The last of the Peter Lorre Moto’s, although actually made before Danger Island (and Henry Silva played the character in The Return of Mr Moto). This film ticks a lot of boxes: the plot revolves around jewel theft and ancient archaeological discoveries, Moto has a silly ass friend (a staple of 30s B picture detective movies... indeed the silly ass refers to their London adventure together but it's not a character who was in Mysterious Mr Moto), Lionel Atwill and Virginia Field are in the support cast, there’s a scene where Moto arranges to meet someone in a restaurant and they have a knife in their back.It’s a pretty good entry in the series – some atmospheric use of rain, a satisfactory revelation of the killer (who proves as deft with the make up as Moto). It is a bit city bound, stuck in dull Chicago, with most of the exotic stuff (in the desrt(. However the final segment which takes place all over the one rainy night has a lot of suspense and the fight in the museum – with Moto and his adversary knocking over tombs and what-not – is very effective. Norman Foster was a good director.
There is some novelty in the fact that there are three different groups of antagonists, and this movie introduces a Moriarty type nemesis for Moto. The problem is he wears make up so obvious it's no surprise as to who he is. A particularly dull pair of juveniles too - who cares about the explorer or his girlfriend? In hindsight you can see energy running out of the film so maybe it was a good thing it would up.
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