The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The title of this garrulous and uninvolving retread set largely in New Orleans of the radio character popularized in the thirties by Orson Welles may be vaguely familiar to some from its presence as a rather mysterious footnote to the illustrious filmography of the Oscar-winning cameraman James Wong Howe. Howe directed one feature film, 'Go, Man, Go!' (1954), with the Harlem Globetrotters, and between his Oscars for 'The Rose Tattoo' (1955) and 'Hud' (1963) directed a few TV episodes, of which this may have been his first. Assembled from two unsold pilot episodes for a TV series (of which only one was directed by Howe, hence the joint credit) which were spliced together under the intriguing title 'Invisible Avenger' and released as a feature film, it thus finds itself by default among Howe's film credits.The drab photography, however, belies Howe's contribution; and as an avowed stickler for realism I hope he wasn't responsible for the multiple set-ups employed on the public execution shown being screened on American television. Apart from the "Daddy O" jazz talk and the topical storyline about revolutionaries plotting against a Latin American dictatorship, it feels more like a Republic serial from the forties. Using his radio name of Lamont Cranston, the Shadow hangs out with a mystic sidekick named Jogendra who's taught him how to think himself invisible (hence the title), but rather than simply prowling about invisible he usually waits until he gets caught and then confound his captors by disappearing; sometimes for effect he casts a shadow only, and he only ever emits his trademark diabolical cackle when invisible.Although billed third and cutting a striking figure as a hard-boiled nightclub hostess, Helen Westcott's role proves surprisingly irrelevant to the action.

You could have floored me with the fact that this flick was made in 1958; it has the look and feel of something at least a decade older. Also the sensibility. The Shadow wasn't a favorite character of mine growing up so I don't know a lot about his origin or history, but I always assumed him to be sort of a detective with an uncanny ability to make himself invisible, as if blending into the dark of night. This story takes on more of a mystical bent, and even includes a mentor for Lamont Cranston (Richard Derr), a mystic who trains him to develop his powers of mind reading and invisibility. They exchange thoughts via telepathy, and one could make a case that the real power behind the Shadow is his partner Jogendra (Mark Daniels).In this effort, the Shadow is summoned by a friend to New Orleans who winds up murdered. The victim was helping to protect one Victor Ramirez, who was plotting to overthrow Generalissimo Valdez of Santa Cruz and set up his brother in the general's place. I thought the plot a rather odd one for a Shadow movie given my earlier comments, but as I say, I'm a relative newcomer to the character.Historically speaking, the picture seems to draw a parallel to events of the era as they were occurring in real life. Fidel Castro was plotting to overthrow the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, assembling a group of revolutionaries that included his brother Raul. The Ramirez brother connection in the picture could have possibly been based on the Castro's, but who knows. The story starts out in the city of New Orleans, apparently near enough to the mythical country of Santa Cruz to parallel Cuba's location to mainland Florida. If it all sounds like a stretch, well I'm just trying to figure out what relevance a military coup has to do with The Shadow.

A nice waste of an hour. The acting was passable, though the Shadow's mentor guy was a little creepy. The plot was mostly predictable with a few plausibility issues. (Yeah, we're going to show what we believe to be an execution on television.) Having listened to quite a few episodes of the radio Shadow, my conclusion is the Shadow does best when operating like a Super Hero, as he did with Orson Welles in the lead. When the Shadow operates as a shamus with a special trick, it's a lot cheaper.This is okay, but if it was a pilot for a TV show, I can see why it didn't make it. Still, for fans of the Shadow, this is a rare opportunity to see an attempt at bringing that mysterious voice to film.

If not a "made-for-TV-movie," this film may have been intended as a pilot film for a TV series that never got made. When I saw it in a theater more than 30 years ago, that was my impression.The Shadow is of course a grand old multi-media figure. A generation of kids grew up on the Shadow radio show and comic books, millions of other readers bought the pulp magazine or Shadow books, anywhere from the early 1930's to the 1960's. And of course there was the Alec Baldwin film -- also, not a bad effort. But they just couldn't decide whether to play it as a real adventure story or as parody. Like other attempts in the same era (The Phantom, Doc Savage) that's a prescription for failure.To me, the best screen "Shadow" of all time was the late Victor Jory, but probably that's because I saw the Jory version when I was a little kid and didn't have very tough critical standards.I'm still hoping for a Shadow movie with a first rate production from a good, solid script. In the meanwhile, watching earlier efforts like "The Invisible Avenger" aka "Bourbon Street Shadows" just gives me the old "glass-half-empty-glass-half-full" sensation.Dick Lupoff