The Our detective this week sprang up in Charlie Chan's wake at a time when

publishers were eager to find a replacement for the beloved Honolulu

policeman but Mr. I.A. Modo was not simply a Chan rip-off. He represented a different

spin on the character of the Asian sleuth, and he enjoyed his own successes in print, in movies, and on radio.

Mr. Moto first appeared in the late 1930s in stories serialized by the Saturday evening post and written by John P. Marquand.

The motto of the novels was a Japanese secret agent, but he wasn't the protagonist of the stories.

Usually they focused on a Western or abroad

who ran into Mr. Moto and became entangled in whatever mystery he was investigating.

Moto was described by Mark Wanda as a small man, delicate, almost fragile,

and the author claimed to have based the character

on a detective who shadowed him during a trip to Japan.

Marquand had been sent abroad by the Saturday evening post to get color for his stories,

and he found inspiration in the short polite policemen who spent the entirety of the trip following the author.

Markwand would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1938 for his satirical writing and the motto stories were among his earliest successes.

The character came to the big screen in 1937 in Think Fast, Mr. Moto, produced by 20th Century Fox.

Originally intended as a single film, Fox launched a Mr. Moto series after the movie scored at the box office.

Peter Lorry was tapped to stars Mr. Moto

and the role represented a shift from his history of playing sinister foreign

characters. The movies were only loosely based on the novels.

In the films, Mr. Moto became an Interpol detective and his judo prowess was played

up after being only casually mentioned in the books.

Lori's motto was also a master of disguise,

...