hyped garbage

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

The Shadow Strikes is the complete opposite of the serial that came out three years later. The serial was exciting and fast-paced, The Shadow Strikes a bit boring and slow. This version of the Shadow looks nothing like the one on the pulp covers. He doesn't even cover his face.There are no fight scenes or shootouts either. It's just a regular crime movie with a guy who's supposed to be The Shadow. I wouldn't mind a Shadow movie without fighting or shooting, but the crime solving stuff in this movie is just uninteresting. There isn't much entertainment to be found here.I also found the plot a bit confusing. Maybe it's because I almost fell asleep during the movie, and sometimes had to rewind it because I missed important things. I almost fall asleep just by thinking about the movie. There are some positive things about The Shadow Strikes. There's no graphic violence or sex. The main character and his sidekick are likable people. It's a movie about people who fight evil. Lamont "Granston" has a cool mustache. Too bad the rest of it is so darn uninteresting. Oh, well...maybe the sequel called "International Crime" is better.If you want a good Shadow movie, watch the serial or the 1994 movie...or just listen to the excellent radio show. If you want a good mystery/crime movie, just watch any of the Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone.

Third-rate programmer that trades on mystique of radio's The Shadow, but without the substance. The mystery part never gels, the many characters too crowded to get a handle on. Then too, the loose storyline fails to build enough interest to generate needed suspense. The basic problem, as I see it, is with a poorly constructed script. For geezers like me who tuned into radio's Shadow, this mystery man does little more than make an occasional half-baked appearance. No 'clouding men's minds' or any other of his fascinating spectral powers.Too bad actor LaRocque wasn't cast as a gentleman sleuth minus all the Shadow folderol. He's perfect as a William Powell type, needing a whiskey instead of a cape. Except for the youthfully uncertain Blakeley-- who soon went into the production end-- the acting is better than the material. On the other hand, the dim budget shows up in the many scenes that rarely leave studio interiors. All in all, it's a substandard programmer and a dis-service to a memorable radio program.

With veteran heavy Cy Kendall and versatile movie cop Kenneth Harlan in support, and the extremely experienced and suave Rod LaRocque in a popular product "The Shadow", this film is somewhat of a disappointment in comparison to what it could have been. LaRocque gives us a supremely confident Cranston in a poised performance. LaRocque, a large, very tall man, wisely had perfected the art of downplaying since his entrance into talking pictures and he is fine here. But he should be surrounded with a vigorous director and some more active styled performers. This film falls into the unfortunate detective- filmmaker's pitfall namely: lack of energy.Whatever Colony Pictures was or wasn't, it certainly was a cheap outfit. While competent and watchable, this film lacks any spark in cinematography, editing or overall direction, apparently due to lack of funds. The plot is a basically solid detective mystery, but the execution of it was sort of loosely thrown together for filming in as few days as possible.Considering LaRocque's strong screen presence and the generally adequate efforts of the mostly discount cast, a fan of the black and white mystery/detective genre will find this film OK and representative of the genre in the bargain-basement sense.

This version of the Shadow has little to do with the pulp hero (other than name) or the radio version. The Shadow was changed from a spirit of vengeance to a routine wise-cracking detective, though some vestiges of the mystery in the character remains.This still could have been a decent B-movie thriller except for the deadly dull direction. Everything moves at the pace of a dying snail and the plot is generally uninteresting.Rod La Roque does as much as he can with the role; he has some easygoing charm (though that is a departure from the original character) and manages to make the best of things. The rest of the cast, though, is pretty generic and bloodless. It becomes very hard to care about the situation.There's also a strange subplot explaining the Shadow's motivations, with an ending that kinda sorta might resolve it, but even that isn't clear. Very little to recommend it, other than La Roque's performance.