The Shadow fan club.
Movie Review: The Shadow Strikes (1937)
The first attempt at a Shadow Movie was made in 1937 by Grand
National Pictures.
The plan was for Grand National to produce a Shadow Movie Series to
compliment the Shadow Pulps and Shadow Radio Show.
In fact Grand National was even going to adapt stories originally in
the pulps to the silver screen. How could they go wrong?...
The story "The Ghost of the Manor" (Issue 33; June 15, 1933) was
chosen and adapted into a screenplay by Al Martin. Rod LaRocque was
chosen to play the Shadow and the project moved forward.
Several independent problems came together to make this an awful
movie.
First of all the Shadow character was not introduced. The story
assumed its viewers already knew him well.
Secondly the choice of La Rocque to play the Shadow must have had
more to do with Hollywood politics of the time. La Rocque was an
AWFULL choice. He was to old in appearance to be the "wealthy young
man about town". He was totally unconvincing as the Shadow. He was
not the least bit menacing either. He looked a bit like Vincent
Price but with all of Price's sophistication and none of his
foreboding.
Secondly the story was either an awful choice or an awful adaptation
(I have not read the original pul story "The Ghost in the Manor".
The title "The Shadow Strikes" implied action and the movie poster
promissed a "thrilling" movie. But the Shadow Strikes was instead a
complete yawner. The Shadow himself appears only briefly at the
very
beginning and very ending of the movie. In both cases he simply
sneaks up on the bad guys and sticks them up... no action at all.
In
fact we see pretty much nothing of Cranston (or as the movie
pronounces it "Granston") because he spend almost all of the movie
impersonating an attorney named Chester Randall. All in all the
movie drags on slowly and confusingly and even touches on a subplot
about crminals who the Shadow is looking for who killed his father,
but never takes the sub-plot anywhere. (Maybe it was to be a thread
connecting the movies over a period of time).
As a Shadow fan it is fun to watch... but is is a very BAD movie.
(Coming soon: My review of the second Shadow Movie "International
Crime" (1938).
James Trimm
National Pictures.
The plan was for Grand National to produce a Shadow Movie Series to
compliment the Shadow Pulps and Shadow Radio Show.
In fact Grand National was even going to adapt stories originally in
the pulps to the silver screen. How could they go wrong?...
The story "The Ghost of the Manor" (Issue 33; June 15, 1933) was
chosen and adapted into a screenplay by Al Martin. Rod LaRocque was
chosen to play the Shadow and the project moved forward.
Several independent problems came together to make this an awful
movie.
First of all the Shadow character was not introduced. The story
assumed its viewers already knew him well.
Secondly the choice of La Rocque to play the Shadow must have had
more to do with Hollywood politics of the time. La Rocque was an
AWFULL choice. He was to old in appearance to be the "wealthy young
man about town". He was totally unconvincing as the Shadow. He was
not the least bit menacing either. He looked a bit like Vincent
Price but with all of Price's sophistication and none of his
foreboding.
Secondly the story was either an awful choice or an awful adaptation
(I have not read the original pul story "The Ghost in the Manor".
The title "The Shadow Strikes" implied action and the movie poster
promissed a "thrilling" movie. But the Shadow Strikes was instead a
complete yawner. The Shadow himself appears only briefly at the
very
beginning and very ending of the movie. In both cases he simply
sneaks up on the bad guys and sticks them up... no action at all.
In
fact we see pretty much nothing of Cranston (or as the movie
pronounces it "Granston") because he spend almost all of the movie
impersonating an attorney named Chester Randall. All in all the
movie drags on slowly and confusingly and even touches on a subplot
about crminals who the Shadow is looking for who killed his father,
but never takes the sub-plot anywhere. (Maybe it was to be a thread
connecting the movies over a period of time).
As a Shadow fan it is fun to watch... but is is a very BAD movie.
(Coming soon: My review of the second Shadow Movie "International
Crime" (1938).
James Trimm
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