THE SHADOW (1940 serial)

The mysterious Black Tiger is striking fear into the hearts of the city's wealthy businessmen by using sabotage against their industries (transportation, communications). Criminologist Lamont Cranston (Victor Jory) is called upon by the police to help out, and he becomes a regular presence at the meetings of the industrialists at the Cobalt Club. No one knows, however, that Cranston is also The Shadow, a caped and masked crimefighter whom the police assume is actually a criminal himself. When he wants to get reliable underworld information, Cranston disguises himself as the Chinese merchant Lin Chang. Aided by his faithful assistant Margo Lane and cab driver Harry Vincent, Cranston flits here and there on the trail of the Black Tiger, usually managing to foil his evil schemes. Soon, it becomes obvious that the Black Tiger must be a member of the Cobalt Club group, and Cranston works to narrow the field down to catch the right man.

The Shadow is a legendary pop culture figure who began on the radio and moved into pulp fiction and movies. He had an ominous chuckle, could "cloud men’s minds" so he would seem to be invisible, and was said to "know what evil lurks in the hearts of men." There is a short series of traditional mysteries done by Monogram in the late 40s in which Cranston is just a variation on the gentleman crimefighter (Philo Vance, The Saint, etc.), and James Patterson has just begun a series of books that "reimagine" Cranston, but this serial sticks closer to the original character. Jory is the perfect type to play The Shadow; he’s got a nicely sinister laugh and a distinctive profile, and he often played bad guys--I know him best as the nasty carpetbagger who drives Scarlett O’Hara to make a dress out of curtains in GONE WITH THE WIND. As Cranston, he exudes calm confidence (needed to counter the nervous industrialists) and as The Shadow, he looks like he might strike fear into people, but unfortunately this movie has terrible day-for-night effects, and every dark and mysterious nighttime scene winds up looking like high noon, making the Shadow’s appearance less effective. He’s even compelling as Lin Chang if you can get past the racist yellowface and dialect. 

After starting off well in the first three chapters, this falls into the usual serial chapter monotony of cliffhangers, escapes, new villainous activity, and a cliffhanger. These cliffhangers are notorious for their lazy escapes--usually a room collapses around The Shadow, burying him in wood and plaster, and in the next chapter, he simply stands up, shakes off the dust and goes on his merry way. The same cheap sets are reused, and the henchmen are largely indistinguishable from each other (and sometimes from the good guys). Margo gets a little more action in than the average serial gal pal, but she also has an irritating high-pitched scream. The Black Tiger walks through a beam of foggy light which turns him invisible and he speaks to his thugs through a tiger head speaker that is sometimes attached to a phonograph which plays pre-recorded speeches. His voice, guttural and peevish--he's constantly berating his underlings for their failures--eventually grows irritating as well. Ultimately the industrialists are not differentiated well enough to make us care about the identity of the Tiger, but the ruse that Cranston uses to expose him in the penultimate chapter is clever. As serials go, I'd rank this a notch above average for Jory's performance and look (at least when he’s shown in shadows--the bright daylight works against him) and also for some effective comic relief there and there. Pictured at top is Jory with the Black Tiger's speaker. [DVD]