Mr. Moto’s Last Warning

Moto thwarts a ruthless band of international agents who try to foment an international incident by mining the entrance to the Suez Canal and blaming the British.

• Director: Norman Foster
• Genre:Action / Mystery / Romance / Thriller
• Runtime:71 minutes

Cast

Peter Lorre : Mr. Kentaro Moto
Ricardo Cortez : Fabian the Great
Virginia Field : Connie Porter
John Carradine : Danforth / Richard Burke
George Sanders : Eric Norvel

The British Navy in Port Said is making plans for naval maneuvers with the French fleet. Plans are delayed because the British Secret Service has been warned about possible sabotage.

On a ship docking in Port Said is Madame Delacour (Margaret Irving) the wife of the French naval admiral. Delacour and her daughter Marie (Joan Carroll) are befriended on board by the charming Eric Norvel (George Sanders), the goofy Rollo Venables (Robert Coote), and someone posing as Mr. Moto (Teru Shimada). Norvel reveals his true nature when the ship docks and he lures Mr. Moto to his death. This “fake” Mr. Moto turns out to be a fellow agent of the real Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre) who is posing as a curio dealer Mr. Kuroki.

Norvel takes Delacour and Venables to a variety show which features Fabian the Great (Ricardo Cortez), a ventriloquist. Fabian is the leader of the gang of saboteurs which includes Hakim (John Davidson), Captain Hawkins (Leyland Hodgson), Danforth (John Carradine), and Norvel. Danforth is actually a British Secret Service agent named Burke. Moto listens in on their conversation and is almost captured, but Burke helps him escape. Norvel is given the task of finding out from Delacour when the French fleet is due at Port Said.

Fabian is staying at a bar called “Connie’s Place” run by a British expatriate named Connie Porter (Virginia Fields). Porter had been smuggled out of Britain by Fabian when she was on the run from the police but she doesn’t know Fabian’s true occupation. She thinks he is in a smuggling racket. The bar is across the street from Kuroki’s (Moto’s) curio shop where Venables purchases a scarab ring. Venables is then mugged in the street only to be saved by Moto’s judo skills.

The suspicious Fabian thinks that Kuroki is actually Moto and so enlists Connie to follow him the next day. She sees Moto visit the Port Commandant’s office where he learns about the salvage ship “The Vulcan” which is captained by Hawkins. Read more