What a waste of my time!!!

A Disappointing Continuation

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

The story, "The Shadow Strikes" is based on "The Ghost of the Manor" by Walter B. Gibson. The film is not all that bad but not as good as I was hoping or expecting it to be. Still worth watching if you like crime mysteries in general or the old radio show.Lamont Granston aka The Shadow is on a murder case. There is a robbery attempt Granston is on the scene but when a murder is involved Granston assumes the identity of a lawyer in order to crack the case wide open. Granston is found out but that does not stop him from becoming The Shadow and solve the mystery.Not as good as the radio show but still a fun watch.6/10

Former silent screen matinée idol Rod LaRocque stars as the famous radio detective The Shadow in The Shadow Strikes. Modern fans will remember the film with Alec Baldwin in the Nineties playing criminologist Lamont Cranston aka The Shadow.The Shadow has a real bag of tricks and the power of illusion at his command. He's not a superhero as such with any real superpowers, but his knack for remaining inconspicuous while waiting to strike was what radio audiences thrilled to.Unfortunately this film was made by the short lived Grand National studios, a B picture company with limited budget and consequently limited production values. At a major studio even in their B picture unit The Shadow would have fared better.As it LaRocque is fine in the part and in this case as The Shadow he foils a robbery at a lawyer's office. When the police come he pretends to be that lawyer and the police captain accompanies LaRocque on an errand to a rich man's home who called and wanted the attorney to draw up a new will. But before that could happen John St. Polis playing the rich Mr. Delthern is shot by a sniper.The plot gets thicker than an Irish stew. But the story was a serviceable murder mystery without the whole Shadow gimmick which wasn't utilized to the max. That must have disappointed fans back in 1937.Always good is Cy Kendall who plays a gambler/racketeer who has a vested interest in that will. The heavyset Kendall is always playing bad guys in modern dress and in westerns.Still bad production values from Grand National don't augur well for viewers who might want to see The Shadow Strikes.

Not bad...now I know why the 1990s Shadow had no mask ever. The twin 1911 Army .45s were also missing. My problem was that I had initially read the Shadow as the early 1970s comic book. So I was very disappointed/angry that Hollywood would emasculate and unmask my daring, two-fisted gun-wielding hero with a totally forgettable character/plot in the 1990s. Then this year I viewed a copy of the suave,dapper mustache, no-mask, no .45s "Shadow Strikes" and last week the blond-haired/ no mustache/ no guns 1964 comic version. Recalling that my heart had been broken when my subscription check was returned in the 1970s and lawyers blamed...I was mollified and not angry anymore. Perhaps the estate lawyers sold the "Strikes" version to cheap-skate Hollywood moguls who never wanted a gun-wielding masked avenger in the first place. The usual pox be upon them until the third generation. I also recall that Hollywood, being easily confused if not demented/senile, may have decided that the Shadow was a "Cowboy type", ignoring the fact that he had no cowboy "get-up" or costume, holsters, or "six-guns". The Shadow should be armed with a pair of .45 AUTOMATICS as if ready to shoot Hitler and a few henchmen SS agents. Perhaps the Shadow could fight a new menace/fascism brother/sisterhood called Islamofascism. But I suppose Hollywood would have to grow a brain as well as reproductive danglers in a bag to be so bold and assertive. I'll not hold my breath for that to happen! I think "they" also forgot that time-travelling Nazis or a Nazi-era setting would sell a lot of tickets. The general public wants to see Nazis beaten back/captured if not shot to death. Recall that Roosevelt dealt with Nazi spies in WWII...three I think were executed for their crimes.

The film was lacking The Shadow as a character and had it not been for previous knowlege, the man who was impersonating the Lawyer would have been just a character, but having know it was Cranston/Shadow, the understanding of what he was doing was evident. Film lacked meat, just a basic plot and quick fix. Good ending and surprise killer. Very cliche though. Overall the film gets a plus for its portrayal of the Cranston/Shadow.