Rhapsodies

This week’s selection is kind of embarrassing since it’s something that is very easy for me as a sheltered male WASP to be oblivious to. The casting of white actors to play characters of various ethnicities has been one of the more shameful legacies in the history of Hollywood. It’s not just that it was taking away working actors who fit the role, it ended perpetrating many of the racist stereotypes going around at the time. So this week I scraped the barrel and tried to find the best of a bad lot and watch what I am assured are the least offensive of films featuring whitewashed Asian Detectives.

The first film on my list, Norman Foster’s Thank You Mr. Moto, features Peter Lorre as the title character. Mr. Moto is a Japanese Detective  based in Peiping (a transliteration of Beijing I hadn’t seen before.) Reading between the lines one can easily assume he’s an imperial agent, though since this film was done before Pearl Harbor the possibility never comes up. He is searching for a group of scrolls when put together eligibly make up a map showing the location of the treasure of Ghengis Khan. But he must be careful, since he is hardly the only one going after the prize. 

The first time I ever heard of Mr. Moto was when I saw a picture of one of the films showing a picture of Peter Lore in his makeup. Even knowing that it was a product of it’s time, it had me shaking my head over what I regarded as a blemish on the career of one of my favorite character actors. The second time I encountered the character was a warner brothers cartoon featuring Porky Pig as Mr. Moto. Since it was a broad parody it had Porky acting exactly as I imagined what the character must be. 

To my surprise, the real Mr. Moto was nothing like that. In fact, I can say without hyperbole it’s probably the most badass role I’ver seen Lorre play. Moto is intelligent, tough and surprisingly ruthless. The rest of the movie isn’t quite enough of a vehicle for him but still a fun ride.

In the next film Lewis Seiler’s Charlie Chan in Paris, Charlie Chan arrives in Paris supposedly for a vacation, but in reality to investigate a case of bank fraud. Getting mixed up in the social scene in the process. In the mean time suspects are dropping like flies.

While Charlie Chan had been played by Asian actors in the past, His creator, Earl Derr Biggers, aparently liked the performance of the Swedish Warner Oland the best. I admit he’s not bad, and to my untrained eyes he nearly pulls his off. In a way, he comes off almost like an Asian Hercule Poirot playing up the stereotype so that people underestimate him. But even if I use that excuse to rationalize it, it still comes off as problematic. Especially since the way a lot of the people who don’t know him “underestimate” him by talking cartoon pidgin at him.  Once one got past all of that the film was mostly uninspired and made no effort to emerge us in the setting, (all the gendarmes had American accents) though I enjoyed the contrast between Chan and his fully assimilated son, Lee played by Keye Luke.