The Whispering Shadow

Bela stars in his first serial. Bela's acting is great, and the serial itself is not bad, considering it was filmed in 18 days (6 days a week for 3 weeks). The exciting titles of the 12 chapters are: 1) The Master Magician 2) The Collapsing Room 3) The All-Seeing Eye 4) The Shadow Strikes 5) Wanted for Murder 6) The Man Who Was Czar 7) The Double Room 8) The Red Circle 9) The Fatal Secret 10) The Death Warrant 11) The Trap 12) King of the World. It is interesting to note that the name of Bela's character was Adam Strang, and the main ingredient of the story was a radio death ray. Perhaps this was fodder for the science fiction writer Gardner Fox when he wrote those "Mystery in Space" comics in the 1960s, with Adam Strange and the Zeta beam! A serial that fans of Bela will find entertaining.

In THE WHISPERING SHADOW, Bela Lugosi is Professor Strang, a magician and owner-operator of Strang's Wax Works And House Of Mystery. The question is: Is Strang also the notorious figure of the title? Lugosi is quite enjoyable in his role.

Someone has stolen the priceless jewels of the Czar, and everyone's looking for them. Jack Foster (Malcolm McGregor) witnessed his brother being murdered by The Shadow and his thugs, and wants revenge.

Keep your eyes glued to those jewels! They jump from person to person, box to box, like a crazy shell game! Almost everyone involved is in possession of them at least once!

At nearly 4 hours in length, this movie version of the original serial is quite a chore at times. Still, there are enough shootouts, explosions, truck hijackings, and fisticuffs to hold our interest...

I enjoyed this old serial, the older they are usually the better they are. Its always fun watching Bela do his thing. I felt like this afternoon epic had a bit more plot than most and the action is there like you expect. There are some annoying bits like the overuse of flashbacks in the later episodes. On the other hand the repeat footage does help the viewer to make sense out of all the craziness.

There seemed to be an excess of rad old cars...that's always cool. The leading lady was very pretty also which was good because there were only two women in the entire thing! There are lots of gunfights but almost no one ever got hit except for those nasty "flesh wounds".

I really enjoyed the look of Whispering Shadow, the old clothes, pencil thin mustaches, and the motorcycle scenes were all wonderful. There were lots of truly dangerous stunts too and a few effects (like a helicopter crashing into a radio tower).

Overall this is a very vintage but rather cool old serial. I got a kick out of it and it managed to build some real suspense in the last three or four chapters despite all the money saving flashbacks. Fun stuff for serial or Lugosi fans. Bela looked great and his expressions were a riot like always.

The Whispering Shadow (1933)

** (out of 4)

A mysterious figure known as The Whispering Shadow uses his gang to try and track down some famous and priceless jewels. The Shadow's power comes from being able to communicate through rays created by radio and television. Soon a number of suspects are believed to be The Whispering Shadow.

This 1933 film was the first serial that Bela Lugosi ever appeared in but my review is for the feature version. Back in the day a lot of serials were turned into feature movies and some like Lugosi's THE RETURN OF CHANDU had two feature versions. Obviously, by watching this version you're going to be missing out on a lot of the fun including all of the cliffhangers. Whereas the original version ran 225 minutes this one here clocks in at just 60.

As far as the feature goes, it's simply okay. Again, you can't judge the serial because I personally don't know what is missing from it but this feature really lacks much action. It seems that the majority of the running time here is just introducing the various red herrings and this leaves very little time for the action. There's a nice action sequence at the very start but that's about it. The ending, which I won't spoil here, is somewhat of a letdown.

Lugosi is in fine form here as he was able to pick up the biggest paycheck of his career. I thought he was believable whenever the spotlight was on him as the guilty party and he also manages to bring some fun to the part. The supporting cast also includes D.W. Griffith regular Henry B. Walthall in a supporting part.

... and directors Albert Herman and Colbert Clark. Two-fisted shipping company foreman Jack Foster (Malcolm McGregor) is determined to avenge the murder of his brother, a delivery driver for the same company who was killed by agents of the Whispering Shadow, a mysterious figure leading a criminal gang who keep attacking deliveries made by the company. Company president Bradley (Henry B. Walthall) also enlists the aid of noted detective Robert Raymond (Robert Warwick) to assist Jack in his efforts. All signs point to the culprit being a creepy magician named Professor Strang (Bela Lugosi) who operates a wax museum out of his House of Mystery. Also featuring Viva Tattersall as Strang's lovely daughter and accomplice, Karl Dane as a goofy comic-relief radio operator, Roy D'Arcy and Lafe McKee as shady company employees, Ethel Clayton, Lloyd Whitlock, Bob Kortman, and Yakima Canutt.

The outlandish plot, wide variety of interesting characters, and incredible stunts all combine to make this a stand-out in the serial genre. It's still pretty dumb, and goes on longer than the story can sustain it, but it's silly fun. Lugosi, appearing in the first of several serials he would make, hams it up quite a bit, but seems to be enjoying himself. Dane, who struggled with his thick accent in sound pictures, makes his final film appearance.