The Shadow Returns

Second attempt at turning the radio character into a movie series. This time out its Kane Richmond as Lamont Cranston and his alter ego the Shadow. Here he has no power to cloud men's minds, instead he wears a mask and a fedora. Here he is investigating the smuggling of jewels in coffins and the deaths the occur around it.

Very comedic the film has almost no suspense despite its best efforts. The broad comedy simply cuts across the mystery and takes away from feeling of danger. The ploy almost works, however about two thirds of the way through the film the mashing of styles becomes too much and the back and forth nature of the plot (There are only really three locations, the commissioner's office, the dead man's house and a warehouse) interest dissipates and you get the feeling you'd really like to just jump to the end to see who the killer is.

Worth trying but only on cable.

to make a real Shadow movie this time. Burbank & Hawkeye appear although they don't actually do anything - in fact you'd think they were Lamont's buddies rather than The Shadow's agents from they way they are depicted.

Don't get me wrong, its better than 'International Crime' because it does at least feature The Shadow even if he isn't depicted as well as in the earlier serial or the pulps. And it does have more action than 'The Shadow Strikes' (it could hardly have much less). It would be nice if Margot wasn't a pretty much total flake and more of an agent/assistant/non-idiot. Though she comes off looking good next to Cardona & Weston who make the Keystone Kops look and sound good (yes, I know the Kops were silent but that would be an improvement for this film).

See it if you can but don't go out of your way.

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.

Lamont Cranston and Margo Lane have sneaked into a darkened office. Lamont puts his ear to the safe dial but fears that it's too old and rusty for him to crack. Margo suggests that perhaps it's not locked, if it's such an old safe, which comment prompts a dirty look from Lamont. Undeterred, she reaches past him, turns the handle, and... bingo! opens the safe. With a sweet smirk, Margo then neatly sums up everything you need to know about this film: "Not a profound piece of deduction, but...cute, don't you think?"

Well, Lamont Cranston is not particularly impressed, and for all I know neither will true fans of the Shadow be amused. But...that's about what we get from this movie. I suspect that my own minimal knowledge of the Shadow and his various incarnations only increased my capacity for enjoying this film. And enjoy it I did--while it's no great shakes, it's fast moving, has some humor, and has enough plot to at least carry the jokes and various relationships.

"Enough plot," I say--which I guess really isn't much, since it struck me during the final suspect-gathering scene that I really barely recognized any of the roomful of suspects. However, Lamont knew them all, and he pointed the inspector in the right direction, and he also maintained the secret of his other identity. And importantly: Kane Richmond does make it all look like fun.

"The Shadow Returns" (1946) looks a lot like the Monogram Charlie Chan films made around the same era: it is cheaply produced and claustrophobic. The plot is murky, though the murder method is certainly original - I never recall seeing it before. Square-jawed Kane Richmond is a slick Lamont Cranston, and more shadow-y than Rod La Rocque in the two 1930s Shadow films: he does wear a cape and mask at times, and his second identity is a secret to most people. There is some nice banter between him and eternal fiancè Barbara Reed; there is also a comic-relief chauffeur who seems modelled on Mantan Moreland in the Chan films. ** out of 4.