The Shadow

Rita Hayworth with dark hair is the star of this B movie, "The Shadow" in 1937. Rita was going up the star ladder the usual way, starting in B movies and working her way up.

She plays Mary Gillespie, whose father, the owner of the Gillespie Circus, has recently deceased. Mary has been working hard to bring the circus back to its former glory. With the help of her boyfriend Jim, they are doing very well with sellout crowds.

Trouble comes in the guise of their star equestrian, Senor Martinet, whom Mary learns is holding $60,000 in notes from her father and plans on taking over the circus if it isn't paid the next day.

While doing a routine with his horse, Martinet falls and dies, the result of poison placed on part of his riding apparatus.

Everyone wanted the man dead, so this is going to be a tough one. There's Mary's aunt (Marjorie Main) who was in the ring at the time as the ringmaster and hated the man's guts. There his hunchbacked assistant, Vindecco (Dwight Frye, Renfield in the original Dracula) whom Martinet verbally and physically abuses. And, of course, Mary herself and any member of the circus.

Entertaining B with a few secrets unfolding. Rita is lovely, but then, she always was.