cult film freak: PETER LORRE ESCAPES NORMAN FOSTER'S 'MYSTERIOUS MR. MOTO'

Title: MYSTERIOUS MR MOTO Year: 1938 Rating: ***

After Norman Foster's lackluster Asian-set MR MOTO TAKES A CHANCE, the b-director springs forward with more action, right off the bat... as Moto and a French prisoner are escaping from Devil's Island...

Sadly, all this happens too fast, during and right after the opening credits... had MYSTERIOUS MR MOTO spent some time on the island before the escape, fleshing-out this fellow convict he'd later follow around to nab all his mobster cronies, it wouldn't feel like walking into a picture ten minutes late...

Henry Wilcoxon and Mary Maguire in MYSTERIOUS MR MOTO

The overly-complicated England-set plot eventually has Moto in disguise, which is his forte... this time as a servant for his escapee partner, protected by chief villain Harold Huber, a nefarious looking character actor that could have held the antagonist mantle all his own (meanwhile Moto's pretty Asian secret agent Lotus Long has more input than ever)...

Instead there are too many heavies and too many good guys, including a pampered British heir with a pretty/spunky girlfriend, and, while sometimes too mazy to know what's what, the final fight sequence above a fancy ballroom... seen through a hole in the ceiling... is a standout: as Foster harbors some of his most creative camera shots throughout.