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The Shadow (1940) was the ninth serial released by Columbia Pictures. It was based upon the classic radio series and pulp magazine superhero character of the same name.

The Shadow
Directed by	James W. Horne
Screenplay by	Joseph F. Poland (as Joseph Poland) Ned Dandy Joseph O'Donnell
Based on	Walter B. Gibson (based upon stories in "The Shadow" magazine by)
Starring	Victor Jory
Cinematography	James S. Brown Jr.
Edited by	Dwight Caldwell
Music by	Lee Zahler
Production company	Columbia Pictures
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	January 5, 1940 (1940-01-05)
Running time	285 minutes (15 episodes)
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

The Shadow battles a villain known as The Black Tiger, who has the power to make himself invisible and is attempting domination of major financial and business concerns.

Victor Jory's Shadow is faithful to the radio character, especially the radio show's signature: the sinister chuckle of the invisible Shadow as he confronts the villain or his henchmen. Columbia, however, relied on fistfights, chases, and headlong action in its serials, and disliked the prospect of a 15-chapter adventure where the audience would not see much of the heroics, because the leading character was supposed to be invisible. By basing the serial more on the pulp fiction version and turning the mysterious Shadow into a flesh-and-blood figure, plainly visible wearing a black hat and black cloak, Columbia patterned the serial after its wildly successful serial, The Spider's Web (1938), itself based on a masked hero of pulp fiction. The Spider was the respectable Richard Wentworth, who terrorized the underworld as the mysterious Spider and infiltrated gangland under a third identity, small-time crook Blinky McQuade. Columbia copied the triple-role format for The Shadow, with the stalwart Lamont Cranston baffling criminals as The Shadow wearing a similar disguise and moving among them as their Asian confederate Lin Chang.

Chapter titles

The serial is split into fifteen episodes._Source:[1]

1. The Doomed City
2. The Shadow Attacks
3. The Shadow's Peril
4. In the Tiger's Lair
5. Danger Above
6. The Shadow's Trap
7. Where Horror Waits
8. The Shadow Rides the Rails
9. The Devil in White
10. The Underground Trap
11. Chinatown Night
12. Murder by Remote Control
13. Wheels of Death
14. The Sealed Room
15. The Shadow's Net Closes

Cast

• Victor Jory as Lamont Cranston - aka 'The Shadow'
• Veda Ann Borg as Margo Lane
• Roger Moore as Harry Vincent
• Robert Fiske as Stanford Marshall - aka 'The Black Tiger'
• J. Paul Jones as Mr. Turner
• Jack Ingram as Flint
• Chuck Hamilton as Roberts - Henchman
• Edward Peil Sr. as Inspector Joe Cardona
• Frank LaRue as Commissioner Ralph Weston
• Harry Tenbrook (uncredited) as Adams

Release

Theatrical

The Shadow was released on 1 June 1940, Veda Ann Borg's 25th birthday.[2]

Critical reception

Opinion on the serial, especially as an adaptation on the pulp magazine source material, is mixed. Harmon and Glut are critical of the serial. Filming The Shadow in brightly lit environments undermines the mystery and menace of the character. The quality of the plotting is also brought into question for its lack of imagination and the fact that the hero appears to survive cliffhanger endings and other threats for no reason other than that he is the serial's masked hero.[3] On the other hand, Cline praises the serial. The mystery of the pulp magazine was preserved by both the hero and villain being masked. This lent an ambiguity from the point of view of the other characters that also pervaded the source material, so "for the audience the result was perfectly compatible and a pure delight".[2]

See also

• List of film serials by year
• List of film serials by studio

References

External links

• The Shadow at IMDb
• The Shadow at AllMovie
• Cinefania.com

Preceded by Overland with Kit Carson (1939)	Columbia Serial The Shadow (1940)	Succeeded by Terry and the Pirates (1940)

На других языках

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- [en] The Shadow (serial)

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[ru] Тень (киносериал)

«Тень» (англ. The Shadow) — американский киносериал по мотивам журнального цикла фантастико-детективных романов о борце с преступностью Тени. Снятые на киностудии Columbia Pictures 15 эпизодов по 20 минут демонстрировались в 1940 году. Этот сериал стал уже третьей экранизацией историй о Тени, до него на экраны вышло два полнометражных фильма — «Тень наносит удар» (1937) и «Международная преступность» (1939), в которых главную роль играл Род Ла Рок. Кроме того, с 1937 года в эфире американских радиостанций звучали радиопостановки приключений Тени, пользовавшиеся большой популярностью[1]. Сериал, однако, никак не был связан ни с предыдущими фильмами, ни с радиопостановками и был гораздо ближе к оригинальным романам[2].

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