The Shadow Strikes

This SHADOW is not the Shadow of the radio or the comics or even the Alex Baldwin movie of recent vintage. Rather, it is about a bon vivant who likes to play detective and gets mixed up in a murder mystery during which he impersonates a prominent lawyer. This would be all well and fine if Lamont Cranston donned some sort of disguise as the lawyer -- the Shadow is a master of disguises -- but he does nothing to alter his appearance and depends way too much on being able to conveniently appear, disappear and then reappear as the lawyer, who happens to be on vacation. So it's not really the Shadow, but at the very least star Rod La Roque (now there's a moniker!) plays Cranston as a real smoothie. The Shadow as such (and again I must point out this is not the Shadow most of us know, just a guy wearing a hat and hiding his face) puts in all of a 10-second appearance at the beginning and end of this dated little melodrama. Watch it for La Roque, a silent-era heart throb who survived the transition to talkies.

The Shadow has a mustache?!

The film doesn't really introduce either Lamont Cranston or The Shadow, but seems to assume the audience knows them already. Editing and cinematography are pretty poor, as is the writing and acting. Cranston/The Shadow is surprisingly careless, doesn't laugh, doesn't say "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men...The Shadow knows," or "the weed of crime bears bitter fruit," and appears to lack "the power to cloud men's minds." He evidently has only one servant, not a whole network.

A subplot involving the mystery of Cranston's father's death is barely explored and seems an afterthought, despite the film's suggesting this may have been the reason for the genesis of The Shadow.

Still, it's sort of fun.

Rod LaRocque stars in "The Shadow Strikes" from 1937.

La Rocque plays Lamont Cranston, known to the underworld as "The Shadow" - a shadow who appears when a crime is being committed and stops it in its tracks.

I must say first that this is not my idea of The Shadow. I thought the Shadow was just that, a shadow on a wall who could talk. Not here. He's a person in dark clothing with his face covered and wearing a black hat. Big disappointment.

Anyway, in this film, The Shadow stops a robbery at an attorney's office. He then is forced to impersonate the attorney, George Randall, when someone runs in with an urgent message that one of his clients wants to see him.

It appears, to me anyway, that no one had ever seen this attorney because everyone believes Lamont is Randall. I started wondering if The Shadow appeared to people in a different face and used a different voice to impersonate someone, and we were just to assume that.

Lamont as Randall is summoned to the home of a Mr. Delthern, who wants to immediately change his will as he fears for his life. As he's in the process of changing the will, he's shot through an open window.

Lamont identifies himself as Randall to the police and helps work through the mystery.

This is pretty lame. However, how can you miss out seeing Rod La Rocque, one of the great silent film names, and in a talkie, no less? A trained stage actor, he survived talkies until he quit in 1941 to become a real estate broker, working with his wife - Vilma Banky! Another silent name! And they were married for 42 years. All pretty impressive.

Worth it to see La Roque, an old-fashioned type of leading man in the style of Warren William, William Powell, etc., mustached and smooth.

This is a fast-paced B feature with Rod La Rocque, in the role of "The Shadow", getting involved in a fairly interesting and unpredictable mystery. In several respects, it doesn't really have the expected feel that goes with "The Shadow", but in itself its not bad at all. La Rocque works all right as a mild-mannered, secretive hero, with his manner and even-toned voice conveying calm.

The story in this one starts with "The Shadow" breaking up what seems to be just another petty crime, but quickly becoming involved in a wider and more serious mystery. He must assume additional extra identities, playing a risky game with the various suspects and witnesses.

La Rocque's restrained style makes it come off naturally enough, and while the rest of the characters are mostly one-dimensional, there is enough going on to keep things interesting. While it has a noticeably different feel from the "Shadow" of stories or radio, in itself it's a fairly entertaining way to pass an hour for anyone who enjoys these old B-movies.

I was drawn to this movie by it's attractive pulp 'Scourge of the Underworld' poster. The action surrounds the will of the eccentric Caleb Delthern who is seen at the beginning before he is shot dead through a window. Delthern's two nephews and a niece are the main suspects of his murder along with gang boss Brossett. One of the nephews is under the control of Brossett through gambling debts. There are plenty of added characters who flit on and off screen so the viewer is constantly whirled through this cast of suspects at speed. This was my double introduction to the actor Rod La Rocque and the shadow character of Lamont Cranston. Cranton (Rod La Rocque) is a will-o'-the-wisp character who has the ability to swiftly disappear when the police or other trouble arrive on the scene. He also has the mercurial ability to easily take on other peoples' identities and gain the confidence that he is who he says he is. I enjoyed the wily interactions between Cranston and his servant Hendricks. Hendricks (Norman Ainsley) is an apologetic slightly-built man in a bowler hat who is ever-alert to his master's thoughts and tricks. I enjoyed this gun-happy 1930s B-mystery and watched it for a second time to clear up some character loose-ends and I look forward to seeing it again.