Rod LaRocque is Lamont Cranston (spelled 'Granston' in a newspaper clipping). He's a scientific criminologist - you can tell because he has a microscope on his desk - who is harrying local criminals as The Shadow. He gets some crooks attempting to rob a lawyer's sage. When the police arrive to arrest them, LaRocque pretends to be the lawyer whose office it is, whereupon some old buffer calls up to write a new will in the middle of the night. Off LaRoque goes, chats with the man, and is there when the guy is mysteriously shot.
It's another attempt to transfer the hit radio character to the movies, but with an effort to avoid all the mystic hoo-ha and potted aphorisms. Director Lynn Shores attempts to do this by means of putting long gaps between the lines and having LaRocque deliver his sides in a slightly befuddled manner.
It's always decently done, despite these oddities, and the fact that you know that as soon as a secondary plot shows up, it's going to lead back to the murder.
In the end, Cranston's manservant is about to throw away the Shadow's hat and cape. LaRocque stops him, saying they might need the Shadow again. They didn't, not in the movies, anyway.
It's another attempt to transfer the hit radio character to the movies, but with an effort to avoid all the mystic hoo-ha and potted aphorisms. Director Lynn Shores attempts to do this by means of putting long gaps between the lines and having LaRocque deliver his sides in a slightly befuddled manner.
It's always decently done, despite these oddities, and the fact that you know that as soon as a secondary plot shows up, it's going to lead back to the murder.
In the end, Cranston's manservant is about to throw away the Shadow's hat and cape. LaRocque stops him, saying they might need the Shadow again. They didn't, not in the movies, anyway.