The Shadow Returns

Murder! And diamonds mysteriously turning up in a grave. The police immediately suspect the Shadow, but they don't know that the Shadow is really the nephew of police commissioner Pierre Watkin. It's Kane Richmond, whose job description is "Man about town". That means he's rich and good for a free meal and drinks. But he's got a serious side, which is dressing in black and speaking in a mysterious voice. Which doesn't sound like much of a career to me, but what do I know?

I know that the Shadow was created by accident. Street & Smith decided to sponsor a radio show which featured stories from the struggling Detective Magazine. The narrator was identified as "The Shadow", and people started asking for his magazine at the news stand. Enter Walter Gibson, who wrote well more than half of the lead stories in the magazine, from 1931 through 1949.

As you might expect from a Monogram picture in 1946, it's fast and rather complicated, filled with dumb cops, dumb assistants, and even Richmond is subject to the occasional gaffe. Fortunately, there's Barbara Read to point out that the occasional safe might be unlocked. With Tom Dugan, Joseph Crehan, Robert Emmett Keane, and Rebel Randall.