Better Late Then Never

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

A story of espionage set in Port Said, with Kentaro Moto, who has a careless enjoyment of the job, which means he is resourceful in a fantasy, comic book world, where being a spy is mainly fun and mostly harmless, quietly enjoying his renown and skills, with an occasionally eerie playfulness, and the story is mildly suspenseful, more a task to be done while playing, which results in a certain blandness, and Moto is meant as a fairy tale character (more like Fu Manchu, than like Chan or Wong), the thing has charm, ease, fun and lightness; Lorre and Carradine show their class from the 1st moment they are on screen, Carradine is a British agent, and he brings another kind of acting, though Lorre's likely insouciant but shrewd character does have weird undertones.The action of such movies is not frustratingly forgettable, but enjoyably so.

I really enjoyed this one. I wish an actual Japanese person had been used as an actor, but you know how it was back then.The plot was interesting enough. The scenes were all pretty good. I was mostly engaged with the movie and did not get bored.I like this kind of lighter detective/spy movie, not too serious but reasonably believable ( in the Hollywood sends of believable which means, I can suspend my disbelief without much effort.)Dialog was average, acting was average but somehow the whole thing worked as entertainment. This was in my box set of 50 mysteries, all apparently in the public domain, and a cheap set but audio/video was sufficient to watch it without getting annoyed.I would have maybe liked to see more of the Mr Moto character - disguise master, judo master, and overall very resourceful and clever. I love characters like that

With a little bit of a bow to Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, Mr. Moto's Last Warning has Peter Lorre going undercover at Port Said to help prevent disaster at the Suez Canal. As a member of the International Police (Interpol) Lorre goes in disguise as a harmless Japanese antique dealer to prevent skulduggery by Ricardo Cortez, George Sanders and assorted henchmen.Cortez plays a music hall entertainer, a ventriloquist to be precise in the pay of a mysterious foreign power. The idea is to set off some undersea mines they've planted just as the French Fleet is going through the canal and get a nice incident going between Great Britain and France. After all as we learn in the film as long as the British and French stay friendly there can be no war. It's good to remember that the Japanese while at war in China had not yet made an alliance with Germany and Italy. So in 1939 a film could still be made about a Japanese operative saving the British and French alliance.Cortez is a very clever villain and Lorre gives himself away when he goes to the aid of Robert Coote playing a silly English agent who gets mugged. No mild little antique dealer could know judo like that as Cortez correctly surmises.Of course Lorre saves the day, but it's a close run thing. Mr. Moto's Last Warning is a nicely paced, action packed film and actually correct for its time.

The Mr. Moto films went out of circulation immediately after Pearl Harbor. As we can see in this film, they reflected a hope that circulated in John P. Marquand's England (and had some currency in the US) that a reasonably 'civilized' (in the European sense) Japan could be negotiated with over China and then used for political leverage against Russia and Germany. This film was released in early 1939; by September of that year, Germany was in Poland, and England and France were allied against it, so the basic premise of the film was made worthless. Shortly after, the Japanese kicked the British out of China, so the basic hope underlying the film became worthless. The film is thus best approached as a kind of fantasy.It is, specifically, a spy thriller, not a mystery at all; it's more closely related to the James Bond films (which are also largely fantasies) than to the Charlie Chan style 'oriental detective' movies of its own day.This is the only widely - and cheaply - available Moto film. I've only seen one other Mr. Moto film, a long time ago, and I don't remember it well. It was a fairly faithful adaptation from the original Marquand material, and seemed very complicated, much as the Marquand novels can be. This film, to the contrary, is an original story. It is streamlined and linear in plotting. It appears to have been made rather quickly on not a lot of money, but the film-making is strictly professional. The pacing avoids a lot of lags, and there are moments of real suspense and real surprise.Thus we have a well-made, enjoyable genre film here; but the main delight of the film is undoubtedly the performance of Peter Lorre. Lorre achieved some respect in Germany and England before coming to Hollywood - where, alas, he was not treated well, as the type for which he was usually cast - 'suspicious foreigner' - was very narrow. Mr. Moto here allows Lorre a star-turn, a hero's part, and surprisingly considerable latitude in interpretation. He is obviously having a grand time here, and delivers a wonderful performance.Overall, an excellent B-movie, very entertaining if taken on its own terms.