Think Fast, Mr. Moto was the first of eight 20th Century-Fox films based on the wily Japanese sleuth created from the stories of novelist John P. Marquand. Kentaro Moto (Peter Lorre), a master of disguise, proficient in judo and excellent with firearms, pretends to be a street peddler in order to follow the trail of a gang of international smugglers. The adventure takes Mr. Moto and the son of a legitimate gem dealer (Thomas Beck) from San Francisco’s Chinatown to Shanghai. No such voyage would be complete without intrigue, which arrives in the form of pre-noir femme fatale Gloria Danton (Virginia Field). Despite rising anti-Japanese sentiment in the U.S. during the years before Pearl Harbor, Lorre’s unique characterization is both sympathetic and heroic.

The success of the first Mr. Moto installment prompted Fox to authorize a larger budget for Thank You, Mr. Moto. This time Mr. Moto, hired by Madame Chung (Pauline Frederick), competes with a gang of ruthless thugs to recover the pieces of an ancient scroll that indicates the whereabouts of the treasure of Genghis Khan. In the course of this quest, Mr. Moto must protect both Madame Chung and the sacred scrolls from his rivals. Lorre’s scenes with Prince Chung (played by Philip Ahn) are some of his best. Although fueled by the success of the Charlie Chan films of the 1930s, the Moto series avoids many of the stereotypical pitfalls of its predecessor thanks to Lorre’s subtle and fascinating performances.