bkoganbing 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.

lugonian THINK FAST, MR. MOTO (20th Century-Fox, 1937), directed by Norman Foster (who also scripted), based on the story by John P. 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). Having earlier taking notice of a disguised man with a tattoo mark on his arm leaving the shop, Moto silently notices a hand from a dead body sticking out from a wicker basket beneath the counter. Moments later a man of authority arrives to arrest the disguised Moto for peddling without a license, but manages to make his escape dodging gunfire. Once entering his apartment and removing his disguise, Moto, on a secret mission to locate narcotics smugglers, telephones to make reservations for a stateroom on the Monte Carlo Pacific steamer bound for Shanghai. 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. Wilkie, stationed in Shanghai. 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. Aside from an assortment of characters involved, including Lela (Lotus Long), a hotel telephone operator, and the bearded Adram (J. 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. MOTO so enjoyable viewing is keeping the audience guessing to which assortment of characters involved are the villains and which ones are undercover agents. Suspense really builds once Moto and Bob reach the International Club where, at the risk of their lives, to discover more than they realize. 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, was strangely the least known and revived of the series, especially in the New York City area. It wasn't until sometime in the mid 1980s did this initial entry, along with its seven other Moto/Lorre mysteries did it become available for viewing on broadcast television and eventually onto DVD a couple of decades later for its rediscovery. Next installment, THANK YOU, 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. (***)

jemmytee 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.

John Wayne Peel I love these Moto flicks. I'll tell you that right out of the gate, and the history of these low budget detective films is almost more interesting then the films themselves. First of all, Peter Lorre was one of the most underrated actors in cinema history. In fact, those who knew him thought he would have been a psychiatrist had he not been an actor, which tells me he studied people and learned a lot about how a little goes a long way in a portrayal. The director reportedly wanted character actor J. Edward Bromberg to play the lead but the studio gave him this Hungarian Jew just out of Hitler's Germany to play the part, which made the director go berserk. He needn't have worried. Forget the fact that Lorre was in such poor health in those days after starving in Europe for most of his adult life and had to have a stuntman do his jiu-jitsu scenes for him. (Harvey Parry was his name. Another underrated genius in cinema history who did stunts for everyone from Douglas Fairbanks Sr. to Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd) Lorre is just terrific and with almost no make-up, he is damned convincing as a Japanese detective. A short side note here. Please pretend that there was never a 1960s Moto movie with Henry Silva. The eight 20th Century Fox Motos are to be treasured. It's only a shame that World War II stopped the series for good.As for J. 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.