecessary comic relief and really detracted from the film.'' Overall, not a particularly inspired film and far from one of the better films in the series. Watchable but it's only a time-passer for everyone but Moto fans.

"I find it very wise not to interfere with the customs of other people," says Kentaro Moto, export dealer, hand-to-hand combat specialist, expert with disguises and, in Mr. Moto Takes a Chance, a spy for the French in Indochina. Since the French were quite used to interfering in the customs of the peoples they lorded it over in Indochina and elsewhere, what a let- down with this movie, in more ways than one. After the great start of the series with Think Fast, Mr. Moto and Thank You, Mr. Moto, this third in the outing sticks us back firmly in the low budget, do-what-it-takes, quickie category of programmers. Take away Peter Lorre as Moto and we'd have a tired jungle drama of nefarious natives, banana plants and the occasional crocodile. The only real mystery is how Mr. Moto keeps his white suit so clean in the jungle. The plot involves a plot, of course, and this one is by Bokor, high priest in the royal village of Tong Moi, not too far from Angkor Wat. He wants to do some overthrowing which will involve the Raja Ali, a seemingly jolly, chubby man who delights in his wives so much that he plans to add Vicki Mason, aviatrix and adventuress who had to bail out of her plane, to the roll call. We realize that the Raja may have more on his mind than Vicki as he goes about shooting down the carrier pigeons that an archaeologist is sending out. The archaeologist, of course, is Mr. Moto. It's not long before we encounter a wizened holy man almost as ancient, it seems, as a particular temple in the jungle. I won't even hint as to who the holy man really is. We also encounter a couple of newsreel free-lancers in a dugout, a cobra in a basket, a poison dart in a beautiful back, a cameraman in a tiger pit and a lot of munitions hidden in that temple. We begin to suspect that there is another spy working for the French. The Hollywood solution, naturally, involves a good deal of gunplay and the casual blowing-up of a great, hundreds-of-years-old, vine-encrusted temple. One assumes that the French, when they learn about this from Mr. Moto, will consider the destruction regrettable. Hollywood, however, can at times be prescient, however inadvertently. Snarls one major character, "We will not rest until we drive every foreigner from Asia!" At the time, that probably seemed unlikely and terribly unfair to all those foreigners. Lorre brings to Kentaro Moto his typical amusing mixture of lethal bonhomie and polite death-dealing, unencumbered, it seems, by any regrets. The other actors, however, are a gaggle of B players with one exception. J. Edward Bromberg plays the Raja. He was always a reliable actor and a good one. At the end of the Forties he found himself blacklisted because he refused to testify before a Congressional committee if he'd ever been a Communist. He had the quaint notion that in America a person's political beliefs are nobody's business but his own. The film jobs instantly vanished. He was married with a wife and three young kids to support. In 1950 he finally left for London, hoping to get a new start there. People who knew him said he was under a great deal of stress and had aged noticeably. He died within the year of a heart attack. He was 48. To end on a more pleasant note I'll need to mention Chick Chandler, an energetic light-comedy actor who plays the cameraman, Chick Davis. He looks just like a cross between Joe E. Brown and George W. Bush.

For the 4th Fox Moto the script took a nosedive and crashed like Rochell Hudson's plane did at the beginning. You could tell it was going to be a bumpy ride as she was flying over Angkor Wat and awe-struck by its beauty for a full half second. The overall intelligent production and sinister atmosphere generated by the sets more than make up for it though and keep me coming back."Grave-digger" Moto played beautifully superciliously by Peter Lorre is trying to discover and stop a plot to overthrow a Cambodian Rajah (?) played by mincing and wincing J. Edward Bromberg. Two grade A American newsreel cameramen get in the way, one falling for Hudson the other supplying the comedy. It takes a long time coming but the 2 Yanks escape an execution, Moto gets to show his incredible disguising (!) and energetic jujitsu skills off, and Hudson nearly got raped too (well, what was that about with the pervy High Priest if not?!) The High Priest/Temple scenes reminded me of George Zucco in The Mummy's Hand a few years later, another great film with a gossamer-like plot than smacked of Serial. Even so, there's a few surprises along the way, and the 61 minute running time simply flew by, because you see, I enjoy watching this type of movie: I can laugh at its many faults at the same time as revelling in its many good points.I only wish they had made this as a 13 part serial, there'd be so much more to enjoy.