MR MOTO’S LAST WARNING

US, 1939, 71 minutes, Black and white.
Peter Lorre, Ricardo Cortez, Virginia Field, John Carradine, George Sanders, Robert Coote.
Directed by Norman Foster.

Mr Moto’s Last Warning was the sixth and last of a series of films with Peter Lorre as the Japanese intelligence officer, Mr Moto. The film was one of many in like series with such characters as The Saint, The Falcon, Charlie Chan.

The film is brief, based on the character by John P. Marquand and the screenplay written by Philip Mac Donald. The film was directed by actor, writer-director Norman Foster (Journey Into Fear, Rachel and the Stranger and a great deal of television).

Peter Lorre is very good in the central role. John Carradine is a British Secret Service agent. George Sanders, affecting an accent, is one of the main villains. How the principal villain is Ricardo Cortez who is a ventriloquist but in the pay of a foreign government (presumably Germany) to blow up the French fleet at the entrance to the Suez Canal. Robert Coote appears as a silly ass Englishman writing a book.

The film is set in Port Said, has a number of spy characters and situations who were soon to proliferate in World War Two films.

1.The popularity of this series? The brevity, the espionage stories, Mr  Moto himself?

2.Mr Moto, Japanese, employed by Britain, his contacts with the Foreign Office? His presence in Port Said, his use of doubles (and their deaths), the antique shop? His being at the play, listening in the dressing room, the threats, the bombing, the capture by Fabian the Great, his escape, freeing Venables? The final confrontation? His judo skills? His saving Connie?

3.The studio sets, black and white photography, editing and pace?

4.Connie, with Fabian the Great, Fabian’s performance, the marionette and his life? His signals, the spy, the head? Relying on Connie for cover? His use of her? His rounding up Norville and Hawkins? The discovery of the truth about Danforth, sending him down in the diving bell? His confrontation with Mr Moto? Connie and her hearing the truth, alerting the authorities? Her finally shooting him? Fabian as a credible spy?

5.Danforth, John Carradine, the disguise, the secret agent, his face in the book, Moto’s advice, the contact with Moto, taken by Fabian, killed in the diving bell?

6.Eric Norville, a George Sanders character, suave, but villainous?

7.Rollo Venables, on board, with the Delacours, his wanting to find local colour, his being mugged, his contact with Moto, his telling Norville the truth, his being captured, tied up, Moto rescuing him?

8.The atmosphere of Europe prior to World War Two? The British authorities? Relationships with the French? The French fleet and the exercises? The Nazi threats?