The Shadow Returns

The Monogram series is usually panned and rightfully so, but it is not without some interesting pieces. The change in characterization of Lamont and Margo is somewhat shocking. From the all business approach of the radio serials, we now have the couple engaged to be married and trading wise cracks. This Thin Man/Nick & Nora Charles approach falls somewhat flat as writer George Callahan is no Dashiell Hammett. Shrevvy is a comic character with little intelligence. Burbank operates a detective agency and opens the films giving The Shadow a tip about a possible crime. I would have liked to have seen more of his character as the interpretation is very straight, without comedy, but he has a very minor part in the Monogram series.

The mystery elements of the film are pure George Callahan. As in his Charlie Chan screenplays, the actually mystery is not important. Callahan's screenplays contain wacky gadgets and fun settings, but the mystery is an after thought and not played on the square. Here, a businessman has smuggled jewels into the country in a casket. Crooks gather at his estate to buy the jewels. Before a sale can be made the police and The Shadow arrive on the scene. Right before their eyes, the businessman jumps from a balcony to his death. The Shadow knows the man did not jump, but was murdered. Now he sets out to learn how he was murdered and by whom?

Of note, the filmmakers decided to show The Shadow as a shadow on the wall. He is never seen in costume, only as the shadow. This works well for me. The largest detriment to the series is the abundance of comedy. Add to that Shrevvy's characterization which is very poor and hurts the film because he is in it so much.

Absolutely lame entry in the series. Except for the opening hook there's no atmosphere, a plotline that only Cal Tech could unravel, and a lead actor more suited for Father Knows Best than the sinister Shadow. Then too the fractured comedy crowds out anything more serious. As a mystery, it's about as involving as an ashpit. Okay, some snappy wisecracks are occasionally amusing, but just what the producers thought they were doing when they threw this mess together beats me. As a fan of the memorable old-time radio show, I'd like to sue Monogram for movie sacrilege. No, there's no need to go on. And please, I take no satisfaction in ridiculing this concoction. But a flop is a flop and this one just goes splat.

Of all the heroes and superheros of the thirties and forties, the shadow is the most intriguing. In his (Orson Welles-created) radio incarnation, he had a strange superpower. He could be invisible and apparently enter and leave any room effortlessly. On the radio, this was a great effect because of course we listeners couldn't see anything at all. So when one of the characters couldn't see another, it was a sort of narrative fold that drew us in.

Another device was a sort of demonic laugh, a sort of devilish celebration of justice.

How to transport that to cinema? The 1994 version was something of a miracle, one of the best designed movies ever. In that interpretation, the girl was decorous, the bad guy evil and the shadow genuinely invisible as well as having other superpowers.

This one is horrible in all ways except for the effort put into the comedy. The mystery isn't, though it has an interesting device, more improbable than most.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

The movie is well enough to stand alone so you do not need to be aware of the earlier "Shadow".

Now do not go comparing this to the radio show as that is apples and oranges.

Lamont Cranston/The Shadow (Kane Richmond) promises to marry his secretary, Margo Lane (Barbara Read) that knows how to type with two fingers. That is unless a case shows up. You guessed it a case shows up in the nick of time.

The case is full of mysteries. Some obvious and some a bit more complex. For a cheap movie the more complex "What it is all about?" and "How did they do it murder?" are quite good.

For some reason, probably because it is a formula in detective movies, they had to have over the top comic relief in the form of a taxi driver/Shadow assistant.

Overlooking the not so bright chief of police and the comic relief, the program is worth watching.

The first of three Shadow movies from Monogram Pictures, all starring Kane Richmond as Lamont Cranston/The Shadow, and Barbara Read as his girlfriend/assistant Margo Lane. The confusing plot involves jewels recovered from a businessman's grave, secret formulas, and a series of apparent suicide leaps that Cranston is convinced are murders - but cannot work out how they're done. As the police plod along in their investigation, Cranston - making a show of being an inept nuisance and getting in the way - secretly does some snooping of his own... as the Shadow.

Nothing is shown here of the Shadow's ability to hypnotise, become seemingly invisible, or 'cloud men's minds', and we never hear his demonic laugh. Instead he's more like the Saint or the Falcon - except that every now and then he pulls on a trenchcoat, hat, and mask. And whilst traditionally the Shadow's adventures have a pretty dark aspect to them (as captured well in the 1994 movie), here it's lighter, with lots of snappy banter played for laughs. The cast are solid, B movie regulars who do a good job with what they're given, and the leads are engaging; but the mystery doesn't really grab hold, and the whole thing ends up feeling pretty frivolous. 5/10.