Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

ctyankee1 This movie was hard to understand. Peter Lorre plays more than one character. There are several crooks who want to steal the Crown of Sheba. Peter Lorre aka Mr Moto is trying to find a criminal that everyone thinks is dead that will try to steal the crown."Mataxsa" is his name I am not sure about the spelling. Mataxsa is like Professor Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes movies a real deviate crook with ways to escape arrest.Too many crooks planning to steal the crown. Hard to see who is who and who works for who.One part I noticed that I do not think they would put in movies today is what a character named Archie Featherstone does. He is sitting at a table with Motto he is a white man with black make-up smeared on his face to look black.He is clumsy and knocks a lot of things over, really stupid actions and the black thing was uncalled for to put in the movie. overdone.A hotel kid wants lessons from Moto to hit a co-worker who picks on him. Moto shows him how to fight and Moto is good at it. There are lots of gun fighting but at the end when Moto has a physical fight with someone in the museum Moto is not as good at fighting as shown earlier and the fight is way too long.The white man with the black makeup might not have bothered me years ago but I found this offensive, I am a white woman that is a stupid description too "white" woman. Also in this story a man gets stabbed in a oriental restaurant. Moto ask the woman if she saw who sat in the booth near him that could have stabbed the oriental man. She said it was a "white man" and nothing else. This to me was stupid too, Moto did not ask what the man looked like, wore, or anything else.One scene I thought was funny was a cab driver played by a black man with big eyes his name is Willie Best. I don't know if he was "African American" I don't like that term because he is a US citizen but of the black race. He has acted in other old movies I have seen like The Shanghai Chest, with Roland Winters as Charlie Chan and he is always very funny.Anyway that's it.

Michael O'Keefe An archaeological project ends up having mild-mannered sleuth Kantaro Moto(Peter Lorre)putting a vacation on hold. Young archaeologist Howard Stevens(John King)becomes notable after unearthing the priceless crown of The Queen of Sheba. Mr. Moto will take on the appearance of a German artifacts expert to help protect the crown as it makes the journey to be displayed at a San Francisco museum. A bumbling tourist named Featherstone(G.P. Huntley)all but blows the detective's charade. An international jewel thief joins forces with a few Frisco hoodlums to steal the much sought after artifact. It doesn't take Mr. Moto long to suspect that someone working with the museum may be an allusive master criminal. This is the last in the somewhat successful 20th Century Fox crime series. It has been said that Lorre was more than glad this role was coming to an end. This film is interesting enough, but Huntley's antics get old quick. Other players include: Virginia Field, Joseph Schildkraut, Iva Stewart, Victor Varconi, Anthony Warde and one of the best villains in the business Lionel Atwell.

bensonmum2 A team of archaeologists uncover a real treasure – the Crown of the Queen of Sheeba. From Egypt, the crown is to be transferred via steamship to San Francisco. But it won't be an easy journey. There are plenty of would-be thieves who would love to get their hands on the priceless jewels contained in the crown. Fortunately for all involved, Mr. Moto is on hand to guard the crown on its journey. However, that doesn't mean someone won't try to get their hands on the treasure.After the disappointment of Mr. Moto's Gamble, I went into Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation hoping for the best, but, admittedly, fearing the worst. But within the first 10 seconds of the film, I knew I would find it more enjoyable. I'm a sucker for a 1930s style mystery that features anything to do with archaeological digs in Egypt. And seeing Moto disguised as a German archaeologist (Imagine that, Peter Lorre playing a German?), the beginning scenes really drew me in. While the movie may have quickly shifted to the less exotic San Francisco, it remained just as enjoyable. Dark, sinister characters lurking in the rainy night; gunshots fired from open windows that narrowly miss the hero's head; sophisticated and supposed foolproof alarm systems just begging for someone to test them; and master criminals believed to be dead – these are the kind of elements found in a lot of the really good 1930s mysteries that I love. And Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation's got 'em all. A couple other bonuses for me included the always enjoyable Lionel Atwill in a nice little role, comic relief from G.P. Huntley that's actually funny, and a return to form for Mr. Moto. I've already mentioned his disguise in the movie's opening scenes, well the athletic Moto comes out near the film's finale. Moto is a like a Whirling Dervish of activity as he goes after his prey. All this and I haven't even mentioned the wonderful performance turned in by Lorre. Any way you look at it, Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation is a winner.As much as I hate that the Mr. Moto series had to end after this installment, it's understandable when you think about it. WWII was just around the corner. And after Pearl Harbor, a movie with a Japanese hero wouldn't have gone over very well. At least the Mr. Moto series ended on a very positive note.

classicsoncall 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.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.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.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.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.