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Charles LamontInternational Crime (1938)

You can find more information regarding this film on its IMDb page.


This movie is part of the collection: Feature Films

Director: Charles Lamont
Audio/Visual: sound, b&w
Keywords: Mystery

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Shadows_Girl - - August 21, 2007
Subject: Shadow of the Shadow
Now here is a subject I know a fair bit amount since my late uncle Bret (real name Burt) Morrison WAS "The Shadow" for a good many years. So, let's talk about THIS version and we'll look at a brief history of how the character evolved over the years while we're at it).

ORIGINALLY "The Shadow" was NOT a character at all. What he WAS was a radio announcer (in the style of Raymond on "Inner Sanctum" or Old Nancy on "The Witch's Tale" or The Man in Black on "Suspense" or...but you get the idea so I'll stop before I travel through time all the way to the Crypt-Keeper. He did NOT take part in the stories he presented. He just introduced them and, later, closed the show. In fact, the show wasn't even CALLED The Shadow at the time. It was called DETECTIVE STORY HOUR and was sponsored by Street and Smith publications. There was no Shadow Magazine, either, and Walter B. Gibson (alias Maxwell Grant) had nothing to do with any of this up to this point. The Shadow also served to introduce and narrate a program devoted to Love Stories. This was all between 1930 and 1938. But THEN things changed. Orson Welles was hired to be "The Shadow" as we know him today with Margo (not Phoebe) Lane as his companion and with the alternate identity of Lamont Cranston and Walter B. Gibson was NOW writing the stories that would appear in THE SHADOW MAGAZINE as well as provide fodder for the radio series.
Actually, in the original stories as published in THE SHADOW MAGAZINE, Lamont Cranston ISN'T The Shadow. And he didn't have the power to cloud men's minds. What he had was stealth and a mastery of disguise (think Ninja training). Oh his real name was Kent Allard but he sometimes borrowed Cranston's identity when Cranston was out of town (Cranston knew about this and was agreeable to it).
OK, well, we could go on forever about The Shadow and his various incarnations and upgrades but we'll put it like this---THIS movie is somewhere in between the James LoCurto/Frank Readick versions of The Shadow as announcer and narrator and the later Orson Welles/Lamont Cranston/Shadow version that later became standard whenever radio or film presented the character to us.
So this version is valid on its own terms, I think, because a "standardized Shadow" hadn't yet appeared because of the differences between the magazine stories and the radio version. (These later all but disappeared as the magazine version began to mimic the radio version to please the fans).
So please always remember and never forget:

"The weed of crime bears bitter fruit, crime does NOT pay...the Shadow knows....MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Reviewer: jimelena - - August 4, 2007
Subject: Seen it
I'd forgotten that I'd already seen this.
Because it is very forgettalble.

Reviewer: billbarstad - - April 15, 2006
Subject: Seen worse
A pretty forgettable film all in all. Similar to a 'Thin Man' movie. There are some funny bits. The jail scene has a funny rubbery drunk.

I downloaded the mpeg1 file. The audio was quite clean, the video, however, was poor.

Reviewer: cashel - - July 16, 2004
Subject: flashback to silentf ilms
The lead actor, Rod La Rocque was one of stars of silent films. He started in 1914 and continued till 1941. It is a myth that SOund ended the careers of most careers. In reality , they continued acting but as they aged their vogue diminished . He retired wealthy and happy to his farming estate in 1941 . It is a pity that the script of this film is rather dull .Rod and his wife Vilma are mentioned in film SUNSET BOULEVARD..."William Holden says that"Vilma Banky and Rod La Rocque must have swam in that pool a thousand nights ago"Actually vilma was never able to swim" This Quote is from a book by K C Lahue. (thanks,Kalton)..

Reviewer: Bangkok Ajarn - - July 14, 2004
Subject: Worth the time
This is a fun little B-movie with a typical B-movie plot, typical B-movie acting and dialogue. It seems to be extremely loosely based on the old Shadow radio program. You have Lamont Cranston as the shadow, but this shadow is a crime reporter/radio announcer/amateur criminologist and doesn't have the power to "cloud men's minds" to make himself invisible. There is also police commissioner Weston like in the Radio Show, but the female lead is Febe Lane and not Margo Lane. Go figure! It isn't a classic but is an interesting little piece of work for those who enjoy old-style simplistic detective stories like myself.

Reviewer: Bangkok Ajarn - - July 14, 2004
Subject: Worth the time
This is a fun little B-movie with a typical B-movie plot, typical B-movie acting and dialogue. It seems to be extremely loosely based on the old Shadow radio program. You have Lamont Cranston as the shadow, but this shadow is a crime reporter/radio announcer/amateur criminologist and doesn't have the power to "cloud men's minds" to make himself invisible. There is also police commissioner Weston like in the Radio Show, but the female lead is Febe Lane and not Margo Lane. Go figure! It isn't a classic but is an interesting little piece of work for those who enjoy old-style simplistic detective stories like myself.