Mr. Moto’s Last Warning / Norman Foster (1939). It is 1939 and world-wide tensions are ramping up. Spies who would like to split up the England and France alliance plan to bomb the French navel fleet at the mouth of the Suez Canal and blame it on the Brits. Who can break up this dastardly cabal? Why, the ace operative of the International Police, Kentaro Moto (Peter Lorre), of course. We quickly learn that the leader of the spies is Fabian (Ricardo Cortez), posing as a third-rate ventriloquist at a vaudeville theater. His major henchman is Norval (George Sanders, sporting an on-and-off French accent and a pencil-thin mustache). Actually, for a 70-minute programmer, this little thriller is not too bad and neither is the series as a whole. Having the great Peter Lorre as the Japanese counter-spy is a big help, even though the actor later said he only did them for the money and the acting credits. Also with Virginia Field. Robert Coote is the Not Very Comic relief.
Outside the movie, in Reality, tensions were heating up in the United States as well and anti-Japanese sentiment was growing. “Last Warning” was one of three Moto pictures released that year, ending the series run at 8 movies. Lorre was Hungarian-born and 35 years later, Hollywood hadn’t yet learned its lesson as a 9th Moto movie came out with American-born (with Sicilian and Spanish heritage) actor Henry Silva. This was also the general time period of Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu.
Submarine Alert / Frank McDonald (1943). Nazi spies in the U.S. steal a new invention, a prototype of a powerful shortwave transmitter that allows them to send oil tanker shipping information to an offshore Japanese submarine. As part of a somewhat cruel FBI plan, Lou Deerhold (Richard Arlen), along with other top engineers, are fired from their jobs without a reason. They are then shadowed to see if any are approached by the Nazis. He and new girlfriend Ann Patterson (Wendy Barre) find themselves in a heap of trouble, caught between Federal agents and enemy spies. Not much here that hasn’t been seen before but Arlen and Barre are solid and it has Nils Asther as the smiling, unflappable but evil head Bad Guy.
Richard Arlen’s career began in the late silents film era. His breakthrough was as second male lead (to Buddy Rogers) in the world’s first Best Picture Oscar winner, “Wings” (1927). When sound came around, he was seen on the big screen (mostly in low-budget action) and later on television until 1976, also the year of his death. Wendy Barre was featured in “Five Came Back” & was the love interest in 1939’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” “Submarine Alert” had a delayed release of one year after completion.
Schizopolis / Steven Soderbergh (1996). “Nose army”. Usually, comedies that are surreal have a lot of yelling, screaming, and frantic activity, e.g. Buckaroo Bonzi, and, to an extent The Grand Budapest Hotel. This is, for me, annoying rather than amusing. However, Soderbergh’s early effort (it looks like it might have been a student film) is quiet and the strangeness and silliness is mostly verbal, which I like very much. The creative use of language in humor is one of the reasons I love Monty Python. One character who works for a pest-control company (“chemically proven”) talks to the women in his life in a nonsense lingo. All I could translate from it is that ”nose army” means Hello and “smell sign” is Goodbye. Soderbergh himself plays the main character, Fletcher Munson, who is a drone at the company of a Scientology-like philosophy called Eventualism. What plot there is involves his character. He comes home after work. The dialog with his wife goes, Fletcher: “Generic greeting!” Mrs. Munson: “Generic greeting returned!” Fletcher: “Imminent sustenance.” Mrs. Munson: “Overly dramatic statement regarding upcoming meal.” Fletcher: “Oooh! False reaction indicating hunger and excitement!” Later, this scene is repeated but with Japanese dubbed over the dialog. This is an amazing and very funny film that constantly surprises.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
“A Matter Of Time” Season 5, Episode 9 (November 16, 1991)
“New Ground” Season 5, Episode 10 (January 4, 1992)
“Hero Worship” Season 5, Episode 11 (January 25, 1992)
“Violations” Season 5, Episode 12 (February 4, 1992)
Star Trek: Voyager
“Deadlock” Season 2, Episode 21 (March 18, 1996)
“Innocence” Season 2, Episode 22 (April 8, 1996)
“The Thaw” Season 2, Episode 23 (April 29, 1996)
“Tuvix” Season 2, Episode 24 (May 6, 1996)
“Resolutions” Season 2, Episode 25 (May 13, 1996)
“Basics, Part 1” Season 2, episode 26, (May 20, 1996)
-----------------Season 2 Completed
Star Trek: Enterprise
“Fusion” Season 1, Episode 17 (February 27, 2002)
“Rogue Planet” Season 1, Episode 18 (March 20, 2002)
“Acquisition” Season 1, Episode 19 (March 27, 2002)
“Oasis” Season 1, Episode 20 (April 3, 2002)
Badehotellet (Seaside Hotel) Danish dramady about the annual visits of a Grand Hotel-style cast of rich people who show up for the summer.
“Welcome Home” Season 6, Episode 1 (January 28, 2019)
“A Happy Childhood” Season 6, Episode 2 (February 4, 2019)
“The Stranger” Season 6, Episode 3 (February 11, 2019)
Secrets Of The Dead
“Abandoning The Titanic” Season 18, Episode 5 (November 4, 2020)
Poirot
“The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim” Season 2, Episode 5 (February 4. 1990)
Father Brown
“The Royal Visit” Season 10, Episode 6 (February 10, 2023)
“The Show Must Go On” Season 10, Episode 7 ( February 17, 2023)
