Mr. Moto's Gamble (1938)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

James Tinling

Writers:

Charles Belden (writer)
Jerome Cady (writer)

Release Date:

7 April 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Drama

Plot:

When the #1 heavyweight contender is mysteriously poisoned during a bout, Moto knows that identifying the gambler who placed large bets against him is the key to solving the murder.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Gambling | Mr Moto | Autopsy | Boxing

Cast

Peter Lorre	...	Kentaro Moto
Keye Luke	...	Lee Chan
Dick Baldwin	...	Bill Steele
Lynn Bari	...	Penny Kendall
Douglas Fowley	...	Nick Crowder
Jayne Regan	...	Linda Benton
Harold Huber	...	Lt. Riggs
Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom	...	Horce 'Knock-Out' Wellington (as Maxie Rosenbloom)
John Hamilton	...	Philip Benton
George E. Stone	...	Jerry Connors
Bernard Nedell	...	Clipper McCoy
Charles Williams	...	Gabby Marden
Ward Bond	...	Biff Moran
Cliff Clark	...	McGuire
Eddie Marr	...	Sammy (as Edward Marr)

Also Known As:

Mr. Moto's Diary (USA) (review title)

Runtime:

72 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #4053) | Finland:K-16

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

A tribute to Warner Oland appears in Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939), the next film in the Moto series. During the movie's production in August 1938, cast and crew learned of Oland's passing in his native Swedan (five months after the completion and release of "Mr. Moto's Gamble"). Over the title "Charlie Chan in Honolulu", on the bill of the Sultana Theatre of Variety, they placed the banner "Last Day".

Quotes:

Lee Chan: Gosh, that's a pretty girl sitting with your friend!
Lieutenant Riggs: That's his daughter Linda. She's got her nose so high in the air, she’d drown in a rainstorm.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938)

Wrong detective, right film

Putting aside the racist implications of Fox's assumption that one yellowface detective is as good as another, plugging Mr. Moto into a Charlie Chan film only points out that Peter Lorre's Moto is both a more adaptable and infinitely more complex character than the stolid Chan. On one hand, it's quite out of character for the quick-witted Moto to go around mouthing lame aphorisms a la Chan, and Moto would never be as discourteous to anyone in his other films as he is to Lee Chan and his punchy sidekick Maxie Rosenbloom in this one. On the other hand, "Mr. Moto's Gamble" features a nice snappy story with more shape and suspense to it than the usual Moto scenario, and it's fun to see Moto interacting with other characters like a regular guy rather than as the enigmatic will-o-the-wisp of the earlier films. Unfortunately, the later Moto films tried to imitate the formula by giving him dopey sidekicks, which only weighed him down.