Think Fast, Mr. Moto

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with Mr. Moto in disguise as a street salesmen and selling goods to passers-by. He sees a man leaving a shop with a tattoo of the British Flag on his arm. Moto enters the shop to sell a rare diamond to the owner. However, Moto sees a body stuffed into a wicker basket in the store, and using his mastery of judo takes down the shopkeeper. Later, he reserves a berth on a freighter headed for Shanghai. Also on the freighter is Bob Hitchings Jr., son of the owner of the freighter. Before leaving, Hitchings Sr. gives his son a confidential letter for the head of the Shanghai branch of the company. Hitchings and Moto become friends (Moto notices the letter), and Moto helps Hitchings cure a hangover. Hitchings complains to Moto that he has not met any beautiful women on board. After a stop in Honolulu, a beautiful woman named Gloria Danton boards the ship, and she and Hitchings fall in love. But Gloria is a spy for Nicolas Marloff, who runs a smuggling operation out of Shanghai. She periodically sends him notes and leaves without saying goodbye to Hitchings. Moto finds a steward looking for Hitchings’s letter, and confronts him, knowing he was the person who killed the man in the wicker basket, as he wears the tattoo. Moto throws the man overboard and takes the letter.
At Shanghai, Hitchings meets with Joseph B. Wilkie and gives him the letter, but later learns that it is a blank sheet of paper. He calls his father, who tells him the letter said to watch out for smugglers. Hitchings is adamant on finding Gloria, and he learns from an unknown person that she is at the “international club”. Both he and Wilkie go there, as well as Moto and his date, Lela Liu. Hitchings finds Gloria performing at the club and goes to her dressing room. However, the club owner Marloff, discovers them together, and, knowing that Hitchings knows too much, locks them both up. Moto tells Lela to call the police, and seeks out Marloff. Posing as a fellow smuggler, he tricks Marloff into leading him to Gloria and Hitchings. Lela is shot while contacting the police, but manages to tell them where she is. Wilkie finds Marloff, and demands that Gloria and Hitchings be released. Marloff finds out that Moto is not a smuggler, then Moto apprehends him. Moto tells Wilkie to get Marloff’s gun, the gun explodes as Wilkie tries to grab it, killing Marloff. Police storm the building, and Moto tells them the Wilkie headed the smuggling operation. Wilkie replaced the letter and shot Lela. Moto gave Wilkie the opportunity to kill Marloff, who knew he was in on the plot, and he did. Wilkie is arrested, and things go back to normal.

Tags: good versus evil, cult, murder

Review:
Edward Bromberg, he even acted in one of the Moto films as a Rajah in Thailand (which acerbic yet clever critic referred to as "Indoors China") before he was hurt by the blacklist and died a sad and broken man, who unintentionally hurt the career of actress Lee Grant when she attended his funeral and was herself blacklisted until the movie "In The Heat Of The Night."Watching Peter Lorre in any film is always a delight and the Motos never disappoint for pure entertainment value..
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?
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.
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.
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.
(Dull because the dialog was affected, especially Beck's as "Bob Hitchings," the son of the shipping magnate and the man pursuing Gloria.When the script featured the crime angle (smuggling), as in the beginning and in the last 25 minutes, it's interesting and gets involving.
There is an interesting twist near the end and we hear Mr. Moto sum everything up a la Charlie Chan.The exotic setting is Shanghai and viewers can enjoy the hectic sets with lots of people running to and fro; obnoxious British and Americans making racist statements to the locals, treating them as insignificant young kids and, of course, all the Asians played by the Anglos.
Peter Lorre was just great playing this role and I hope I get the opportunity to see all eight feature films in the series.
Despite this generalized, popular stereotype, Hollywood made strings of films with Oriental detectives that, while still unfortunately maintaining certain Oriental prejudices and mannerisms, bucked this trend with the likes of the wise, sententious Charlie Chan, the inimitable Mr. Wong, and Mr. Moto of course.
None of the series used Oriental actors, but the films gave the likes of Warner Oland, Sidney Toler, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Peter Lorre jobs.
The Mr. Moto series, based on the works of John Marquand, began with Think Fast, Mr. Moto.
He travels from San Francisco to the Orient on a luxury liner, where he meets the son of the tycoon that owns the boat and who also may have information that can lead Moto to the smugglers.
It's Lorre's portrayal that gives the film real life, and definitely has set me out to see the other films in the series.
This series of Mr. Moto films were very low budget films and during the year 1937 the country was not in prosperity like it is today.
Actors like Peter Lorre had to find work and therefore, we find him in pictures like Mr. Moto.
Peter Lorre (Kentaro Moto), "The Beast With Five Fingers",'46, did a great job of performing a role like Charlie Chan and manged to keep you guessing just who the criminal really was.
Virginia Field, (Gloria Danton),"The Earth Dies Screaming",'65 gave a great supporting role and appeared in quite a few of these Mr. Moto films.
These Mr. Moto films were usually shown as a second feature at the local movie houses along with Newsreels and Cartoons which created a big Saturday night treat for the local families during 1937!.
The first of the Lorre Moto's is also the best, and from under the opening titles to the snappy ending you do have some fast thinking to do.
All present-day Austrians might be outraged by Peter Lorre's casting as a Japanese, and a warning should be given before every screening.
I should have been warned that the ship's English steward would be Battling Burrows' son (see "Broken Blossoms" 1919)!Dapper Moto is going after an international gang of smugglers operating out of Shanghai, where he seems to be up against the whole population much the same as Chan was 2 years earlier.
I don't know how many Moto's and Chan's in total they appeared in, but I tend to look out for Beck in every one just in case!TFMM fills just over an hour pleasantly, and I have no hesitation in recommending it to the 21st century..
This was the first by 20th Century-Fox in a series of several films which tried to emulate the success of their own popular Charlie Chan series.
MOTO introduced us to Peter Lorre's portrayal of a seemingly meek and mild mannered Asian man in glasses who secretly becomes a very clever and rough and tumble detective, excelling in martial arts and physical combat.
The story involves jewel smuggling aboard a cruise ship, and while it comes off a tad clumsy the film remains brisk and enjoyable mainly because of Lorre's characterization, but also through the use of some very good seasoned professional actors (in this case, Sig Ruman and J.
The truth is that as far as European-in-yellowface portrayals of Asians went, Peter Lorre's Moto was far less racist and considerably more sympathetic than the clownish, epigram-spouting Charlie Chan.
In fact, it's easy to forget Moto's Japaneseness altogether and just view him as yet another wondrous manifestation of the white-linen-suited, Austrian-accented Lorreness so prevalent between the wars in films like "Strange Cargo," "Island of Doomed Men," und so wieter.
Though Lorre reportedly had no idea what the whole thing was supposed to mean and spent his time offstage disconsolately listening to his archenemy Hitler on the radio, the eight Moto films established him as one of Hollywood's most beloved personalities and gave millions of small men who wore glasses the hope that they, too, could be strong and adorable..
On a freighter going from San Francisco to Shanghai, Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre) solves mysteries caused by a gang of smugglers.
First of the series.Director Norman Foster was given this B-movie assignment, but it is probably better remembered today than many of the A pictures that came out at the time.
This is the first of Fox's Mr. Moto series with Peter Lorre.
I guess Fox decided since the Charlie Chan series was so successful, they should try their luck with another Asian detective series.
While I enjoy the Chan films more, the Moto films are pretty good too.
Besides, Chan and Moto couldn't be more different, especially early in the series.
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.
Doing that Lorre has to accompany the playboy son on an ocean voyage to Shanghai played by Thomas Beck.
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..
Marquand, introduces Peter Lorre as the Oriental sleuth, Kentaro Moto.
With the studio's success to what developed into a long running "Charlie Chan" movie series starring Warner Oland, "Mr. Moto" was another attempt for another franchise of Oriental detectives.
The slight difference between Chan and Moto is that Chan was a Chinese inspector with a wife and family while Moto was a Japanese detective only as a hobby who occasionally lives and works alone, acquiring assistants along the way, usually comic foils most commonly found in the latter theatrical episodes to come.For its first installment to an eight film series, based on Marquand's third written "Moto" novel, the story begins during the Chinese New Year in San Francisco where Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre), disguised as a street peddler, enters a Jacob Berger Curio Shop attempting to sell a precious Romanov stone collection to its owner (Fredrik Vogeding).
While on board, Moto befriends Bob Hitchings (Thomas Beck), a millionaire playboy whose father (George Hassell), owner of the ship, entrusts his son with a confidential sealed letter to be delivered to his branch manager, Joseph B.
Coming on board the ship during a stopover in Honolulu is Gloria Danton (Virginia Field), who, at first, gives Bob a hard time when trying to make her acquaintance.
Prior to the ship docking for Shanghai, a series of mysterious circumstances have occurred: Carson (John Rogers), a steward, gets tossed overboard after being caught snooping in one of the staterooms; Gloria, with whom Bob has fallen in love, makes a sudden departure; and the note Bill is to give Mr. WIlkie (Murray Kinnell) turns out to be a blank piece of paper.
Carroll Naish) of the East India Bizarre, Mr. Moto must think fast when falling victim to danger of Nicholas Marloff (Sig Ruman), proprietor of the International Club, along with his associate, "Muggs" Blake (George Blake), with intentions of doing away with Moto before the little man discovers any more evidence that's to expose the actual ringleader responsible for a series of murderous activities.Also in the cast are: Charles Irwin (The Steward); Frank Mayo (Captain Marshall); Tom Herbert (The Seasick Passenger); and William Law (Steve, the Shanghai Police Chief).
Virginia Field playing the mysterious Gloria Banton, introduces a song, "The Shy Violet" by Sidney Clare and Harry Akst, while Bert Roach participates in one of the film's few comedic moments as a bartender who confusingly prepares a drink for Mr. Moto as instructed by him.Other than Peter Lorre's know-how ability to hold the viewer's interest throughout this fast-paced 67 minutes, what makes THINK FAST, MR.
Other than the natural fight and last minute rescues, Lorre's Moto acquires a new method of self defense uncommonly found on screen at that time, which happens to be jujitsu.Of the eight installments, oddly enough, THINK FAST, MR.
MOTO (1937) with Lorre resuming his title role, and Thomas Beck and Sig Rumann making return engagements in different character roles, is another gem that's just as good.
Peter Lorre shines from the outset as Mr. Moto, the Japanese trader in artifacts and hobby detective.
WITH THE SUCCESS and high popularity of the CHARLIE CHAN Series of movies, the logical next step was for some one to bring us another outstanding sleuth of Oriental extraction.
Also, Moto's deducting appears to be much more introspective, silent and quietly disarming to friend and adversary alike.THAT THE CHARACTER proved to be popular enough to have his own series of seven more entries into the series was largely due to the performance of the former Laszlo Lowenstein; now known to the world as Peter Lorre.BUT THIS STAR'S tour de force, excellent production values, talented & ample supporting cast and memorable musical score wasn't enough to carry the series for more that its three years and eight movies.
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.
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.
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.
Field and Beck were also good in their roles as was Sig Ruman and Lotus Long.
*May contain minor spoilers*I'd recommend the Mr Moto movies to anyone who likes a good low-budget adventure piece.
The movies feature exotic places and folks, decent story lines, some action and - above all - good actors, Mr Peter Lorre in the lead.
I've been slightly disappointed to find out Mr Lorre didn't do the stunt scenes himself, but remembered he was supposed to be seriously ill for many years - so might have been while he played Mr Moto as well.If you're looking for picturesque, old-time entertainment, a Mr Moto movie might be just the thing for you..
I decided to watch the movies in order and start with the first in the series, Think Fast, Mr. Moto.
It's the story of a diamond smuggling ring operating aboard a luxury liner between China and the U.S. The mysterious and ever present Mr. Moto is on hand to put a stop to the illegal activity.
Think Fast, Mr. Moto is the kind of movie that's best enjoyed curled up on the couch late at night when you want to put your brain on hold and just be entertained.
The film would hardly be as good without Peter Lorre in the title role.
Mr. Moto was a B-movie series from 20th Century-Fox Studios and it was made at the same time they were cranking out Charlie Chan films.
Both series are similar in that Western actors played Asians and both usually fought against crime and offensive vocal stereotypes such as Moto saying "chop-chop".
As for the plot, it's very similar to Chan films in that Moto is working to uncover the truth about a smuggling ring--something that Charlie did in at least a couple movies himself.
Plus, the son of the shipping line owner seemed like a bit of a lazy weasel, so it was hard to care about the secondary characters--a weakness of the film.By the way, for a Russian expatriate, the lady sure has an unusual accent--and it's even less authentic than Peter Lorre's Japanese accent.
'Think Fast' is the first entry in the 20th Century Fox series, and as first impressions go, I'll be anxious to get through the rest of them.Right off the bat, comparisons to the Charlie Chan and Mr. Wong films of the same era offer a host of differences.
The Moto character plainly enjoys getting a lot more physical with his adversaries, and I did a double take when he threw the steward Carson overboard on the cruise ship.
Another consideration, whereas Charlie Chan was almost always assisted by a Number #1, 2 or 3 son, and Mr. Wong had Detective Street, Peter Lorre's Moto appears to work alone, though interacting with other characters in the story.
In this one, Moto befriends the son of the cruise line owner, Bob Hitchings (Thomas Beck).Keep an eye on the scenes that focus on the tattoo convincing Moto the costumed character in San Francisco and the steward Carson are the same person.
However on board the cruise ship, when Carson reaches up to close a vent, the tattoo is on the top side of his arm below the wrist!In this, Mr. Moto's first film adventure, he successfully uncovers a diamond smuggling operation, with hints for the viewer along the way as to who the villains are.
However there was one surprise a la Charlie Chan, when Moto slaps the cuffs on Wilkie (Murray Kinnell) it seems to come out of left field.
Still, it made a lot more sense than a lot of Chan's solutions, which required the detective to explain how he managed to solve the crime.Anyway, I'm on board with Mr. Kentaro Moto, and will be looking forward to the rest of his adventures.
This eight picture movie series gets gets off to a great start with excellent production values, strong supporting cast, fast paced plot and the incomparable Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto.
On the trail of smugglers, Mr. Moto becomes a passenger on an ocean liner going from San Francisco to Shanghai.
Aboard ship, Moto soon meets Bob Hitchings (the personable and handsome Thomas Beck), son of the ship's owner who is also trying to unmask the smugglers.
Young Hitchings has a shipboard romance with the mysterious Gloria Danton (Virginia Field, who I most remember from her many appearances on the Perry Mason show).
This movie's grand finale in the Shanghai International club has some surprises but in the end, Mr. Moto tidies everything up.
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.
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).
Peter Lorre, short and innocent looking, with the hint of something that might be disturbing just below the surface, is excellent.
Think Fast, Mr. Moto is the first of the Moto series.
The movie is so fast- paced that in the first six minutes of this hour-and-three-minute film we will encounter a Chinese New Year's dragon parade in San Francisco, a wondrous jewel, clever bargaining, gunplay, oriental treasures and curios, a man in disguise, a corpse in a basket, most of the main characters...and a letter to Wilkie.