Mr. Moto gets a boxed set

[Blackjack]

I have NEVER seen a Mr. Moto film although I've heard they're pretty darn good! I also heard they really did a nice job on cleaning all of these up, so does anyone have these??

 

[Stanley Doble]

I have a couple of Mr Moto films that came on DVDs 10 or 15 years ago. They are a typical 30s mystery/adventure yarn like the Sherlock Holmes or Charlie Chan films but without the humor.

The quality was bad and they wouldn't play without freezing or skipping, hope the new ones are better.

 

[jamespowers]

Holy Crimony! My boys will be thrilled! I'll have to get the set. I have a few now but the whole set would be great!

 

[Stanley Doble]

If you want a sample before you buy the set there are a few Mr Moto movies on Youtube.

 

[jamespowers]

If you want a sample before you buy the set there are a few Mr Moto movies on Youtube.

Been there done that.

 

[MikeKardec]

I'll have to check these out.

I loved the original novels though I assume these are very different. Mr. Moto, was always a secondary character in the novels. I've always wondered what Japanese people thought of the books. Before the war many Japanese in politics seemed very bent out of shape by the racism they felt from Europeans and Americans (not inappropriately, though I doubt they free of the problem themselves!) ... but, if I remember correctly the John Marquand books are nicely respectful of Japan and, of course, the intelligence and sophistication of Moto himself even though he is always presented with his own (Imperial Japanese) agenda.

I hope I have all that right. Certainly, I'd like to believe the books were respectful. Japanese behavior during the war was pretty horrifying but they are one of the most amazing nations on earth. I had a cousin (old enough to be my mother or grandmother) who lived in Omaha who married a Japanese man in the mid 1940s. I never got the chance to talk to them much about it but I assume that truly took some guts!

 

[jamespowers]

I'll have to check these out.

I loved the original novels though I assume these are very different. Mr. Moto, was always a secondary character in the novels. I've always wondered what Japanese people thought of the books. Before the war many Japanese in politics seemed very bent out of shape by the racism they felt from Europeans and Americans (not inappropriately, though I doubt they free of the problem themselves!) ... but, if I remember correctly the John Marquand books are nicely respectful of Japan and, of course, the intelligence and sophistication of Moto himself even though he is always presented with his own (Imperial Japanese) agenda.

I hope I have all that right. Certainly, I'd like to believe the books were respectful. Japanese behavior during the war was pretty horrifying but they are one of the most amazing nations on earth. I had a cousin (old enough to be my mother or grandmother) who lived in Omaha who married a Japanese man in the mid 1940s. I never got the chance to talk to them much about it but I assume that truly took some guts!

I know Keye Luke ----who played one of Charlie Chan's sons in the movies, said that Charlie Chan was like an Asian super hero to him and other asians at the time. I would imagine that a few people though the same thing about Mr. Moto as he was a superior intellect that always got the upper hand. There was also Mr. Wong played by Boris Karloff.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Everybody hates the way they are depicted in the movies. If you make a villain a doctor, you will get hundreds of letters from doctors complaining that doctors are not mean. Which is irrelevant to the movie, but there it is.

W.C. Fields went so far as to make the villain in one of his comedies a Lapland reindeer milker, figuring there couldn't be any English speaking Lapland reindeer milkers in America.

I don't know if he got any complaints from reindeer milkers or not.

 

[AdeeC]

I have NEVER seen a Mr. Moto film although I've heard they're pretty darn good! I also heard they really did a nice job on cleaning all of these up, so does anyone have these??
View attachment 19608

Hi, I have both Mr Moto box sets covering every title. The quality is really good and can thoroughly recommend them. Mr Moto unlike the gentle thinking Charlie Chan has a taste for violence and likes to beat up adversaries with his judo moves and then make a quip similar to how James Bond does after he dispatches a villian. IMO he was an unlikely prototype for the future James Bond and also martial arts films. If you like 1930's B action films you will love them.
Here is a review of the Moto films
http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/mrmotocol1.php

 

[MikeKardec]

I can't recommend the Moto books highly enough. With the occasional exception of overusing the "foppish and innocent young hero" trope so popular at the time they are very good. A little eerie, in fact, when you realize what happened not too long after they were published. There is definitely a sense of a cold war between the US and Japan going on in the Pacific but that it would all be okay because both sides were just too well mannered to ever do anything so overt as have a war. Of course that's exactly what WAS happening for years and it was obvious enough that Marquand and a number of others were writing fiction about it.

Marquand's books might even be considered a subtle warning of things to come, Moto is this odd little man from an odd little island, seemingly a caricature of an Asian who "knows his place" in a world run by Europeans ... but watch out! He's fierce and he's fast and he's always three steps ahead and working a mysterious agenda that will only benefit his beloved Japan.

It does not do to under rate Marquand either, Moto was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post (tough editors and high pay) and the author later won a Pulitzer.

 

[Feraud]

Good news on the box set. I will add it to my Amazon wish list.