MR MOTO'S GAMBLE

US, 1938, 60 minutes, Black and white.
Peter Lorre, Keye Luke, Lynn Bari.
Directed by James Tinling.

Mr Moto's Gamble is one of the series of Mr Moto's stories starring Peter Lorre. Originally, this film was intended to be a Charlie Chan film but the star, Warner Oland, died. (However, his number one son appears as a character in this film.) The film is boxing and gambling story, Mr. Moto trains would be detectives - and there is some comedy with a kleptomaniac who want to reform by becoming a detective and Charlie Chan's son. There is also the world of prize fighting, gambling and fixing matches. Nothing particularly startling - would be part of a series or a T.V. series in later decades.

1. Entertaining thriller? Murder mystery? The popularity of Peter Lorre as Mr Moto?

2. Big budget production? The cast? The length?

3. The title, the focus on Mr Moto and audience familiarity with him? The world of boxing and gambling?

4. Peter Lorre as Mr Moto, engaging, his school, the kleptomaniac and his activities (broadening to the solution of the film)? Charlie Chan's son? Martial Arts? His going to the boxing matches, observations, interrogations? His setting a trap for the murderer?

5. The world of boxing, the fighters themselves and their girl friends? The trainers? The promoters? The gambling and fixing?

6. The usual gallery of suspects - those who bet, the trainers, the fighters themselves? The murders?

7. The mystery Mr Howard, the bets, the killings, his death? Mr Moto and his suspicions - setting the trap with the gun, the murderer and the threat to his daughter?

8. The world of sport, girlfriends, rivalries, the world of humour? A satisfactory combination for this kind of 40s thriller?