Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937)
*** (out of 4)
Second film in the series has Peter Lorre returning as Mr. Moto. This time out Moto must battle bad guys who will stop at nothing to get the seven pieces of a map that when put together shows an endless treasure of Genghis Khan. This second film is certainly a major step up from the previous film, which in itself was good. This one here takes everything that worked in the first movie and just builds more fire around it and then pours some gas on it for a real explosion of entertainment. The movie runs an extremely fast 67-minutes and there's really nothing dull throughout the film. The story itself is a very interesting and entertaining one as pieces together a treasure map always makes for many enjoyable situations. Lorre really nails his character down perfectly with some great vocabulary and some even better fighting scenes. Even though there weren't as many fights this time around I can't help but get a huge smile when Lorre goes into action. It's also very refreshing to see Moto kill, which is something other stars of this genre wouldn't do in a million years. Moto will even take it a step further and rub the killings in. The supporting cast of Thomas Beck, Pauline Frederick and Sidney Blackmer are all great as well. John Carradine nearly steals the film in his role as a Chinese art dealer. I'm going through the series one by one so I'm not sure if any of them will eventually top this one but fans of the genre will certainly get a kick out of this one.
*** (out of 4)
Second film in the series has Peter Lorre returning as Mr. Moto. This time out Moto must battle bad guys who will stop at nothing to get the seven pieces of a map that when put together shows an endless treasure of Genghis Khan. This second film is certainly a major step up from the previous film, which in itself was good. This one here takes everything that worked in the first movie and just builds more fire around it and then pours some gas on it for a real explosion of entertainment. The movie runs an extremely fast 67-minutes and there's really nothing dull throughout the film. The story itself is a very interesting and entertaining one as pieces together a treasure map always makes for many enjoyable situations. Lorre really nails his character down perfectly with some great vocabulary and some even better fighting scenes. Even though there weren't as many fights this time around I can't help but get a huge smile when Lorre goes into action. It's also very refreshing to see Moto kill, which is something other stars of this genre wouldn't do in a million years. Moto will even take it a step further and rub the killings in. The supporting cast of Thomas Beck, Pauline Frederick and Sidney Blackmer are all great as well. John Carradine nearly steals the film in his role as a Chinese art dealer. I'm going through the series one by one so I'm not sure if any of them will eventually top this one but fans of the genre will certainly get a kick out of this one.