The Mr. Moto Collection – Volume Two
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B- Films:
Mr. Moto’s Gamble (1938) B-
Mr. Moto’s Last Warning (1939) C+
Mr. Moto In Danger Island (1939) B-
Mr. Moto Takes A Vacation (1939) B-
BONUS: Return Of Mr. Moto (1965) B-
Fox pulls
through with The Mr. Moto Collection –
Volume Two, offering the remaining Peter Lorre Moto films before the
realities of WWII and problems with the material hitting a wall ended thing
prematurely. They have also included the
Henry Silva 1965 Moto revival film The
Return Of Mr. Moto, which was made in England.
Mr. Moto’s Gamble is actually an unfinished Chan
film intended for Warner Oland, but he passed away during production, so we get
this crossover with Keye Luke giving his last performance as Chan’s #1 son in
one of the best films in the series.
When a boxer dies, Moto investigates the oddities of it, only to become
the target of a filthy racket. This is
the third film in the series.
Mr. Moto’s Last Warning has George Sanders and John
Carradine in a fan favorite that I was never wild about as Moto takes on a plot
to launch a world war with explosives, stolen treasures and many of them want
him dead too. It is not that it has
dated poorly, but that I never bought the script.
Mr. Moto In Danger Island goes to Puerto Rico over a plan
to glut the diamond market that has the usual pitfalls and killers. One of the longer Moto films, it is a bit
underrated.
Mr. Moto Takes A Vacation is the final film in the Fox
series includes Lionel Atwill in a story where he insists he is on vacation in
Egypt when the priceless Queen Of Sheba crown becomes the target of a clever
heist. Soon, Moto puts his break on the
backburner to flip the crooks on their back.
Those
last three Lorre’s are films six through eight.
As an extra, Fox has included The
Return Of Mr. Moto in anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 widescreen black and
white and it looks better than any of the Fox/Lorre Moto’s though they still
have that richer black and white form the period.
Silva’s
Moto is taller, has an accent not as thick and the film want to capitalize on
James Bond as Moto goes to London over murder and oil well contracts. I really enjoyed the attempt to combine
mystery and espionage, but despite how good Silva was in the original Manchurian Candidate with martial arts,
his self-defense here is weaker, as are his one disguise, but I liked his
different take just the same. Suzanne Lloyd,
This is
included on the Mr. Moto Takes A
Vacation DVD and is obviously the best bonus in both sets, made all that
much better with a terrific audio commentary by Silva himself. Great stuff!
The 1.33
X 1 image has been restored as much as possible for the Lorre films and the
results are very good. The Dolby Digital
2.0 sound is here in mono and slightly stereo-boosted versions that you will
have to toy with until you figure out which work for you better. Stereo again tends to be a little better, but
these soundtracks are from the 1930s and though Fox did some amazing work to
clean them up, they are not always as clear as one would like them to be. However, they work well enough and the
combination is better than the films have been seen in decades and these newer
films do not sound as brittle overall.
Extras
include restoration comparisons on all four discs and different featurettes on
each, running about 15 – 20 minutes each average. Gamble
has Mr.
Moto Meets Mr. Chan: The Making Of Mr. Moto’s Gamble, Last Warning has Mr. Moto’s Creator: The Late John
P. Marquand about the creator/author’s amazing legacy, Danger Island has Meet Mr. Moto and Vacation has Mr. Moto Is Missing. Like the first Fox/Chan and Moto DVDs, John
Cork and Bruce Scivally created these fine featurettes.
At this
point, every major studio should be digging out their Mystery B-Movie series
and giving them the same treatment. The
material, legacy, literacy and fun are there, like some untapped market no one
seems to notice. A new Sherlock Holmes
feature film is on the way and maybe, we’ll finally get the Mystery genre
revival we deserve.
For more
on Moto and Chan, try these links:
Charlie Chan – Volume One
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4091/Charlie+Chan+-+Volume+One+(Fox)
Charlie Chan – Volume Two
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4751/Charlie+Chan+–+Volume+Two+(20th
Charlie Chanthology
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1242/Charlie+Chanthology+(MGM/Monogram
The Mr. Moto Collection – Volume
One
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4210/The+Mr.+Moto+Collection+–+Volume
- Nicholas Sheffo
