Tue 14 Mar 2023
An Archived Movie Review: THANK YOU, MR. MOTO (1937).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[7] Comments
THANK YOU, MR. MOTO. 20th Century Fox, 1937. Peter Lorre (Mr. Moto), Thomas Beck, Pauline Frederic, Jayne Regan, Sidney Blackmer, Sig Ruman, John Carradine. Screenplay by Wyllis Cooper and Norman Foster, based on the novel by John P. Marquand. Director: Norman Foster.
A set of seven ancient Chinese scrolls is the key to the location of the treasure hidden in the tomb of Genghis Khan, and several murders are committed to obtain possession of them. Mr. Moto, an adventurer and a man of mystery, is forced to take a hand.
Somehow I’ve never cared for the Mr. Moto films. In terms of stories and production values, I suppose they’re no worse than the Charlie Chan films, but for me, they don’t have the same spark. John Carradine, by the way, must have been born an old man.
March 14th, 2023 at 10:51 pm
Marquand was an intellectual luminary of 1940s Manhattan. A bon vivant.
March 15th, 2023 at 12:19 am
For more (and it’s quite a lot) on Mr Moto, both the books and movies, here’s the Wikipedia link:
,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Moto
And for Mr Marquand, about whom I knew little until just now:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_P._Marquand
Having found the movie on YouTune, I just may give it another chance.
March 15th, 2023 at 8:41 am
I read the first few books eons ago, and dimly recall liking them, but believe it or not, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of the films, except maybe the Moto-purged Stopover Tokyo. I’d sure like to, because Peter Lorre. Looks like only the first two were based (nominally or otherwise) on the books. Maybe there’s one or more posts there in the distant future, after I wind up Nero Wolfe…
March 15th, 2023 at 10:59 am
Marquand was a superb mainstream novelist, comparable to the other Johns, O’Hara and Cheever, in his penetrating understanding of the American upper middle class. As an entry point, I highly recommend Point of No Return (1949), which along with films noir like Pitfall and Act of Violence was an early example of the postwar malaise theme.
March 17th, 2023 at 7:41 pm
Lorre is the primary reason to watch the Moto films which vary greatly from Marquand’s fairly serious novels about a Japanese agent operating in China and the South Pacific, but they also feature outstanding casts like Carradine, Ricardo Cortez, George Sanders, Henry Wilcoxin and others, and the action is a good deal more prevalent than in the more cerebral Chan films.
At least one, DANGER ISLAND is based on a John Vandercook novel.
Unlike the books Moto is an international policeman for a League of Nations like group called the International Police in most of these. In the books he is a Japanese spy, and by the time of LAST LAUGH, an enemy of the US. In most of the books Moto has his own agenda for the Japanese government and befriends and basically saves the American protagonists to his own ends.
In both Moto is most often working undercover at some point in the plot and often in disguise, some fairly elaborate. The pace of the Moto films is much different than the Chan films save for GAMBLE where between the death of Warner Oland and the casting of Sidney Toler Lorre teams with Number One Son for a boxing mystery while he is lecturing on criminology at the school Jimmy Chan is attending.
March 17th, 2023 at 7:42 pm
Aside from his more literary novels Marquand also wrote three non Moto mystery novels of which MING YELLOW is the best known.
July 29th, 2023 at 9:29 pm
[…] take back the remarks I made about the Mr, Moto series. I think I am an intelligent person, but I didn’t understand anything after the first 15 minutes. […]