In the 1930s, there were two types of Asians in cinema: the Yellow Menace, most famously personified by Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu, and the inscrutable detective, the best known-- and in some ways most infamous-- being Charlie Chan. While the Chan films are a ton of fun, perhaps the best done of these was 20th Century Fox's Mr. Moto series starring Peter Lorre.
Think Fast, Mr. Moto was the first entry in the series, released in 1937 and based on the novel by John P. Marquand. Our memorable introduction to the character occurs during the film's Chinese New Year. Moto, disguised as a street peddler, tumbles to a murder in a curio shop in San Francisco's Chinatown. He manages to escape an incompetent cop and a would-be assassin.
The next day Bob Hitchings, the obligatory Rich White Playboy character (Thomas Beck), is sent by his father to Shanghai. Senior Hitchings runs a shipping line that is under scrutiny by the government due to smuggling activities. Moto, as it turns out, is also interested in smugglers and the Hitchings line. Moto just happens to be in the stateroom next to Bob and befriends him, though to what end we're not sure. They're eventually joined by Gloria Danton (Virginia Field), the obligatory Mysterious Blonde Woman who seemingly falls in love with Bob but may be working with the villains. Attempted murder, kidnappings, and intrigue follow.
Think Fast, Mr. Moto runs a breezy 66 minutes with no filler such as long, bad comedy routines. If that seems an odd statement, consider that most programmers--even the early Chans--did get bogged down with poor comedy routines from the likes of Smiley Burnette and Stepin Fetchit. What humor there is comes organically, much of it done by Lorre himself. There is a song, but it's short, fairly pleasant, and doesn't stop the film dead in its tracks. Interestingly, the film is more of a spy story than a murder mystery. Indeed, Moto is a proto-James Bond, just minus the sex and gadgets. He's polite like Chan but ruthless and sneaky, tossing one villain to his death over the side of a ship and cheating another at cards.
The Moto series started the same year that the Boris Karloff Mr. Wong series started but Lorre does much better than Karloff. Even if Lorre doesn't look even remotely Japanese, he sells the performance and is a delight to watch. The rest of the cast--which includes J. Carroll Naish as one of those stereotypical ethnic villains he would play from time to time--all do just fine. Norman Foster directs the whole affair with a pace that never lags making for an above average programmer. You could spend 66 minutes watching worse movies.
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