CinemaSerf

Right from the start I thought it was a young Jack Palance in the title role. It took me ages to realise it was Henry Silva who'd picked up the mantle investigating just who was up to no good in the oil-rich Middle East. The Foreign Office and the oil company are both worried that this is all part of a plan to destabilise the oil markets and to see the latter forced into bankruptcy when it's leases expire and are not renewed. "Moto" quickly smells a rat and that sees him start to sport a delicate pencil moustache and impersonate a Japanese industrialist in the hope that he can smoke out the perpetrator before political turbulence in the tiny emirate causes chaos. I'm afraid that though it was worth a go, Silva hasn't the charm or the glint in his eye of Peter Lorre and that really makes this struggle. The concept is formulaic and the supporters - Terence Langdon and Suzanne Lloyd - don't do much to help. Nor does the unlikely casting of Marne Maitland as an embattled Sheikh in charge of his desert kingdom (in Ealing, West London). It does pass the time amiably enough, but there is a question about why resurrect the character if the plan was to put this little creative effort (and cash) into it. Disappointing, sorry.