Mr. Moto Takes a Chance | |
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Directed by | Norman Foster |
Written by | Lou Breslow John Patrick |
Based on | original story by Willis Cooper Norman Foster characters created by John P. Marquand |
Produced by | Sol M. Wurtzel |
Starring | Peter Lorre Rochelle Hudson Robert Kent J. Edward Bromberg |
Cinematography | Virgil Miller |
Edited by | Nick DeMaggio |
Music by | Samuel Kaylin |
Distributed by | Twentieth Century-Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 63 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Mr. Moto Takes a Chance is the fourth in a series of eight films starring Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto, although it was the second one actually filmed, following Think Fast, Mr. Moto . [2] Its release was delayed until after production of Thank You, Mr. Moto and Mr Moto's Gamble . [3] [4]
The film is based on the character of Mr. Moto created by John P. Marquand, and an original story by Norman Foster and Willis Cooper. [5]
Over the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia flies the airplane of aviatrix Victoria Mason, supposedly circumnavigating the world. Her actual destination is the kingdom of Tong Moi in French Indochina. Already in Tong Moi, Mr. Moto is posing as an archeologist, and newsreel cameramen Marty Weston and Chick Davis are traveling up the river. Once she is overhead, Mason lights a flare and bails out of her smoking plane which crashes nearby. Rescued by Moto, Mason goes into the village with Bokor the head priest of Shiva. As Weston and Davis arrive at the crash site, Moto has discovered the flare that “caused” the accident.
While trying to film Mason and Tong Moi's ruler, the Rajah Ali, Keema, the Rajah's favorite wife mysteriously dies. Bokor claims that the foreigners and their camera caused her death and they are taken away for a trial. Meanwhile, Moto finds the true cause of Keema's death, a poison dart.
At the temple of Shiva, Weston and Davis are pronounced guilty and are about to be thrown into a pit when an elderly guru appears. The guru impresses Bokor with his ability to charm a snake and to not be burned by a flaming poker. Bokor releases the foreigners at the orders of the guru.
The following day Moto offers to pay the cameramen for images of the interior of the temple. They agree, and return to the temple with Mason. The three are confronted by the elderly guru who tosses their camera down the well. Bokor, seeing this, asks the guru to kill the foreigner, Moto. The guru agrees and returns to the temple, there discovering a concealed ammunition cache. After disposing of a guard, the guru disappears into a secret passageway. There he reveals himself to be Mr. Moto, in disguise.
Moto writes a note saying that he discovered the ammunition and that Bokor is the leader of the revolt. He sends the message off by carrier pigeon but the Rajah kills the bird and intercepts the message. Later at a feast held in honor of the visitors, Moto is served the cooked bird on his plate and the Rajah reveals that he got the message.
In his cabin, Moto is marking the secret ammunition cache on a map of the temple when one of Bokor's men comes in to kill him. After killing the intruder, Moto disguises himself as the assassin and sneaks into the night. Bokor begins searching Moto's cabin but is interrupted by Mason, who finds the hidden map.
Bokor and his men follow Mason to the temple and capture her. The guru appears and pretends to hypnotize the captive. Meanwhile, Weston followed Mason to the temple and tries unsuccessfully to rescue her. Bonfire signals are made and Capt. Zimmerman the gun-runner arrives with Davis, who is taken captive as well. Zimmerman has been selling weapons to Bokor so that Bokor can start a revolution and depose the Rajah Ali. Zimmerman is killed by Yao in “payment” for his services.
When Mason reveals Moto's identity, a fight ensues. Yao is killed and Bokor escapes and rounds up Zimmerman's men. The four inside the temple hold off the men with the weapons that were just delivered. Mason reveals that she is a British Secret Service agent and Moto reveals that he is also a spy. Rajah Ali arrives with his army and rounds up Bokor and his men. The Rajah's plan is to use the weapons Bokor purchased to revolt against the French. As the Rajah prepares to have Moto and the two cameramen executed, Mason distracts him so Moto can threaten to blow up the ammunition cache. The Rajah falls into the cache and the four heroes escape down the secret passage as the temple explodes.
All ends well with Mason and Weston beginning a romance and Davis planning on becoming Moto's assistant. Davis faints when Moto tells him that his next assignment is to capture a murderer living on a volcanic island as the guest of headhunters.
The film was the second filmed in the series and was originally shot under the title Look Out, Mr Moto. Think Fast Mr Moto was filmed in February 1937 and released in August. In June 1937 Fox said the first three movies in the series would be Think Fast, Mr Moto, Thank You Mr Moto and Mr Moto's Gamble. [6]
In July 1937 it was announced Lorre and Rochelle Hudson would be in Look Out Mr Moto. [7]
Filming took place on the Fox backlot July and August 1937, while the "A" picture on the lot was In Old Chicago. [8] [9] Lorre's make up took three hours for some scenes. [10]
Rochelle Hudson and Robert Kent had been romantically teamed on other films such as Angel's Holiday . [11]
The film did not come out until June 1938. [12]
This film, along with Think Fast, Mr. Moto , Thank You, Mr. Moto and Mysterious Mr. Moto , was released on DVD in 2006 by 20th Century Fox as part of The Mr. Moto Collection, Volume One.
Peter Lorre was a Slovak and American actor, active first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before moving to Germany, where he worked first on the stage, then in film, in Berlin during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Lorre caused an international sensation in the Weimar Republic–era film M (1931). Directed by Fritz Lang, Lorre portrayed a serial killer who preys on little girls.
Mr. Moto is a fictional Japanese secret agent created by the American author John P. Marquand. He appeared in six novels by Marquand published between 1935 and 1957. Marquand initially created the character for the Saturday Evening Post, which was seeking stories with an Asian hero after the death of Charlie Chan's creator Earl Derr Biggers.
Solomon Max Wurtzel was an American film producer.
Thomas Beck was an American film and stage actor during the mid to late 1930s, who first attracted attention playing juvenile leads in several Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto films.
Norman Foster was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He directed many Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto films as well as projects for Orson Welles and Walt Disney. As an actor he was a leading man in early talkies and also appeared in Welles' final film, The Other Side of the Wind.
Virginia Field was a British-born film actress.
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Rochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.
Mr. Moto's Gamble is the third film in the Mr. Moto series starring Peter Lorre as the title character. It is best remembered for originating as a movie in the Charlie Chan series and being changed to a Mr. Moto entry at the last minute.
It's Love I'm After is a 1937 American screwball comedy film directed by Archie Mayo and starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, and Olivia de Havilland. Based on the story "Gentlemen After Midnight" by Maurice Hanline, with a screenplay by Casey Robinson, the film is about a couple who have postponed their marriage eleven times and who continue to plot and scheme their way to marriage. The film marked the third on-screen pairing of Leslie Howard and Bette Davis, following Of Human Bondage and The Petrified Forest.
Think Fast, Mr. Moto is a 1937 American mystery film directed by Norman Foster and featuring a mysterious Japanese detective named Mr. Moto. It is the first of eight films in the Mr. Moto series, all based on the character Mr. Moto created by John P. Marquand. The film stars Peter Lorre as the title character, Virginia Field, Thomas Beck and Sig Ruman. Mr. Moto works to stop a secret smuggling operation.
Thank You, Mr. Moto is a 1937 American mystery film directed by Norman Foster. It is the second in a series of eight films starring Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto. It was based on the novel of the same name by the detective's creator, John P. Marquand. Mr. Moto battles murderous treasure hunters for priceless ancient scrolls which reveal the location of the long-lost tomb of Genghis Khan.
Virgil Miller was an American cinematographer who was the director of photography for 157 films between 1917 and 1956.
Mysterious Mr. Moto, produced in 1938 by Twentieth Century Fox, is the fifth in a series of eight films starring Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto.
Thank You, Mr. Moto, was originally published in serial form in the Saturday Evening Post from February 8 to March 14, 1936, this novel was first published in book form in 15 May 1936.
Mr. Moto's Last Warning is the sixth in a series of eight films starring Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto.
Lancer Spy is a 1937 American thriller film directed by Gregory Ratoff and starring Dolores Del Rio and George Sanders. Its plot concerns an Englishman who impersonates a German officer and a female German spy who falls in love with him.
Mr Moto Takes A Vacation (1939) is a Norman Foster-directed entry in the Mr. Moto film series, with Lionel Atwill and Joseph Schildkraut and George P. Huntley, Jr, as Archie Featherstone, in supporting roles.
Stopover Tokyo is a 1957 American film noir crime film directed by Richard L. Breen and starring Robert Wagner, Joan Collins, Edmond O'Brien and Ken Scott. Filmed in Japan in CinemaScope, the film is set in Tokyo and follows a US counterintelligence agent working to foil a communist assassination plot.
Dolores Rousse was an American film actress who performed under the name Gloria Roy later in her career.