cult film freak: PETER LORRE & ROCHELLE HUDSON IN 'MR. MOTO TAKES A CHANCE'

Rochelle Hudson in MR. MOTO TAKES A CHANCE Year: 1938 Rating: **1/2

A hybrid of Bette Davis and Fay Wray, gorgeous little b-starlet Rochelle Hudson, who crash-lands her cross-country plane into the jungle location near Siam, is the best thing going in the fourth overall MR. MOTO film, TAKES A CHANCE, which is the third directed by Norman Foster...

Back in an enigmatic locale after MR. MOTO'S GAMBLE takes on American boxing, Peter Lorre's titular character returns to disguise (as an ancient monk), secretly helping two token white guys...

Peter Lorre in MR. MOTO TAKES A CHANCE

Both are there for comic relief, filming wildlife b-roll: yet neither is a worthy match for Hudson, who has a few investigatory 11th hour scenes with Lorre (they'd team again for THE ISLAND OF DOOMED MEN)...

That's once they leave the one-note jungle exterior and get trapped in an underground fortress, that would be common years later for INDIANA JONES... but it takes too long to replace the filler leading up: in what's the weakest MOTO entry yet, but with the most involving and beautiful ingenue.