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Brissac (Leon Ames), a convicted murderer, flees from Devil's Island
thanks to his Japanese cellmate, whose passage to Europe he pays as a
thank you. Days later, Brissac arrives in London with a diplomat's
passport (forged of course), with his cellmate and saviour in tow as his
servant. In London, he soon conspires with Litmar (Harold Huber) and Brujo
(Frederick Vogeding) to kill Czech steel king Darvak (Henry Wilcoxon),
shouldn't he give up some very special steel formula that can be used for
the manufacture of weapons. Darvak however doesn't take their threats
seriously - which is too bad, too, since they are members of the League
of Assassins, a multinational killer-for-hire organisation that many
perceive little more than a myth, yet everybody fears them. However,
Darvak needn't worry too much, because Brissac's cellmate who has become
his servant is actually Japanese supersleuth Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre). But
why help Brissac escape in the first place, why not report his whereabouts
to Scotland Yard? Because Moto wants to infiltrate the gang to find out
who their leader is. After some investigations and even more to and fro
though, Brissac and company have found out who Mr. Moto is, and try to
lure him into a death trap, but thanks to his agility and his jiu jitsu
skills he manages to escape. Finally, Moto overhears the trap the
baddies want to lure Darvak into, they want to drop a chandelier onto him
during an exhibition. Moto promises Darvak, who has finally realized the
seriousness of his situation, to guard his life at all costs, but then
he's lured away by the baddies to save one of his agents(Lotus Long). But
fortunately, Darvak's best friend, the normally utterly useless David
(Erik Rhodes), has organized two bodyguards from Scotland Yard - too bad
then that they are two of Brissac's men ... At the exhibition, Moto
turns up again, disguised as a German starving artist insulting everyone
in the room - until he lures David under the chandelier meant to fall on
Darvak and sees that it falls on David instead. Then he has all the
baddies rounded up and personally takes care of Brissac. You see, David
really was the mysterious head of the League of Assassins, and Moto found
out because the baddies were informed about each and every of David's
steps a bit too well to not have gotten the information from some of his
intimate friends ... A fast-moving thriller with plenty of
action and an almost plausible plot on one hand, this is on the other hand
also a very routine series mystery in which the identity of the villain is
given away (involuntarily) way too early in the plot (David was portrayed
as just so useless it had to be him), and in which Peter Lorre once again
proves he is not Japanese (though him pretending to be Brissac's heavily
accented servant at least is funny) but he comes across quite convincingly
as starving German artist (and amusingly so, I might add). Oh well,
absolutely not a must-see, but I guess there are way worse films to waste
an hour and a bit on.
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