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oldschoolcrimefighters(Originally posted July 12th 2015)
The Underground Trap
Picking back up with Chapter 10! Only five more chapters, so I expect to finish this tonight, although that may be a subjective ‘tonight’. Time is an illusion anyway.
So, when last we left off, Harry, Margot, and some entitled whiny Cobalter named Turner were in a Bond Villain-style laser trap in a sanitarium. (The text crawl says the sanitarium was fake, but the text crawl also says The Shadow ended last episode trapped in the path of the ray when he very clearly was still outside the door so I doubt the text crawl's attention span.)
The Shadow just shoots his way in and shoots the evil ray machine so everything’s fine.
Well, there’ve been worse cliffhanger resolutions in this serial.
Also Harry’s just unabashedly ecstatic at the rescue, going from open-mouthed shock to this relieved grin. I wish I could get a decent still.
.
That is an awfully huge and very easily opened outer window for a death-trap room.
.
There’s been a lot of shooting in this series but I don’t think a single person has actually been shot. Nobody can aim for shit.
.
Well at least this time The Black Tiger is vaguely right in blaming the failure on his henchmen. Will this teach him and/or his cronies not to lay any more overly-elaborate bond-villain traps? Psssh.
.
“This is O'hara, of the press.”
…What press? Don’t you usually have an affiliation with a specific press outlet, like a newspaper? Is ‘The Press’ a super-generically-titled newspaper? I have so many questions about this one exchange.
.
“You mind what the boss said!” Harry, you are such an utter dork.
.
A grenade? …The plan is a grenade? You go through the trouble of tapping a phone, arranging a fake meeting, and laying this trap, and the conclusion is just to lob a pineapple at the car? How underwhelming.
Lamont is apparently explosive-proof because the grenade only manages to ‘shake him up’.
.
He has Harry follow them alone and then we cut immediately to Lamont joining Harry so I question the writers why Lamont didn’t just go with Harry to begin with.
“Remember your instructions” what instructions Lamont you literally just arrived and the last thing you told him to do was phone you
.
Do all of the Tiger’s communications have to involve those weird sculpted heads because you’d think those would be super conspicuous and really hard to explain.
.
THE ‘INSTRUCTIONS’ APPARENTLY INVOLVED HARRY PRETENDING TO BE THE SHADOW WHEN CRANSTON’S COVER IS BLOWN ASDF I’M SCREAMING
.
Look at this cupcake trying to be intimidating
.
Ugh more Lin Chang.
I feel sorry for the actor playing Wu. (Apparently he’s Korean-American. Sorry, had to pause a minute to look him up. His name’s Philip Ahn ftr.)
.
Ahahahah The Shadow grapples with this guy so the guy throws the envelope he’s carrying and Harry just casually catches it
Like what were you hoping to accomplish with that throw, honestly
.
“What’d you get, boss?”
“Just a message from The Black Tiger telling his men to meet him at Melbourne Street.”
You know, JUST the next plot point.
.
Maybe I'm kind of extreme but there is a lit cutting torch RIGHT THERE and none of the villains even thinks to use it as a weapon against The Shadow.
Yet another 'splodey cliffhanger though.
Chinatown Night
is2g if The Shadow just gets up and walks away from another goddamn explosion cliffhanger...
‘Certain death’ my ass, text crawl.
.
I should have a counter for every time Lamont gets blown up and just gets up and walks away from it gfdi this man is explosion-proof
.
“And lose those cops!”
-fifteen seconds and one screenwipe later the cop car is right alongside the cab-
So much for that idea.
.
‘How can we trap The Shadow? We don’t even know who he is!’
“We’ll use Turner for bait!”
Tiger, honey… no. You know that he’s got a thing about Cranston and Cranston’s people (Margot and Harry). He’s saved Turner all of, like… twice, I think. Why would you go for subpar bait?
And I don’t say that just because another Harry kidnapping would make me happy. That’s just a perk.
.
Just go home and get some sleep, Margot, no room for ladyfolk right now.
Poor Margot. I don’t like her screaming but I like her drive.
.
Pff. Subtle. Just drop the keys on the sidewalk.
.
Williams does a crap Shadow impression.
.
Ooooh Turner is tied to a chair with a shotgun rigged up to shoot him if he’s moved. I honestly couldn’t tell until after the thing went off.
So The Shadow’s solution is to use his cloak like a rope to grab Turner’s chair and yank it out of the way, but I have watched the sequence half a dozen times and still cannot wrap my head around how he just ‘tosses’ the cloak and it somehow wraps securely around a peg of the chair.
I like how much use he’s getting out of the cloak in this series, makes it functional as well as aesthetic, but I really don’t understand this sequence.
.
Turner refusing another drink is a really weird place to cut that scene.
.
Lamont invented a technobabble thing that protects against the anti-airplane ray from like four episodes ago. An anti- anti-airplane-ray -ray, if you will.
.
How is the Black Tiger as successful as he is when half of his goons are so incompetent they have to be reminded to use the rope they’re carrying to tie up the prisoner.
And even then they can’t tie the guy up worth half a damn
.
Pffft that was the most anticlimactic splodey-cliffhanger yet.
And yet again the teaser teases the cliffhanger for the next episode???!?
?????
Murder By Remote Control
So... many... splodey... cliffhangers...
Taking no bets on whether he just lifts the safe door off and is fine.
Well, he does, but not in time to stop the criminals, so +1 for the cops this time. The Shadow is really having shit luck with not looking supremely suspicious to the police force.
.
“I’ve had men covering every member of the committee, day and night, and they’re all in the clear.”
Obviously that’s a blatant lie because Cranston is on that committee and you’ve failed to even suspect that he’s THE FRIGGING SHADOW.
Weston are you The Black Tiger? I’m really starting to think you are.
.
Lamont I am not following your train of thought at all.
.
I swear they have used this same shot of The Black Tiger turning invisible in every episode since the first one.
.
“Ridiculous! Gentlemen, you know that I wouldn’t hire a thug to rob a safe!” I’d do it myself! Honestly, the nerve.
.
Wait, if we cut from Lamont telling Weston his idea, to Lin Chang locked up with Harvey, does that mean Lamont admitted to Weston that he’s Lin Chang? Doesn’t that cause trouble for him using the disguise?
.
Lamont just jumped out behind a truck backing up and hitched a ride. Harry looks SO CONCERNED by this development.
.
Yay Harry to the rescue.
.
‘Gentlemen, you understand the REAL use of this machine, but let me mutter it right here in the front of this relatively small room anyway.’
.
Even if I could take this villain and his invisibility shtick seriously, the awkwardly hanging items would ruin it. At least get them still instead of letting them sway around.
.
Yep, there's the 'splodey cliffhanger promised in last episode's teaser.
Ooo, but next week promises more Margot and Harry peril. I can dig it. =D
Wheels of Death
Honestly I’m so done with The Shadow getting blown up, I’m not even gonna pretend that there’s any suspense to be had here. Which is more than can be said for the text crawl, which is still convinced that ‘certain death’ is on the board.
Only three more episodes, though, and this one promised Harry and Margot in peril! Not a kidnapping but I mean I’ve gotten three Harry kidnappings already, I can’t ask for everything.
All of these explosions are apparently aimed upwards, they always collapse the ceiling yet somehow never affect the furnishings.
Surprise, surprise, The Shadow gets up and escapes through a window. This time he opened it first, though.
.
Man, fold-up hats are handy.
gdi they’re blaming The Shadow for destroying the machine instead of giving him credit for saving them when it blew up. He just cannot catch a break.
.
“Somebody substituted nitro bulbs for your volume tubes.”
…Nobody’s gonna question how Lamont knows that? That he doesn’t even suggest it as a hypothesis, he states it as fact? No? Okay.
.
“Don’t get excited.”
I wasn’t going to cap this, because it’s just Lamont getting touchy again and I didn’t think the joke held up out of context (or was that funny in-context), but then I noticed Victor Jory has nice hands, so this cap is entirely self-indulgent.
.
That wasn’t suspicious at all, Lamont. Honestly, you’re supposed to be an ex-spy and better composed than that.
.
I’d make fun of Lamont inventing another machine but I’m pretty sure it’s a ruse. (Isn’t he a chemist, not an engineer? Ah screw it he’s an omnidisciplinary scientist, as usual with genius-types in fiction.)
.
Margot at least give the man gloves before you make him hold the glass container you’re planning to pour boiling liquid into. Are you even gloved? Why are neither of you gloved. Where is your eye protection. This is not safe lab conditions. Margot seriously.
I like the bit of Margot/Harry repartee but that doesn’t make up for your unsafe work practices
.
Aw, they were holding their own pretty well. Margot actually did something other than scream… although there was also screaming.
Yeah, Lamont’s smirk says ‘ruse’.
Poor Harry. At least you guys made it convincing.
.
Aaah Harry’s grin when he realizes the boss tricked The Black Tiger into basically bugging himself. Baby.
Well at least Lamont apologized.
.
Smartipants boss criminal realizes it’s a bug.
Lamont is having the worst luck this series with people coming in at inconvenient times.
Why did you smash the window if you were just going to leave out the front door?
.
Pfffft how convenient that the crate holding the Black Tiger communicator was not among the many crates knocked over in that fight.
.
This time the cliffhanger is that the car rolled, but we see that it ended up back rightside-up.
Two more chapters to go.
The Sealed Room
Stop it with the Certain Death, text crawl, you’re not fooling anyone and it just makes you look silly and melodramatic.
See, they’re fine.
‘the car might be on its side but damned if I’m not going to hold the boss’s door for him.’ Harry Vincent you precious thing.
.
The number of police vehicles responding to this call is wildly inconsistent from one shot to the next
.
Holy shit somebody got shot. Just a grazed arm but still.
Harry honey why are you surprised that Lamont wanted them to get this invention, he just pulled this exact thing.
Dammit I was going to call that the cards all had different addresses but then I thought that’d be dumb and hard to monitor. Shoot.
.
Harry what are you trying to accomplish with that hovering, you can’t help him put on the Lin Chang disguise.
.
Who holds cigarettes between their thumb and forefinger though. Is that a Lamont thing or a Lin Chang thing.
.
So much for Lin Chang. Does this mean the disguise is retired? Please tell me the disguise is retired now.
.
Suddenly weird metal sheeting over the windows. How did no one notice that being installed? That seems like it’ll be a big clue, even if it won’t save these shmucks.
.
Seriously, another 'splodey cliffhanger?
The Shadow's Net Closes
Last episode! Just over 17 minutes left.
I was going to give the text crawl some credit since even if Lamont got out of this one, it looked pretty bad for the other Cobalters, but then it went and claimed he got trapped in the room. Dammit, text crawl.
I do love how quickly the score switches from somber and sad to action-suspense
.
IS FUCKING EVERYONE IN THIS SERIES EXPLOSION-PROOF NOW? FUCK.
.
I hate it when the camera cuts to highlight an object and I have no idea what that object is.
What am I looking at, here?
.
OH it’s a gas mask. Okay.
.
Spinny newspapers!
.
“Even Cranston has deserted us.”
u wot m8
no seriously wtf is that supposed to mean you ass, you’ve been kidnapped, that doesn’t mean Cranston’s not trying to get you back
.
Ffft. -secret wall closes- -shoots at a couple spots until it reopens-
Shoot at the weird magic spotlight, Lamont. Yes, good. Now if only you hadn’t wasted all your ammo on shooting at all the not-obvious targets.
.
Also what happened to the pistol, he seems to be back to a revolver.
.
Aw, The Black Tiger isn’t Weston, he’s one of the other Cobalters. It doesn’t really matter which one.
Lamont why are you unmasking.
.
Did you seriously just disarm a guy by throwing your cloak at him
Also Tiger why did you say ‘You’ll never take me alive’, you’re the one who had the loaded gun in this confrontation
.
Harry you were supposed to follow immediately, why did it take you this long to get in there
.
Did… did the villain just blow himself up?
Oh, he electrocuted himself and his steel bulletproof vest conducted it. The explosive-immunity of this population is not compromised.
.
Aw, in this canon the Shadow guise was specifically to combat The Black Tiger, so he’s planning on retiring it.
.
-meaningful look at Harry- -Harry leaves- -Lamont takes Margot's hands- -fade to black-
Final Thoughts
- Closer to a novel adaptation than a radio show one, so if you’re expecting any ‘clouding of men’s minds’, you’ll be disappointed.
- Victor Jory isn’t exactly the Lamont Cranston of the novels, but he’s a treat to watch nonetheless, making the character more emotive and jovial. He manages a convincing Shadow, too. (Even has reasonably sexy hands -- though no sign of the girasol, sadly.) I think he might be my favorite Shadow actor to date.
- Veda Ann Borg as Margot Lane feels rather underutilized. In the first few episodes I was afraid she’d end up being the useless ‘scream and faint’ type heroine, but she did pick up and contribute more in later episodes, and she wasn’t wanting for smarts or daring. I wound up liking her and just wishing she was written better... and with a few less screams.
- Roger Moore wasn’t a stellar casting choice for Harry Vincent, being a bit small, not quite classically ‘handsome’, and there’s something just off about his voice that I can’t find the word for. Moore’s physical performance is every bit the starry-eyed endlessly loyal precious dork I could hope for, though, and this is the only screen adaptation to include Harry, so I can’t be too harsh.
- They didn’t shy away from Distressed Dude or try to make Margot more of a Damsel, leaving us with only two Margot captures versus three Harry captures. I am happy.
- I really loved that the cloak became a utility item rather than just a fashion accessory.
- So. Many. Splodey. Cliffhangers.
- It can only be concluded that this population is immune to concussive damage, but unaware of this immunity, hence their continuing to treat explosives like srs bsns.
- The writing is sort of meandering. Never too terrible, unless you find excessive poorly-resolved cliffhangers abhorrent, but leans toward the cheesy and expositive.
- I had a hard time keeping track of who any of the Committee members were. They were pretty interchangeable. That rather lessened the effect of the big reveal. I feel slightly cheated that it wasn’t who I suspected, but that was mostly because he was the only one whose name I knew.
- The Black Tiger’s invisibility gimmick got old real fast and ultimately accomplished little more than a mask would have.
- Ugh, last but not least, the yellowface. I guess it’s at least in-character yellowface rather than casting yellowface like with the Charlie Chan movies from the same era? Still uncomfortable to watch in what’s supposed to be our hero.
Overall, leaps and bounds better than the 1937 The Shadow Strikes. Highly recommended, but don’t take it too seriously. Good for a riff or a drinking game, perhaps.
The Underground Trap
Picking back up with Chapter 10! Only five more chapters, so I expect to finish this tonight, although that may be a subjective ‘tonight’. Time is an illusion anyway.
So, when last we left off, Harry, Margot, and some entitled whiny Cobalter named Turner were in a Bond Villain-style laser trap in a sanitarium. (The text crawl says the sanitarium was fake, but the text crawl also says The Shadow ended last episode trapped in the path of the ray when he very clearly was still outside the door so I doubt the text crawl's attention span.)
The Shadow just shoots his way in and shoots the evil ray machine so everything’s fine.
Well, there’ve been worse cliffhanger resolutions in this serial.
Also Harry’s just unabashedly ecstatic at the rescue, going from open-mouthed shock to this relieved grin. I wish I could get a decent still.
.
That is an awfully huge and very easily opened outer window for a death-trap room.
.
There’s been a lot of shooting in this series but I don’t think a single person has actually been shot. Nobody can aim for shit.
.
Well at least this time The Black Tiger is vaguely right in blaming the failure on his henchmen. Will this teach him and/or his cronies not to lay any more overly-elaborate bond-villain traps? Psssh.
.
“This is O'hara, of the press.”
…What press? Don’t you usually have an affiliation with a specific press outlet, like a newspaper? Is ‘The Press’ a super-generically-titled newspaper? I have so many questions about this one exchange.
.
“You mind what the boss said!” Harry, you are such an utter dork.
.
A grenade? …The plan is a grenade? You go through the trouble of tapping a phone, arranging a fake meeting, and laying this trap, and the conclusion is just to lob a pineapple at the car? How underwhelming.
Lamont is apparently explosive-proof because the grenade only manages to ‘shake him up’.
.
He has Harry follow them alone and then we cut immediately to Lamont joining Harry so I question the writers why Lamont didn’t just go with Harry to begin with.
“Remember your instructions” what instructions Lamont you literally just arrived and the last thing you told him to do was phone you
.
Do all of the Tiger’s communications have to involve those weird sculpted heads because you’d think those would be super conspicuous and really hard to explain.
.
THE ‘INSTRUCTIONS’ APPARENTLY INVOLVED HARRY PRETENDING TO BE THE SHADOW WHEN CRANSTON’S COVER IS BLOWN ASDF I’M SCREAMING
.
Look at this cupcake trying to be intimidating
.
Ugh more Lin Chang.
I feel sorry for the actor playing Wu. (Apparently he’s Korean-American. Sorry, had to pause a minute to look him up. His name’s Philip Ahn ftr.)
.
Ahahahah The Shadow grapples with this guy so the guy throws the envelope he’s carrying and Harry just casually catches it
Like what were you hoping to accomplish with that throw, honestly
.
“What’d you get, boss?”
“Just a message from The Black Tiger telling his men to meet him at Melbourne Street.”
You know, JUST the next plot point.
.
Maybe I'm kind of extreme but there is a lit cutting torch RIGHT THERE and none of the villains even thinks to use it as a weapon against The Shadow.
Yet another 'splodey cliffhanger though.
Chinatown Night
is2g if The Shadow just gets up and walks away from another goddamn explosion cliffhanger...
‘Certain death’ my ass, text crawl.
.
I should have a counter for every time Lamont gets blown up and just gets up and walks away from it gfdi this man is explosion-proof
.
“And lose those cops!”
-fifteen seconds and one screenwipe later the cop car is right alongside the cab-
So much for that idea.
.
‘How can we trap The Shadow? We don’t even know who he is!’
“We’ll use Turner for bait!”
Tiger, honey… no. You know that he’s got a thing about Cranston and Cranston’s people (Margot and Harry). He’s saved Turner all of, like… twice, I think. Why would you go for subpar bait?
And I don’t say that just because another Harry kidnapping would make me happy. That’s just a perk.
.
Just go home and get some sleep, Margot, no room for ladyfolk right now.
Poor Margot. I don’t like her screaming but I like her drive.
.
Pff. Subtle. Just drop the keys on the sidewalk.
.
Williams does a crap Shadow impression.
.
Ooooh Turner is tied to a chair with a shotgun rigged up to shoot him if he’s moved. I honestly couldn’t tell until after the thing went off.
So The Shadow’s solution is to use his cloak like a rope to grab Turner’s chair and yank it out of the way, but I have watched the sequence half a dozen times and still cannot wrap my head around how he just ‘tosses’ the cloak and it somehow wraps securely around a peg of the chair.
I like how much use he’s getting out of the cloak in this series, makes it functional as well as aesthetic, but I really don’t understand this sequence.
.
Turner refusing another drink is a really weird place to cut that scene.
.
Lamont invented a technobabble thing that protects against the anti-airplane ray from like four episodes ago. An anti- anti-airplane-ray -ray, if you will.
.
How is the Black Tiger as successful as he is when half of his goons are so incompetent they have to be reminded to use the rope they’re carrying to tie up the prisoner.
And even then they can’t tie the guy up worth half a damn
.
Pffft that was the most anticlimactic splodey-cliffhanger yet.
And yet again the teaser teases the cliffhanger for the next episode???!?
?????
Murder By Remote Control
So... many... splodey... cliffhangers...
Taking no bets on whether he just lifts the safe door off and is fine.
Well, he does, but not in time to stop the criminals, so +1 for the cops this time. The Shadow is really having shit luck with not looking supremely suspicious to the police force.
.
“I’ve had men covering every member of the committee, day and night, and they’re all in the clear.”
Obviously that’s a blatant lie because Cranston is on that committee and you’ve failed to even suspect that he’s THE FRIGGING SHADOW.
Weston are you The Black Tiger? I’m really starting to think you are.
.
Lamont I am not following your train of thought at all.
.
I swear they have used this same shot of The Black Tiger turning invisible in every episode since the first one.
.
“Ridiculous! Gentlemen, you know that I wouldn’t hire a thug to rob a safe!” I’d do it myself! Honestly, the nerve.
.
Wait, if we cut from Lamont telling Weston his idea, to Lin Chang locked up with Harvey, does that mean Lamont admitted to Weston that he’s Lin Chang? Doesn’t that cause trouble for him using the disguise?
.
Lamont just jumped out behind a truck backing up and hitched a ride. Harry looks SO CONCERNED by this development.
.
Yay Harry to the rescue.
.
‘Gentlemen, you understand the REAL use of this machine, but let me mutter it right here in the front of this relatively small room anyway.’
.
Even if I could take this villain and his invisibility shtick seriously, the awkwardly hanging items would ruin it. At least get them still instead of letting them sway around.
.
Yep, there's the 'splodey cliffhanger promised in last episode's teaser.
Ooo, but next week promises more Margot and Harry peril. I can dig it. =D
Wheels of Death
Honestly I’m so done with The Shadow getting blown up, I’m not even gonna pretend that there’s any suspense to be had here. Which is more than can be said for the text crawl, which is still convinced that ‘certain death’ is on the board.
Only three more episodes, though, and this one promised Harry and Margot in peril! Not a kidnapping but I mean I’ve gotten three Harry kidnappings already, I can’t ask for everything.
All of these explosions are apparently aimed upwards, they always collapse the ceiling yet somehow never affect the furnishings.
Surprise, surprise, The Shadow gets up and escapes through a window. This time he opened it first, though.
.
Man, fold-up hats are handy.
gdi they’re blaming The Shadow for destroying the machine instead of giving him credit for saving them when it blew up. He just cannot catch a break.
.
“Somebody substituted nitro bulbs for your volume tubes.”
…Nobody’s gonna question how Lamont knows that? That he doesn’t even suggest it as a hypothesis, he states it as fact? No? Okay.
.
“Don’t get excited.”
I wasn’t going to cap this, because it’s just Lamont getting touchy again and I didn’t think the joke held up out of context (or was that funny in-context), but then I noticed Victor Jory has nice hands, so this cap is entirely self-indulgent.
.
That wasn’t suspicious at all, Lamont. Honestly, you’re supposed to be an ex-spy and better composed than that.
.
I’d make fun of Lamont inventing another machine but I’m pretty sure it’s a ruse. (Isn’t he a chemist, not an engineer? Ah screw it he’s an omnidisciplinary scientist, as usual with genius-types in fiction.)
.
Margot at least give the man gloves before you make him hold the glass container you’re planning to pour boiling liquid into. Are you even gloved? Why are neither of you gloved. Where is your eye protection. This is not safe lab conditions. Margot seriously.
I like the bit of Margot/Harry repartee but that doesn’t make up for your unsafe work practices
.
Aw, they were holding their own pretty well. Margot actually did something other than scream… although there was also screaming.
Yeah, Lamont’s smirk says ‘ruse’.
Poor Harry. At least you guys made it convincing.
.
Aaah Harry’s grin when he realizes the boss tricked The Black Tiger into basically bugging himself. Baby.
Well at least Lamont apologized.
.
Smartipants boss criminal realizes it’s a bug.
Lamont is having the worst luck this series with people coming in at inconvenient times.
Why did you smash the window if you were just going to leave out the front door?
.
Pfffft how convenient that the crate holding the Black Tiger communicator was not among the many crates knocked over in that fight.
.
This time the cliffhanger is that the car rolled, but we see that it ended up back rightside-up.
Two more chapters to go.
The Sealed Room
Stop it with the Certain Death, text crawl, you’re not fooling anyone and it just makes you look silly and melodramatic.
See, they’re fine.
‘the car might be on its side but damned if I’m not going to hold the boss’s door for him.’ Harry Vincent you precious thing.
.
The number of police vehicles responding to this call is wildly inconsistent from one shot to the next
.
Holy shit somebody got shot. Just a grazed arm but still.
Harry honey why are you surprised that Lamont wanted them to get this invention, he just pulled this exact thing.
Dammit I was going to call that the cards all had different addresses but then I thought that’d be dumb and hard to monitor. Shoot.
.
Harry what are you trying to accomplish with that hovering, you can’t help him put on the Lin Chang disguise.
.
Who holds cigarettes between their thumb and forefinger though. Is that a Lamont thing or a Lin Chang thing.
.
So much for Lin Chang. Does this mean the disguise is retired? Please tell me the disguise is retired now.
.
Suddenly weird metal sheeting over the windows. How did no one notice that being installed? That seems like it’ll be a big clue, even if it won’t save these shmucks.
.
Seriously, another 'splodey cliffhanger?
The Shadow's Net Closes
Last episode! Just over 17 minutes left.
I was going to give the text crawl some credit since even if Lamont got out of this one, it looked pretty bad for the other Cobalters, but then it went and claimed he got trapped in the room. Dammit, text crawl.
I do love how quickly the score switches from somber and sad to action-suspense
.
IS FUCKING EVERYONE IN THIS SERIES EXPLOSION-PROOF NOW? FUCK.
.
I hate it when the camera cuts to highlight an object and I have no idea what that object is.
What am I looking at, here?
.
OH it’s a gas mask. Okay.
.
Spinny newspapers!
.
“Even Cranston has deserted us.”
u wot m8
no seriously wtf is that supposed to mean you ass, you’ve been kidnapped, that doesn’t mean Cranston’s not trying to get you back
.
Ffft. -secret wall closes- -shoots at a couple spots until it reopens-
Shoot at the weird magic spotlight, Lamont. Yes, good. Now if only you hadn’t wasted all your ammo on shooting at all the not-obvious targets.
.
Also what happened to the pistol, he seems to be back to a revolver.
.
Aw, The Black Tiger isn’t Weston, he’s one of the other Cobalters. It doesn’t really matter which one.
Lamont why are you unmasking.
.
Did you seriously just disarm a guy by throwing your cloak at him
Also Tiger why did you say ‘You’ll never take me alive’, you’re the one who had the loaded gun in this confrontation
.
Harry you were supposed to follow immediately, why did it take you this long to get in there
.
Did… did the villain just blow himself up?
Oh, he electrocuted himself and his steel bulletproof vest conducted it. The explosive-immunity of this population is not compromised.
.
Aw, in this canon the Shadow guise was specifically to combat The Black Tiger, so he’s planning on retiring it.
.
-meaningful look at Harry- -Harry leaves- -Lamont takes Margot's hands- -fade to black-
Final Thoughts
- Closer to a novel adaptation than a radio show one, so if you’re expecting any ‘clouding of men’s minds’, you’ll be disappointed.
- Victor Jory isn’t exactly the Lamont Cranston of the novels, but he’s a treat to watch nonetheless, making the character more emotive and jovial. He manages a convincing Shadow, too. (Even has reasonably sexy hands -- though no sign of the girasol, sadly.) I think he might be my favorite Shadow actor to date.
- Veda Ann Borg as Margot Lane feels rather underutilized. In the first few episodes I was afraid she’d end up being the useless ‘scream and faint’ type heroine, but she did pick up and contribute more in later episodes, and she wasn’t wanting for smarts or daring. I wound up liking her and just wishing she was written better... and with a few less screams.
- Roger Moore wasn’t a stellar casting choice for Harry Vincent, being a bit small, not quite classically ‘handsome’, and there’s something just off about his voice that I can’t find the word for. Moore’s physical performance is every bit the starry-eyed endlessly loyal precious dork I could hope for, though, and this is the only screen adaptation to include Harry, so I can’t be too harsh.
- They didn’t shy away from Distressed Dude or try to make Margot more of a Damsel, leaving us with only two Margot captures versus three Harry captures. I am happy.
- I really loved that the cloak became a utility item rather than just a fashion accessory.
- So. Many. Splodey. Cliffhangers.
- It can only be concluded that this population is immune to concussive damage, but unaware of this immunity, hence their continuing to treat explosives like srs bsns.
- The writing is sort of meandering. Never too terrible, unless you find excessive poorly-resolved cliffhangers abhorrent, but leans toward the cheesy and expositive.
- I had a hard time keeping track of who any of the Committee members were. They were pretty interchangeable. That rather lessened the effect of the big reveal. I feel slightly cheated that it wasn’t who I suspected, but that was mostly because he was the only one whose name I knew.
- The Black Tiger’s invisibility gimmick got old real fast and ultimately accomplished little more than a mask would have.
- Ugh, last but not least, the yellowface. I guess it’s at least in-character yellowface rather than casting yellowface like with the Charlie Chan movies from the same era? Still uncomfortable to watch in what’s supposed to be our hero.
Overall, leaps and bounds better than the 1937 The Shadow Strikes. Highly recommended, but don’t take it too seriously. Good for a riff or a drinking game, perhaps.