Mr. Moto und der China-Schatz

This is the second Mr. Moto film and I enjoyed the hell out of it! I've only got two movies of this series under my belt at the time of this writing but I liked this entry even more than the first one, which was called THINK FAST, MR. MOTO. I was struck by how much the Moto character and the formula of this film in particular reminded me of James Bond; I could almost see Sean Connery somewhere in here, if he had taken on 007 twenty-five years sooner!

Peter Lorre again plays the very eccentric Mr. Moto, and this time he's trying to find the tomb of Genghis Khan, which can only be located by securing seven ancient scrolls with intricate artwork drawn on them that may provide the desired information. There is a treasure housed in the burial place, and so Moto is not the only seeker interested in obtaining each of these valued art scrolls. Lorre is very good in this part, and he displays a varying array of moods as Mr. Moto. This chapter benefits from a generous amount of wham-bam action and also some necessary violence which seems daring for the times in which the production was made. It's also a real treat to see Sig Rumann here again as the heavy, as well as a change of pace stint by John Carradine as a foreign antiques dealer. Good stuff. Thank You indeed, Mr. Moto. *** out of ****