Invisible Avenger

A nice waste of an hour. The acting was passable, though the Shadow's mentor guy was a little creepy. The plot was mostly predictable with a few plausibility issues. (Yeah, we're going to show what we believe to be an execution on television.) Having listened to quite a few episodes of the radio Shadow, my conclusion is the Shadow does best when operating like a Super Hero, as he did with Orson Welles in the lead. When the Shadow operates as a shamus with a special trick, it's a lot cheaper.

This is okay, but if it was a pilot for a TV show, I can see why it didn't make it. Still, for fans of the Shadow, this is a rare opportunity to see an attempt at bringing that mysterious voice to film.

If not a "made-for-TV-movie," this film may have been intended as a pilot film for a TV series that never got made. When I saw it in a theater more than 30 years ago, that was my impression.

The Shadow is of course a grand old multi-media figure. A generation of kids grew up on the Shadow radio show and comic books, millions of other readers bought the pulp magazine or Shadow books, anywhere from the early 1930's to the 1960's. And of course there was the Alec Baldwin film -- also, not a bad effort. But they just couldn't decide whether to play it as a real adventure story or as parody. Like other attempts in the same era (The Phantom, Doc Savage) that's a prescription for failure.

To me, the best screen "Shadow" of all time was the late Victor Jory, but probably that's because I saw the Jory version when I was a little kid and didn't have very tough critical standards.

I'm still hoping for a Shadow movie with a first rate production from a good, solid script. In the meanwhile, watching earlier efforts like "The Invisible Avenger" aka "Bourbon Street Shadows" just gives me the old "glass-half-empty-glass-half-full" sensation.

Dick Lupoff

Twelve years after the last entry in the series, we finally get a Shadow who can appear to be invisible (if that's not an oxymoron), hypnotise and 'cloud men's minds', and laugh in a very creepy way!! This was originally two pilot episodes for a proposed Shadow TV show (not picked up), subsequently edited together and released as a movie by Republic Pictures. The action takes place in and around New Orleans, as the Shadow is asked to help the exiled former President of 'Santa Cruz' (think Cuba) to return to his country, overthrow the dictatorship, and reunite his people. Cue lots of assassination attempts, car chases, and kidnappings.

Richard Derr stars as Lamont Cranston/The Shadow, alongside Mark Daniels as his ever-present mentor, Jogendra. There's no Margo Lane - although Cranston and Jogendra sometimes come off as though she'd be a bit of a third wheel, if you know what I mean. I'm sure it's just my cynical 'modern' eyes. Derr makes a good Shadow, convincing as a likeable playboy, as well as handling the rough stuff. There's no iconic hat/coat, but as I say, we get powers - which also include Cranston and Jogendra being able to communicate telepathically. The invisibility/living shadow effects aren't bad for the time (and low budget). Some of the supporting acting is a little shaky, but the story is pretty good. And if you're into jazz the score isn't bad. 7/10.

This 57 minute film is of some historical interest, especially to collectors of films based on comic book characters. The plot is only mildly interesting and certainly not very original, the acting wooden, the production values low budget. In fact, I began to wonder if this was an early made-for-television effort rather than a film for cinemas.

At any rate, it does not follow the original concept except for Lamont Cranston's ability to "cloud men's minds" so that he seems to disappear. He does not don the familiar broad-brimmed hat and cape (although it is shown on the cover drawing), nor does he consort with Margo Lane, "the only person to know the Shadow's true identity." Instead he is in the constant company of a certain gentleman named Jogendra, who is trying to discipline him in the Oriental art of they are practising.

But all this aside, it is really a lot of fun in its own way because of its defects and a good example of how Hollywood had no respect for its sources. I have sought in the recent and in back copies of Maltin for some mention of this item, but it seems to have been forgotten by all except Video Yesterday--for which I thank them.

Personally I am a radio drama fan who enjoys learning about the old time radio series's and I have come across a little information I would like to share about this movie.

1) The film was made in the attempt to make a series based upon the radio series. The movie was originally intended to be a pilot episode of a "Shadow" television series.

2) Someone made a comment about Margo Lane being needed. However, the creation of the Shadow as a character predates the creation of Margo Lane. The Shadow was originally a mysterious host of the "Street and Smith Dectective Story" program. Soon, however, the creators of the series realized that the mysterious host was more famous than the series. Thus, a series of novels came out identifying the Shadow as having the ability to steal identities of other people. He did not seem to have an identity of his own. Originally, Margo Lane first met him when he was pretending to be Lamont Cranston (originally, she meets the real Lamonte Cranston and mistakes the Shadow for him. Also, the identity of Lamonte Cranston was originally an identity that the Shadow stole).

I have not personally seen the movie "Invisable Avenger". I just wanted to clear some things about the Shadow up.