International Crime

I did. I just watched one. Actually it was in my DVD Mystery set and "The Shadow"s exploits are well-known, even if am too young to have heard his radio shows."International Crime", however, does nothing to enhance his memory or reputation. The biggest shock was to find that Rod La Rocque was such an incredibly bad actor - he must have been better in silents, as here he overacts and seems to have no range and no flair for light comedy. His female counterpart, Astrid Allwyn, is in the same boat as she chews the scenery as a ditzy would-be reporter. The sole bright spot is Lou Hearn as a cabbie with a yiddish accent.

The screen play is embarrassing and pointless, something to do with Nazi agents extorting money from a rich merchant, plus a running (unfunny) gag about an inept local Police Dept.

If you own the same DVD set as myself, skip this one - or turn on the radio.

I enjoy this movie and have watched it several times (free on Amazon Prime). The colorful characters and some snappy dialog are what attracts me. The mystery aspects and especially Rod LaRocque's cheesy foreign accent (used in a few scenes) are not.

I like Astrid Allwyn as the young, eager girl-Friday-wannabe-- slightly ditsy, but not outlandishly so. She gets off some good lines, like this: Waiter: More caviar, madame? Astrid Allwyn: Oh, no! If I eat any more of that buckshot, I'll pass out!

Lew Hearn as Moe is a colorful character. He bails out Cranston, and standing outside the cell, Cranston asks how much he owes him. Moe says something like, "Is this a place to talk business? It'll be on your bill."

Thomas E. Jackson is enjoyable as always, as a gruff, put-upon police commissioner. I remember him as the gruff, put-upon editor in "Nancy Drew, Reporter."

And Peter Potter is memorable as Cranston's assistant, with that sleepy-sounding Oklahoma drawl of his.

The mystery, the safe-cracking Honest John, and all that, is not to be dismissed, though there are some corny aspects of the plot. But all in all I like this movie and will no doubt watch it again.

The second of the Rod La Rocque Shadow movies is a vast improvement on the first, and bears no relation to that film or anything else about the character.

In this, Lamont Cranston is a newspaper/radio reporter who writes a column on crime, as well as having a radio show. His identity thus is a secret to no one. He is aided by Phoebe Lane, an aspiring reporter, in unraveling a mystery.

The mystery is interesting enough to hold interest and involves a crime that baffles everyone. There is some good scenes, especially with Cranston and Phoebe. But the characters (other than the Shadow) are all over the place. Phoebe is sometimes a smart protofeminist and also a complete ditz -- often in the same scene. Her final scene makes no sense after what we've seen before it.

But the movie does move along fairly well and the mystery is intriguing enough. It's a decent little film if you want something fun to kill an hour.

Typical Hollywood manipulation of an existing fictional character. This time the Shadow is nothing more than a lure to get kids to listen to police reports. There is no relation between this version of the character or any previous versions. The Shadow is purely imaginary and exists only as a picture on the wall of Lamont Cranston's office and the heading of his newspaper column. The story itself isn't bad, but they could have easily have left any reference to the Shadow or Lamont Cranston out of it and it would have been just as well. If you are seeking a movie containing the beloved pulp fiction character you would be better to ignore this one and look elsewhere.

Maybe you can make sense of the murder plot, I couldn't. Instead, it's dense and spread out enough to dumbfound Sherlock. But then the movie's more about radio broadcaster Cranston's rivalries than anything like a coherent mystery. So move over police commissioner Weston and employer Heath because Cranston's going to get the better of you on this investigation. One notable thing- actor La Rocque does little to make the overbearing Shadow likable, unlike most amateur detectives of the time. In fact, he's pretty much colorless even when pushing poor reporter Allwyn around. Good thing actress Allwyn's there to provide spark and spirit among a generally lackluster cast, along with some of her occasional snappy lines. All in all, the hour's a disappointment, especially for us geezer fans of the old 40's radio show. In fact, I still remember that iconic radio intro spoken in sinister tones: "Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of man. The Shadow knows, heh, heh, heh"- an intro usually followed by a spooky half-hour featuring the invasive spirit of the mysterious title character. Well, none of that here, nor much of anything else engaging. Too bad.