A nifty classic movie poster

I don't know which artist created this poster, but whoever it was certainly had solid composition and design skills. I don't think it's possible to look at the poster and then not want to see the movie.

Mr. Moto's Gamble was the odd-man-out entry in the Mr. Moto series. Originally meant to be a Charlie Chan movie (Charlie Chan at the Ringside), it was quickly re-written for the Mr. Moto character when the actor playing Chan died. Hence, it's more of a straight murder mystery than the other Moto films--with less overt gun- or knife-play and without any elements of international espionage.

It's still a lot of fun, though. It represents our last chance to see Keye Luke as Chan's enthusiastic Number One son, the other supporting characters are interesting, Peter Lorre is typically excellent as Moto, and the overall plot is a good one.

Today's post, though, is mostly just to show off an excellent example of the art of movie poster design. I'm not sure that modern poster design--though often quite good--has the same amount of personality to it as those from the 1930s & 1940s do. The poster for Mr. Moto's Gamble, aside from accomplishing its given task of making you want to see the movie, is just plain fun to look at.