Mr. Moto Takes a Chance (1938)

Just perfect...

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Peter Lorre stars in "Mr. Moto Takes a Chance," in this 1938 entry into the series. Lorre, of course, as Moto is the main reason for watching this film, but the rest of the cast here is very good: Rochelle Hudson, J. Edward Bromberg, Robert Kent, and Chick Chandler.Working for the government, Moto is on assignment in French Cambodia to defuse two antigovernment plots, one lead by a holy man, Bokor against the local leader, Rajah Ali, and the other plot, led by Rajah Ali, who wants to start war against French rule. Parachuting into all this is Victoria Mason, aviatrix, an Amelia Earhart type but awfully pretty, flirtatious, and glamorous for someone whose plane just caught on fire. There are also two goofy newsreel photographers who keep getting into trouble.Moto plays a double role here, that of Moto and an elderly mystic who looks like he could be over 150. Lorre gives that role just the right touch - he's not fooling the audience and he knows it. Petite Rochelle Hudson is very pretty and vivacious.This film was the second Moto film but held back because it was thought to be not as strong as Thank You, Mr. Moto, to follow the first film. Like another poster, I'm not buying it, so the holdup remains a mystery. It's highly unlikely that Darryl Zanuck wasted five minutes thinking about the Mr. Moto series, except, of course, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Then he thought about the series long enough to pull it.

A curious Oriental/Occidental pulp romance, in which various spies appear in a tiny eastern country not far from Cambodia. One spy is Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre), disguised as a timid archaeologist, and the other is aviatrix Victoria Mason (Rochelle Hudson), who fakes a crash landing in the kingdom. Round this out with two Yank movie guys, one handsome and in charge, the other something of a comic sidekick—he takes one look at Moto and says, "If that guy was in movies, he'd be cast as a murderer." There's also the supposedly dim Raja (J. Edward Bromberg) and an oily, conniving high priest, Bokor (George Regas). High priest of what? The god Siva (pronounced "C-vuh"). Moto discovers a German-supplied arms cache, the Rajah, not so dim after all, intercepts Moto's passenger pigeons and steals a march on Bokor. Moto also assumes a full head-mask and intervenes as a holy man from the top of the world. Bokor wants to throw out the French and all Europeans and keep Asia for the Asians; the Rajah wants to become a real Rajah; they both want the German weapons, but they both die in the explosion, and so the good news, apparently, is that the Germans haven't managed to destabilize the region. As Stephen Crane might say, the natives aren't even nouns, they're only adverbs. Though amusing, this movie is also a bizarre patchwork Orient, with Balinese-costumed dancers, a national religion worshipping Shiva, a Rajah named Ali, soldiers with uniforms like the Chinese around the time of the Boxer Rebellion—no match for the bonhomie and natural prowess of the Yanks and their clever Japanese friend. Another white man playing a clever oriental. Anyway, they all four sail off in a small ship. They're wearing suits and making jokes.

I've only seen the first three Mr. Moto films at this point but this was easily the least of them so far. Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre) poses as an archaeologist in a Cambodian jungle to sabotage the anti-government plans being cooked up by leader Rajah Ali (J. Edward Bromberg). He is helped out by a female spy (Rochelle Hudson) who has "conveniently" crashed her own plane on the island. This one plays very much like an old Republic serial. Detracting much from whatever enjoyment there is here are two silly American newsreel photographers who work their way into the story, providing what I suppose they think is comic relief. ** out of ****

Indeed this movie is a great deal like a Republic serial. For those who like their meat raw, that's a good thing, and fun can be had here. Granted, there is more than enough silliness to go around -- Lorre's disguise as an Asian sage is, to be blunt, not *entirely* successful, but he plays the impersonation tongue in cheek, and the end result is nothing if not amusing.I cannot imagine what is offensive except possibly the dreaded racial stereotypes, which surely are endemic to the whole series. The idea that a B picture would be "held back for a few months" because of a matter of taste doesn't seem likely. Zanuck didn't expect Bs to be any good, and rarely screened them. There's no reason to single this film out as any sillier than many Bs of the period. There's more than enough to enjoy, and the running time is mercifully short. I'd rather watch this than any of the interminable Charlie Chan films.