At the outset, I must point out that it's very tough to accept the German-born Peter Lorre as a Japanese detective. His bulging eyes and Western features make him look even less Asian than Sidney Toler and Warner Oland (who both played Charlie Chan). Plus, it's not hard to see that in ALL the fight scenes, Moto is NOT being played by Lorre but by a stuntman. Given that you can look past all this, MR. MOTO'S LAST WARNING isn't a bad B-movie detective film--nor is it exactly memorable either.
Mr. Moto is inexplicably investigating a plot to blow up French and English ships around the Suez Canal. This is inexplicable because back in 1939, the Japanese could have probably cared less about this AND because the country behind this plot (which, is NEVER mentioned in this film) must be Germany--and a Japanese detective is a very, very unlikely candidate to unearth this Nazi plot. Heck, I would have probably expected Moto to be the man behind this conspiracy! Despite these shortcomings, the film is pretty good. Ricardo Cortez was an excellent actor and was effective as the bad guy and the rest of the supporting actors, EXCEPT for George Sanders, were very good. Oddly, in Sanders' case, they had him playing someone with a heavy accent (I think it was supposed to be French, but at times it was tough to tell). Also, John Carradine played an English guy. He wasn't bad in the role, but I couldn't see why they didn't just give the English agent role to Sanders and let Carradine take a stab at Sanders' role. I think the highlight of the film for me was the diving bubble section, where Carradine is lowered onto the ocean floor by the bad guys. What a creepy scene.
So overall, the film had a decent number of flaws and was definitely far from being one of the better B-movie detective films. There are simply better series out there that are better--such as The Saint, Sherlock Holmes or Charlie Chan. A watchable time-passer and that's about all.
Mr. Moto is inexplicably investigating a plot to blow up French and English ships around the Suez Canal. This is inexplicable because back in 1939, the Japanese could have probably cared less about this AND because the country behind this plot (which, is NEVER mentioned in this film) must be Germany--and a Japanese detective is a very, very unlikely candidate to unearth this Nazi plot. Heck, I would have probably expected Moto to be the man behind this conspiracy! Despite these shortcomings, the film is pretty good. Ricardo Cortez was an excellent actor and was effective as the bad guy and the rest of the supporting actors, EXCEPT for George Sanders, were very good. Oddly, in Sanders' case, they had him playing someone with a heavy accent (I think it was supposed to be French, but at times it was tough to tell). Also, John Carradine played an English guy. He wasn't bad in the role, but I couldn't see why they didn't just give the English agent role to Sanders and let Carradine take a stab at Sanders' role. I think the highlight of the film for me was the diving bubble section, where Carradine is lowered onto the ocean floor by the bad guys. What a creepy scene.
So overall, the film had a decent number of flaws and was definitely far from being one of the better B-movie detective films. There are simply better series out there that are better--such as The Saint, Sherlock Holmes or Charlie Chan. A watchable time-passer and that's about all.