Mysterious Mr. Moto

A daring escape is made from the French penal colony on Devil’s Island: one of the escapers is Mr. Moto in the guise of a Japanese murderer, the other is Paul Brissac, who belongs to a league of assassins. On reaching London, Brissac changes his name to Romero and Moto stays on as his houseboy, in order to find the man at the head of the league. The reckoning comes in an art gallery. Norman Foster directed; this is the fifth in the run of eight films built on John P. Marquand’s character, written by Philip MacDonald and Foster, and originally titled Mysterious Mr. Moto of Devil’s Island. Peter Lorre plays Moto here too, which is to say the Japanese detective was never once given to a Japanese actor across the series. The record’s summary is a single sentence and says nothing of how the film is built.