Stopover Tokyo

US Intelligence Agent Mark Fannon (Robert Wagner) is sent to Tokyo on a routine courier mission but soon uncovers communist George Underwood's (Edmond O'Brien) plot to assassinate the American High Commissioner (Larry Keating).

While there he meets Welsh receptionist Tina Llewellyn (Joan Collins), in whom fellow agent Tony Barrett (Ken Scott) has a romantic interest. This causes animosity between the two.

An attempt is made on Mark's life in a steam room and his local contact, Nobika, is assassinated. Lt. Afumi of the Tokyo police department escorts Tina and Mark to the scene of Nobika's death and shows them a note he found in Nobika's pocket.

Mark and Tina are detained by police. Mark phones Tony in Formosa to inquire about the name of the village in which Nobika lived. Mark goes there and tries to find classified information concealed in magazines. He meets Nobika's daughter, Koko.

{{Div col}}

• Robert Wagner as Mark Fannon
• Joan Collins as Tina Llewellyn
• Edmond O'Brien as George Underwood
• Ken Scott as Tony Barrett
• Larry Keating as High Commissioner
• Sarah Shelby as High Commissioner's wife
• Reiko Oyama as Koko

{{Div col end}}

By 1956, it had been nearly fifteen years since Marquand had written a Moto novel. He received an offer to write one from Stuart Rose, the editor of The Saturday Evening Post, who offered Marquand $5,000 to travel to Japan and an advance of $75,000.[https://books.google.com/books?id=0baBgZ1I2B0C&dq=%22stopover+tokyo%22+marquand&pg=PA28 The Complete Mr. Moto Film Phile: A Casebook] by Howard M. Berlin Wildside Press, 2005 p 27-28, accessed 9 March 2015

He decided to write a new one because "I wanted to see whether or not I was still able to write a mystery, one of the most interesting forms of literary craftsmanship, if not art, that exists."{{Cite news|title=Welcome, Mr. Moto |author=ANTHONY BOUCHER|date=Jan 20, 1957|work=The New York Times|page=232}}

Marquand visited Japan for a month and wrote up the story towards the end of 1956. Mr Moto was not the actual hero of the novel – that role went to secret agent John Rhyce, who is sent to Tokyo to combat a communist plot along with fellow agent Ruth Bogart.{{Cite news|title=John P. Marquand's Mr. Moto Returns in a New Spellbinder|author=Butcher, Fanny.|date=Jan 20, 1957|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=b1}}

The novel was serialized in the Post from 24 November 1956 to 12 January 1957 under the title "Rendezvous in Tokyo". The magazine's editors did not like the story's unhappy ending but Marquand insisted upon it. The novel itself was published in early 1957.{{Cite news|title=Books and Authors: Marquand Thriller|date=Dec 5, 1956|work=New York Times|page=37}} It was a best seller and was, on the whole, well received, with a critic at The New York Times calling it "superlative".{{Cite news|title=IN AND OUT OF BOOKS: Change Goodby Takes Winners|author=HARVEY BREIT|date=Feb 17, 1957|work=The New York Times|page=BR5}}

The novel would later be re-issued under the titles Right You Are, Mr Moto and The Last Case of Mr Moto.[http://www.cpp.edu/~jskoga/moto/ The Mr Moto Page] accessed 9 March 2015

20th Century Fox, which made the original Moto movies starring Peter Lorre, bought the film rights to the story in March 1956, prior to publication.{{Cite news|title=CONTRACT RESUME IS SENT TO ACTORS: Screen Guild Pact Provides Pay Rises for All, Extends Jurisdiction to Canada New Holiday Provision Of Local Origin|author=THOMAS M. PRYOR Special to The|date=Mar 26, 1956|work=New York Times|page=35}} Sam Engel was originally going to produce and William Holden and Jennifer Jones were mentioned as possible stars.{{Cite news|title=Sam Engel Seeks Holden, Jennifer Jones for New Film|author=Hopper, Hedda|date=Apr 13, 1956|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=b8}}

The movie ended up being the first of a proposed series of movies from writers Richard L. Breen and Walter Reisch; Breen was to make his directorial debut and Reisch would produce. Robert Stack was meant to play the lead but refused the role because he did not want to go to Japan.{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Thomas M. Pryor Special To the New York |title=CASTING TROUBLES BESET FOX FILMS; Dailey and Dana Wynter Give up Roles in Wald Pictures-- Robert Stack Suspended (Published 1957) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1957/04/18/archives/casting-troubles-beset-fox-films-dailey-and-dana-wynter-give-up.html |work=The New York Times |date=18 April 1957 }} Stack was suspended by the studio and the role given to Robert Wagner.{{Cite news|title=FRED ZINNEMANN SIGNS MISS KERR: Director Acquires Star for 'Sundowners,' His First Independent Film Effort Wagner Replaces Stack|author=OSCAR GODBOUT|date=Apr 19, 1957|work=The New York Times|page=16}}

Cinematographer Charles G. Clarke made expansive use of location shooting in Kyoto, a sacred Shinto city which was only lightly bombed in World War II and taken off the nuclear bombing target list (from its original top listing) due to the efforts of Henry Stimson, who argued for the preservation of its cultural assets.

Actor Ken Scott was injured in a scene when Edmond O'Brien shot a prop gun at him and a blank cartridge hit his face. There was no serious damage.{{Cite news|title=Ex-Screen Star Alice Lake Jailed on Drunk Charge|date=June 1, 1957|work=Los Angeles Times|page=3}}

Fox was so impressed with ten-year-old star Reiko Oyama, the studio signed her to a long-term contract.{{Cite news|title=Japan Shirley Temple Contracted; Canadian Story Will Star More|author=Schallert, Edwin|date=June 28, 1957|work=Los Angeles Times|page=B9}}

Collins and Wagner promoted the film with a nationwide publicity tour.{{Cite news|title='Stopover Tokyo' Stars Going on Publicity Tours|date=Nov 1, 1957|work=Los Angeles Times|page=B10}} However, it was not particularly successful at the box office.

The Chicago Tribune review praised the location photography but said the film "starts suspensefully, but ends limply."{{Cite news|title=Film Keyed to Beauty of Japan: "STOPOVER: TOKYO"|author=TINEE, MAE.|date=Nov 8, 1957|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=a5}} The Los Angeles Times liked the scenery which it thought "helps overcome somewhat routine plot development" but felt Wagner "goes about his spying work energetically although it is thought that this type of character isn't exactly his cup of tea."{{Cite news|title='Stopover Tokyo' Tale of Intrigue in Orient|author=Scott, John L.|date=Nov 8, 1957|work=Los Angeles Times|page=A7}}

Breen and Resich were later reported as working on another film for Wagner, The Far Alert, about NATO naval flyers.{{Cite news|title=Looking at Hollywood: Film to Co-Star Murphy, Borgnine|author=Hopper, Hedda|date=Sep 30, 1957|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=b14}} However, this film was never made.

A year after the movie came out Marquand told The New York Times that:

Mr Moto was my literary disgrace. I wrote about him to get shoes for the baby. I don't say I didn't have a pleasant time writing about him and he returned in Stopover Tokyo but I don't think I'll ever meet him again. Moto was an entirely different piece of writing from a so-called serious novel. He really became famous when they took him up in the movies. In book form he has never really sold well – never more than 5,000 to 6,000 copies. I can't say why people remember him, except they must remember the serials and pictures.{{Cite news|title=The World of John P. Marquand |author=LEWIS NICHOLS NEWBURYPORT, MASS.|date=Aug 3, 1958|work=The New York Times|page=BR4}}

In 1959, Wagner disparaged the film:

When I started at Fox in 1950 they were making sixty five pictures a year. Now they're lucky if they make thirty. There was a chance to get some training in B pictures. Then TV struck. Everything went big and they started sticking me into Cinemascope spectacles. One day, smiling Joe Juvenile with no talent was doing a role intended for John Wayne. That was in a dog called Stopover Tokyo. I've really had to work to keep up.{{Cite news|title=PRESENTING A HAPPY 'ACT': WAGNER AND WOOD |author=THOMAS McDONALD HOLLYWOOD.|date=June 14, 1959|work=The New York Times|page=X7}}

{{reflist}}

• Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. {{ISBN|978-0-8108-4244-1}}.

• {{IMDb title|id=0051011}}
• {{TCMDb title|91478}}
• {{FadedPage|id=201410C5|name=Stopover: Tokyo}}
• [https://archive.org/details/stopovertoky00marq Complete novel of Stopover Tokyo] at Project Gutenberg

{{Mr. Moto}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stopover Tokyo}}

Category:1957 films

Category:1957 crime films

Category:20th Century Fox films

Category:Cold War spy films

Category:Films set in Tokyo

Category:Japan in non-Japanese culture

Category:Films scored by Paul Sawtell

Category:American crime films

Category:CinemaScope films

Category:1950s English-language films

Category:1950s American films

Category:English-language crime films