Shadow, The [1940 film]
Entry updated 8 June 2026. Tagged: Film.
US Serial Film (1940). Columbia Pictures. "Based upon stories published in 'The Shadow' magazine". Directed by James W Horne. Written by Ned Dandy, Joseph O'Donnell and Joseph F Poland. Cast includes Veda Ann Borg, Robert Fiske, Victor Jory and Roger Moore (not of course the James Bond/Saint actor). Fifteen 16-31 minute episodes. Black and white.
This was the third serial film featuring The Shadow, being preceded by The Shadow Strikes (1937) and International Crime (1938). There were also six film shorts released in 1931-1932. Dressed in black with a long cape, fedora and a bandanna covering most of his face, he is intelligent and a skilled fighter. In this serial a City's economic stability is threatened by a "well-organized criminal body headed by ... the Black Tiger, whose mad ambition is to acquire supreme financial power"; in response, a committee of the targeted "industrial leaders prevail upon Lamont Cranston, noted Scientist and criminologist, to combat this menace". Cranston (Jory) is also The Shadow, "feared enemy of the underworld" (though some of the police believe The Shadow and the Black Tiger to be one and the same). He is aided by laboratory assistant and girlfriend Margo Lane (Borg) and right-hand man Harry Vincent (Moore).
We see a man about to enter a building, above whose entrance is a device that turns his appearance into a smokey beam of light – this is the Black Tiger about to meet his gang, to whom he is now effectively Invisible (but pointing out he has no problem seeing them). It will become clear he is one of the committee that called upon Cranston, who has his suspicions; as the Black Tiger often communicates with pre-recorded messages, confirmation is difficult.
Stanford Marshall (Fiske), one of the committee, has invented (with Cranston's help) "the most concentrated yet the safest explosive ever invented" – but the formula is stolen by the Black Tiger's men and used for their sabotage. In episode 5 aeroplanes begin to crash – their engines stalled by a long-barrelled Ray Gun fired from an aircraft: the Ray's destructive power comes from a device on the ground, which transmits its energy to the gun when required; the Weapon also doubles as a Death Ray, setting bushes aflame when the villains try to aim it at The Shadow. Later we see a different version ("a powerful ray machine") in the cliff-hanger to episode 9: here, Margo, Harry and another are tied to a wall and the laser-like ray cuts along it, slowly heading in their direction – the starting point being some metres away, whilst the villains all leave the room before it reaches the victims (an early example of what has become a Cliché). Cranston responds to the aircraft attacks by inventing (see Inventions) a "ray nullifier" that "throws a barrier around a motor that no other ray can penetrate" (arguably a Force Field of sorts).
In episode 14 Cranston claims to have designed another "nullifier", one which prevents the stolen explosive formula from working, giving every committee member a card identifying its location: each has a different address, and the one visited by the Black Tiger's men confirms Cranston's suspicions. Cranston locates the Black Tiger's hideout: a garage 20 feet longer on the outside than it appears on the inside, then crashes his car through it and, as The Shadow, confronts the Black Tiger. His shots at the device that renders the other invisible incapacitates it, revealing the Black Tiger to be Marshall: in the resulting fight Marshall is winning, until he touches his steel desk, which has become charged by the damaged machine, and is electrocuted.
Characteristically there is much to-ing and fro-ing to fill out time, with lacklustre fight scenes and episodes ending on cliffhangers. Apart from the laser ray already mentioned, nearly all involve The Shadow buried under debris, with the assurance the experience must have been fatal, only for him to clamber out of the wreckage relatively unscathed: this anticlimax is predictable, but the lack of variety and invention is tiresome. Cranston also has a yellowface persona (see Race in SF): Lin Chang, an associate of the Black Tiger's gang (which shows no racism, treating him as a friend). The Black Tiger's lair has a wall lined with Technology; he also uses gadgets such as a cigarette lighter that fires a Poison dart; a rail magnate has an advanced form of wireless telephone for his trains. The Shadow/Cranston makes a few deductions, but mainly relies on his fists. His characteristic laugh, doubtless intended to unnerve criminals, seems counterproductive and sometimes forewarns them of his attack (it is also grating). Margo has occasional moments but mainly screams (see Women in SF). The interactions between the Black Tiger's gang are sometimes amusing, but – the laser cliffhanger aside – The Shadow is dull for most of its run. [SP]
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