Mr. Moto

And I'm trying to remember the name of the guy who was in all the movies.

It was kind of like Mr. Moto, speaking of Peter Lorre, Mr. Moto being played by a Hungarian Jew.

Gosh,

who's the name? There were a couple different Charlie Chans in the 30s and 40s, but I think the most famous one, Sidney Toler, right? That's the most famous one.

And I have to say, I think this is leagues above most of them because most of them are just so dull.

Even the ones like Boris Karloff as Mr. Wong and Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto and even Basil Rathbone and Sherlock Holmes.

You do get the sense that they just walk into a room, they say stuff.

They walk to another room, they say stuff.

The saint went down to the bar.

The FBI took Mr. Moto back to the clink and Charlie Chan got his tongue caught in a proverb.

Gentlemen, there is only one answer.

We must call on the man.

I had not heard Zed at all until a few years ago, and that's from listening to British audio drama.

So that might have momentarily thrown some in the listening audience, but I think the episode went full steam ahead.

I also did want to address the Mr. Moto reference.

While the internment of Japanese Americans was a horrible thing that was happening in 1944, the Mr. Moto reference really was not about American citizens of Japanese heritage because in the original Mr. Moto novels, Mr. Moto was a Japanese secret agent working for the Empire of Japan.

All right, well now we turn to listener comments and feedback, and have a very good question come in from listener Wes, who emails in and says, "I've been listening to your podcast one title at a time.

Currently, I'm going through all the episodes of Mr. Moto.

In the start of every episodes, they make a very deliberate point of calling him Mr. I.Y. Moto.

Do you know why they felt the need to emphasize these initials this way, especially since the movie Moto had Kentaro as his first name?" Well, thanks so much for the question, Wes.

Um, in answer, uh, Mr. Moto, before it was a movie, uh, was actually, uh, a character in a series of novels by John P. Marquand.

And Marquand actually, uh, designated the character as Mr. I.Y. Moto.

And, uh, it's, uh, somewhat confusing as to why the movies changed the character's first name, but, uh, apparently they were doing that just to be true to the books that came prior to the movies.

So I hope that answers your question.