In the late 1930's Grand National Pictures released two films based on the popular magazine and radio character, The Shadow. The first outing, 1937's THE SHADOW STRIKES saw silent film star Rod La Rocque donning hat and cape, in a rather bland drawing room mystery. Ironically, this crime thriller without the thrills had been very loosely adapted from a legitimate Shadow Magazine adventure. Considering the rather uninspiring result, it is hardly surprising that the studio decided to rethink their approach before putting a sequel into production. The result of this reconsideration, was INTERNATIONAL CRIME.
INTERNATIONAL CRIME is an odd duck of a film. Gone was almost any connection to the Shadow character as he appeared in the magazine series, or even the character from the previous film. This time out, all inspiration was derived from THE SHADOW radio program.
The thing that needs to be understood here is that The Shadow is really a split personality. The hawk-nosed avenger with the blazing twin .45's and the legion of secret operatives existed only in the magazines. On radio he was Lamont Cranston, amateur criminologist and "wealthy young man about town", who in the ancient Orient had learned the "power to cloud men's minds so they cannot see him." "Friend and companion" Margo Lane was also an invention of the radio series, though she was later shoehorned into the prose adventures as well. INTERNATIONAL CRIME features almost all the standards of the radio Shadow: Lamont Cranston, amateur criminologist, Margo Lane (though here called "Phoebe Lane") as his Girl Friday, cabbie Moe Shrevnitz, and foil Commissioner Weston. In fact, the only significant player missing is The Shadow himself.
Cranston (still played by Rod La Rocque, but with considerably more energy) is now a newspaper columnist and radio personality who goes by the on-air non deplume of "The Shadow". In the middle of a broadcast, his overeager and stereotypically ditzy blonde assistant, Phoebe, hands him an ill advised tip on an upcoming box-office robbery, that is actually a red-herring to draw away the police so that another crime may be more easily committed elsewhere. Already in the doghouse with Police Commissioner Weston for his caustic commentary on the capabilities of the constabulary, Cranston's reputation is now on the line, unless he can solve the real crime, a combination theft and murder, himself. But the sleuthing is never really the main point of the film: the detecting is really just a framework to hang the movie's humorous elements on. At no time is there ever a real sense of danger to the proceedings. From the moment that Phoebe crashes into the middle of Cranston's radio broadcast, the audience knows what kind of film this is supposed to be and just sits back to enjoy the ride.
There is one other very odd element to the film that begs noting one that may have gone unnoticed by the movie going public of 1938. The criminal masterminds of the piece are Viennese nobility, plotting to halt a bond issue from foreign businessmen that will finance military forces in their homeland. On March 12, 1938, Austria was officially absorbed into Germany. Therefore the government that these conniving and murderous villains are working against, is the Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler. Today it is remarkable to consider that such a plot device could have been used in the same year that Neville Chamberlain made his fateful, "peace in our time" speech, and impossible to believe that such an element would have been allowed to stand if this film had been made even a year later.
While fairly predictable, the film nevertheless rolls along at a good clip, providing a light weight, light-hearted and fairly amusing crime comedy in a similar vein, but a lower rent district, to the Nick and Nora Charles or Mr. And Mrs. Smith adventures. INTERNATIONAL CRIME is both a drastic change and a huge improvement over the feeble and stodgy THE SHADOW STRIKES.
INTERNATIONAL CRIME is an odd duck of a film. Gone was almost any connection to the Shadow character as he appeared in the magazine series, or even the character from the previous film. This time out, all inspiration was derived from THE SHADOW radio program.
The thing that needs to be understood here is that The Shadow is really a split personality. The hawk-nosed avenger with the blazing twin .45's and the legion of secret operatives existed only in the magazines. On radio he was Lamont Cranston, amateur criminologist and "wealthy young man about town", who in the ancient Orient had learned the "power to cloud men's minds so they cannot see him." "Friend and companion" Margo Lane was also an invention of the radio series, though she was later shoehorned into the prose adventures as well. INTERNATIONAL CRIME features almost all the standards of the radio Shadow: Lamont Cranston, amateur criminologist, Margo Lane (though here called "Phoebe Lane") as his Girl Friday, cabbie Moe Shrevnitz, and foil Commissioner Weston. In fact, the only significant player missing is The Shadow himself.
Cranston (still played by Rod La Rocque, but with considerably more energy) is now a newspaper columnist and radio personality who goes by the on-air non deplume of "The Shadow". In the middle of a broadcast, his overeager and stereotypically ditzy blonde assistant, Phoebe, hands him an ill advised tip on an upcoming box-office robbery, that is actually a red-herring to draw away the police so that another crime may be more easily committed elsewhere. Already in the doghouse with Police Commissioner Weston for his caustic commentary on the capabilities of the constabulary, Cranston's reputation is now on the line, unless he can solve the real crime, a combination theft and murder, himself. But the sleuthing is never really the main point of the film: the detecting is really just a framework to hang the movie's humorous elements on. At no time is there ever a real sense of danger to the proceedings. From the moment that Phoebe crashes into the middle of Cranston's radio broadcast, the audience knows what kind of film this is supposed to be and just sits back to enjoy the ride.
There is one other very odd element to the film that begs noting one that may have gone unnoticed by the movie going public of 1938. The criminal masterminds of the piece are Viennese nobility, plotting to halt a bond issue from foreign businessmen that will finance military forces in their homeland. On March 12, 1938, Austria was officially absorbed into Germany. Therefore the government that these conniving and murderous villains are working against, is the Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler. Today it is remarkable to consider that such a plot device could have been used in the same year that Neville Chamberlain made his fateful, "peace in our time" speech, and impossible to believe that such an element would have been allowed to stand if this film had been made even a year later.
While fairly predictable, the film nevertheless rolls along at a good clip, providing a light weight, light-hearted and fairly amusing crime comedy in a similar vein, but a lower rent district, to the Nick and Nora Charles or Mr. And Mrs. Smith adventures. INTERNATIONAL CRIME is both a drastic change and a huge improvement over the feeble and stodgy THE SHADOW STRIKES.