If not for the Looney Tunes short "Porky's Movie Mystery," I probably would have overlooked the Mr. Moto series while perusing the filmography of Peter Lorre. It certainly hasn't stood the test of time; even Charlie Chan has enjoyed more recent references. Nevertheless, I rather like Lorre and was curious to see how he'd do. MMM appeared to be the most popular entry available.
The opening, in which secret agent Kentaro Moto and one Paul Brissac (Leon Ames) escape Devil's Island, is pretty exciting but must affect viewers differently depending how well they know the former. Sure enough, Moto is not an actual convict; he merely poses as one with cooperation from some authorities so that he can learn the identities of an entire ring of hit men. Brissac goes to London and takes Moto in as a houseboy, but not everyone in the ring is so trusting.
Adding to Moto's urgency is the ring's current scheme. They've been making aggressive phone calls to Anton Darvak (Henry Wilcoxon), a steel magnate with a secret formula they hope will enrich them. Darvak keeps shrugging them off, because a man in his position gets lots of idle threats, but secretary Ann Richman (Mary Maguire), who crushes on him, senses it's more serious this time. Even the suspicious death of a friend doesn't quite sway him (that's the trouble with a convincing "accident"), and the literal deadline approaches.
Unfortunately, Scotland Yard isn't as obliging as the authorities in French Guiana. First they have trouble believing in assassins for hire, particularly on their home turf. Then they get impatient with Moto refusing to share all he knows until he can pinpoint the ringleader. In fact, they start thinking of charging him as an accomplice. I hope that sort of myopia is not likely in reality.
As mysteries go, there's not much to it. While he does figure a few things out before I would, Moto, being more agent than detective, mainly just has to be in the right places at the right times, including where he meets fellow Japanese agent Lotus Liu (Lotus Long). He chalks up much of his success to luck. He makes a decent fighter for his size, too, at least with his throws, tho I doubt Lorre took any jujitsu lessons.
To answer my first paragraph's implied question, Lorre does better as a native Japanese man than I feared. Glasses aside, he doesn't look much different from usual, nor does he change his signature accent. In contrast to Chan, he has good grammar and an impressive vocabulary in English, without talking like a fortune cookie writer. Linguistically, the only thing caricaturish about him is his use of "Oh so?" now and then. The audience is clearly supposed to take his side against the bigoted characters. (It may be worth noting that Long is half Japanese and half Hawaiian, but her accent herein is purely American.)
I can see that MMM was a bit dashed off, at a time when Fox was churning out three Mr. Moto movies per year. But at a mere 62 minutes, it doesn't feel so bad a way to pass the time. Take it or leave it.
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