A young and handsome archaeologist discovers the crown of the Queen of Sheba, and returns with it to a San Francisco museum where it is put on display. Its safety is in doubt as many criminals want the crown – an international pair of criminals, a San Francisco gangster and his cohorts, and a super criminal known as Metaxa. Mr. Moto is forced to postpone his vacation while he deals with the threat. Disguised as an Austrian archaeologist, Moto helps unearth the priceless crown of the legendary Queen of Sheba and sans disguise defends it from a variety of thugs and criminals. The fact that this story mostly takes place in Honolulu certainly gives credence to the idea that this film was originally meant by 20th Century Fox to be for the Charlie Chan series. So instead of Honolulu PD's finest going undercover during an archaeological expedition its the soft spoken Japanese private investigator that does.<br/><br/>Peter Lorre is undercover, but that's soon blown on shipboard by G.P. Huntley playing an upper crust British twit who has a knack for turning up in the wrong place at the wrong time, but actually by accident helping Moto. Some priceless artifacts are recovered from the dig and are to be displayed in a museum in Honolulu. And there's a mysterious master crook at large known to be seeking said items for theft.<br/><br/>With such likely suspects as Joseph Schildkraut and Lionel Atwill in the cast you can imagine either of them as the master crook, but there are others whose behavior might make them suspicious. I will say it isn't Huntley although if he had been the brains behind all the villainy that would have been a real interesting twist.<br/><br/>The Moto series came to a close with relations with the Japanese getting downright unfriendly. And certainly Peter Lorre was going on to bigger and better things. Like most of the Charlie Chan movies of the same era, it might help to keep a score card here to keep track of all the players. Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre), true to characterizations in earlier films in the series, relies on his skills as an anthropologist as well as a detective to solve this, his final case. He's on the trail of a psychopathic criminal genius long presumed dead, coaxed out of hiding by the discovery of the crown of the Queen of Sheba on an Arabian dig. Not only does Moto don a disguise in the film, so does his adversary, the evil Metaxas, before the case is put to rest.<br/><br/>The last couple of Moto films paired the Japanese detective with a comic sidekick, this time around it's G.P. Huntley as the Brit, Archibald Featherstone. His gimmick consists of outing Moto's undercover alias a number of times and taking numerous pratfalls. Someone like Reginald Denny might have been more effective in a less physical role, but hey, we take what we get in the Moto films, all of which are to be viewed for entertainment value and Lorre's understated portrayal. I got a kick out of the scene at the Fremont Museum in Professor Hildebrand's office when it's discovered the phone line has been cut. Instead of simply stating that, Moto offers - "Someone deprived this instrument of all utility". Couldn't have said it better myself.<br/><br/>It would have been cool to see Mantan Moreland show up in the Moto series, but instead Willie Best appears in this one as a driver with a few quick lines and a fender bender. He also had a few moments in the Moto adventure on Danger Island. The real surprise for this story is the appearance of one of the better known and respected veterans of the era, Lionel Atwill, usually cast as a villain or mad scientist. The finale almost has you hooked into believing him to be Moto's quarry, but of course that was just a red herring.<br/><br/>I'm still thinking about how Moto solved this case, explaining that the scoundrel Metaxas' footprints on the carpet changed from a walk to a limp when he entered the Professor's office. It sounds good, but how does one detect a limp in a footprint? It might have made more sense to have the cane as part of that set up.<br/><br/>Anyway, not to be too harsh, this film is just as much fun as any in the series, which in retrospect might have been all too brief. The Charlie Chan movies ran to forty two films, not counting a couple for which the prints seem to have been permanently lost. However three different actors portrayed the Oriental detective in most of those flicks, but one would probably agree that the only actor to own the Moto role would rightfully be the wonderful Peter Lorre.
Alodemp replied
371 weeks ago