5/21/2026

PETER LORRE FINISHING WITH 'MR. MOTO TAKES A VACATION'

Year: 1938 Director: Norman Foster Rating: ***

Director Norman Foster returned to direct the last of eight MR. MOTO movies starring Peter Lorre as a Chinese agent, who usually pretends to be a humble kind of cliche Asian servant type...

That's until showing his true colors as a resilient fighting machine.... initially a human target from various assassins after finding a prized treasure that he brings back to a San Fransisco museum...

Peter Lorre in MR MOTO TAKES A VACATION

A potentially action-packed setup wasting too much time with an annoyingly flamboyant sidekick, leaving little for ingenue Virginia Field (stuck between token handsome white guy John King and Iva Stewart), who was a scene-stealer in the best MOTO feature LAST WARNING...

Yet Norman Foster provides terrific lighting-flashing, heavy-rain-filled streets that would later provide a terrific tense ending for Orson Welles's production JOURNEY INTO FEAR: so MR. MOTO'S VACATION ends with a literally thunderous bang that could have been a tremendous explosion.

Peter Lorre in MR MOTO TAKES A VACATION
Iva Stewart in MR MOTO TAKES A VACATION
Virginia Field with John 'Dusty' King and Iva Stewart in MR MOTO TAKES A VACATION
 John 'Dusty' King and Virginia Field in MR MOTO TAKES A VACATION

Peter Lorre inside the rain in MR MOTO TAKES A VACATION



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