MR. MOTO TAKES A CHANCE

Director: Norman Foster
Stars: Peter Lorre, Rochelle Hudson, Robert Kent, J. Edward Bromberg, Chick Chandler, George Regas
Year: 1938
Rating: N/R

Peter Lorre remains, to this day, one of the best and most underrated character actors Hollywood has ever had. This film is part of his Mr. Moto series of films made in the 1930s and 1940s, where Lorre played the deceptively soft-spoken Japanese intelligence agent, often posing as an eccentric antiques dealer to infiltrate his setting ... or, in this case, as an archaeologist in the French-ruled village of Tong Moi, in Indochina. We don't know, at first, why Moto is there - or, for that matter, why soon after the film starts, an Amelia Earhart-like aviator named Vicki Mason (Rochelle Hudson) purposefully crashes her plane in the same village, parachuting down and pretending it wasn't planned so she can assimilate, too.

It all involves a plot to overthrow the current raja - a seemingly goofy and inept pudgy ruler named Ali (J. Edward Bromberg, the one actor who seems to be having a good time here) - and a huge weapons smuggling ring. Moto suspects Raja Ali's second-in-command, Bokor (George Regas), and continues to investigate and report - while a pair of bumbling documentary filmmakers stumble into the whole mess to complicate matters, the raja's primary wife is killed by a poison dart, and Moto dons the disguise of a Tibetan monk in order to save lives and solve the case.

Always a HUGE fan of the Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto films (politically incorrect as they are), I found this entry in the Moto series a bit lacking. Oh, the usual elements of any film in the series are there - spies, murder, touches of bumbling humor, and a finale that involves Moto kicking butt when it looks like he couldn't even take on a girl scout - but somehow it just doesn't all mesh together as solidly as other entries in the series. The film is fun, and entertaining - just nothing particular stands out in it. When it does work, it's entirely due to Lorre; the film would be nothing but a silly jungle adventure without him or the Moto character.

Worth a watch for those who like the series and make sure they want to catch them all - or for Lorre fans - but overall, a bit of a letdown. **1/2 - Reel Mediocre-Reel Cool