TFS The Shadow 1933 Movie Review Finale

The Very Embodiment Of March Sadness… THIS ENDING!
Ok. Do I need to tell you that the obvious foppish Bayard was The Shadow all this time? Probably not, but I’ll say it anyway.

Technically this is the worse part of the movie. Several scenes are falling apart, they seemed to loop two silent stock reel footage (of an Inspector running to a door), and obvious scenes missing.

For instance when evidence is placed trying to implicate the Yard Chief? The scene ends abruptly mid scene. I’m just going to assume that it’s part of the missing six minutes of footage.

Given how low key and off the radar this movie is? It would take a literal act of God to have some restoration minded studio restore this, and either locate other copies of the original 1933 release…

Why? Well to splice in healthy footage from to replace damaged footage here. Either that or go the Classic Doctor Who route and, working from original scripts or the original play, recreate lost scenes in animation and voice alikes.

At this point I don’t think they’ll fully restore this movie without taking some liberties, and reshooting whole scenes in animation of well crafted CGI. But that requires a studio who actually gives a fan about restoring this movie!

Look. It’s not the best 30s era movie I’ve ever seen. It feels as if it was shot in the set of the original stage play, and everything just feels too obvious in terms of solutions. Almost.

As you are about to see there is ONE twist. Just the one. Anyway let’s get to it. I won’t bore you with play by play. Let’s get to the solution. By first cleaning away the red herrings.

It’s not Mr. Silverton and his wife. At one point he vanishes. Why? Because the plot said so. Supposedly he vanished over to a neighboring manor and looted it. Thinking best to rob a place not surrounded by cops.

But that was stupid. Because by now he must know they were trapped in the manor with The Shadow. His being missing was easily noticed. Which means cops were waiting for his return.

But he and the missus might get off the hook on all this. Why? Guess what! He’s a master safe cracker, and we need that safe opened to bring this movie to a close! So… Yeah.

Is it Jenny’s Fiancee? Despite keeping her and him separate so long? No. Red Herring. He proposes to her, gifts her a wedding ring… And 1933 Movie so no implied sex scene. Ok. Happy ending.

So if Mr. Silverton wasn’t running about needing the lights turned off to go upstairs earlier in the movie? And we find out if wasn’t The Shadow? Who was the other person haunting the house? It’s… A convicted criminal trying to escape the country.

Why is he at the manor of the Yard Chief? He had no choice. He needed help from the house butler, aka his father. Dad should be ok. They won’t arrest an old man for helping his son.

So our master safe cracker opens the safe. Jenny… who by the way finally told someone who The Shadow is a bit earlier. The new Inspector who ends up baiting the master criminal until they catch him. So…

Ok let’s not dally. It’s that foppish bastard who was so can obvious throughout he might as well cried IM NOT THE SHADOW every time you saw him… Which he kinda did but yeah. Asshole.

From what I can speculate? The full motive may be part of the list footage because the movie doesn’t explain much… But I’m pretty sure his blackmailing was all to get rich without trying… Almost.

He was in the ideal position to be The Shadow. An unassuming individual that nobody takes seriously. The movie beats that fact into you several times throughout. Kinda overdoing it actually.

Because he’s not seen as a threat? He’s in the ideal position to gather all the dirt he needs to blackmail for money. Especially since he was never really good at his day job as a writer. That and he knows the Yard Chief rather well.

So I’m the end it wasn’t revenge. A man against the power. No. It was an egotistical loathsome fop who did it because he’s smarter than the whole Yard. Not smart enough to earn an actual living from his specialty. But smart because he’s an asshole.

Movie ends with him telling the new Inspector See?? I told you you couldn’t catch The Shadow without me!!… Then the end card appears, saying The End. And someone in the audience vows to punch the original play’s playwright if they ever meet… Sigh.

And that is The Shadow. 1933 UK The World Stage Beckons Edition. It’s an ok movie. And yes, even if I didn’t like it as much as I hoped? I still want it fully restored. No movie left behind and all that.

Do I even need to say that today’s Sadness is the horribly obvious ending of this movie? No? Ok. Tomorrow we move to 1937. New York City… And, yes, the Classic Golden Age Shadow. Aka the Lamont Cranston version.

Some guys pop in to rob from the office of an attorney, but they tangle with The Shadow. The cops arrive, forcing The Shadow to assume the identity of the attorney to avoid capture. Sounds simple, but we will see how this plays out. Tomorrow. See you.

TFS The Shadow 1933 Movie Review Part 3

Who’s Ready To Be Misdirected!
Sigh. From this point forward the name of the game seems to be misdirection. To steer you away from the one who is The Shadow. Ugh. Its going to be the foppish book writer isn’t it!

Why bring in a Bonnie & Clyde criminal duo? Because the male has a gun. And your supposed to figure out who shot who. Was it The Shadow? Or was it Mr. Silverton the con artist?

If he’s there to rob the place why start shooting? He overheard that the Inspector who talked to the Yard Chief is coming over. His own overtly active imagination fills in the blanks.

Despite the fact the newspapers this crook reads on the regular bas the Chief pursuing The Shadow? He thinks the Inspector is coming for him. So… Kill him before he’s found out and arrested.

That’s the idea your supposed to have. But with the guy listening in as the Inspector and Chief talks? Its clear that they’re after The Shadow. Odds are he slinks away to hide, as The Shadow shows up… Hmm…

No. He and the wife can’t just flee. Inspector informs us he did as I thought, bought men to cordon off the house. Keep people from escaping. Knowing fully well that The Shadow is in the house. Nope. Don’t know how they’ll keep him from escaping in the fog.

Is it too painfully obvious that Elliot (the foppish writer) is always elsewhere when The Shadow appears? Also I! Noticing this was all filmed as if they just used the giant stage play sets to film the movie. Why not. Its a common thing these days.

Of course then they would have called this The Shadow Live if they named it then like they name Broadway shows filmed for theaters or direct to Digital/DVD now.Anyway Inspector shot.

Inspector dies just when he was going to say who The Shadow is. He dies. But he gave the vital locket over to the Chief. Anyway its time yo kill time watching Elliot be an asshole thinking he can do the cops jobs better than them.

Is this all to prove he’s not The Shadow? Or kill time and pad out the play? In either case watch it all if you think these scenes will reveal vital clues. They probably do. I skipped them after awhile.

Remember Jenny? Who may know who The Shadow is? She asks her father (The Chief) to see the locket. Suddenly he conveniently lost the key to the safe… Or did he lose it?

Earlier we had The Shadow sneak by Jenny in the dark. Did he pickpocket the key in his guise as whoever? Elliot maybe? And retrieve the locket? Maybe?

The whole missing key thing leads to the Yard blokes in the house (fresh Inspector sent for the other guy’s murder and Chief) being fired upon by an unknown attacker from upstairs. Where The Shadow was last heading according to scene progression.

Again we have to decide if this is The Shadow, or Mr. Silverton. Except… Again, why him? He already knows the place is surrounded. He’s not going to add a death sentence to his crimes.

Once again Elliot is absent at a critical Shadow appearance. Silverton is absent. And Jenny is close to revealing who The Shadow is… So will this movie get on with it? Maybe tomorrow. Sigh. See you then.

TFS The Shadow 1933 Movie Review Part 2

NO ONE SHALL BE ADMITTED DURING THE POURING OF THE TEA SCENE!!
And no. That’s not a euphemism for sex. This is a 1930s UK Suspense movie! SOMEBODY HAS TO POUR THE TEA DAMMIT!! Double bonus of its Earl Grey, Hot. Poured by a guy named Picard!

Suddenly the simple countryside manor reveal of The Shadow starts to become more and more complicated. As you begin to notice possible spots where the damaged footage was cut away.

Brief recap. This is not the Lamont Cranston Shadow. Instead this is based on a live stage play of the same name, about a blackmailer murderer called The Shadow.

Though has he killed yet? Technically he killed Inspector Jeffrey at the start. Except he might get live, having uncovered the Shadow’s identity. But he won’t be lonely if he’s dead. More will soon die.

Why? Because it seems claiming hold of that one piece of evidence suddenly means people known who the Shadow is! But that’s not complicated enough! It gets worse!

But let’s kill time. Time killed with a foppish British writer, who hits on his pretty friend (a music composer) named Jenny… Writer… Music Composer…oh fuck! Is this going to end like Mousetrap? Where they survive and write all this into a popular play?!?

Wait. So your telling me Mousetrap might have been inspired by this under the radar British play which went on to become an under the radar British movie?!? Why!!

Main master of the house Chief Guy, and old lady who seems frisker than anyone is comfortable with… She likes British Constables!… Even though the head of the house leads Scotland Yard Detectives… How so? I think she wants to be locked in a room with them and given the nightstick… Yes I’m horrible. What of it.

Ok. Past the long attempt for Mr. Writer to propose marriage to Jenny. Shot down because Jenny is engaged to marry maybe The Shadow. And past the tea pouring, followed by the tea drinking!!

Ok let’s get to it. The nifty gritty. We find out what kind of special locker it is they got from Jeffrey’s maybe dead hand. A locket that is… A clenched fist… Huh? The sign of the BRPD?!? Young John Hurt was The Shadow before finding Hellboy in WWII?!?

Hearing this description freaks out Jenny. I’m assuming it’s because that little trinket belongs to her absent fiance. Meanwhile our Inspector back in London calls, but the phone lines are cut by The Shadow. Whose already at the manor.

Before he can cut the lines completely, we learn that the Inspector is coming. As he has discovered the identity of The Shadow. And, like that dude for cancer he found last week? And those cryptic warnings from the future about a young German named Hitler? HE PROBABLY TELLS NO ONE!!

No seriously what kind of carnival side show is Scotland Yard in this movie?!? The minute he learned the identity? He’s supposed to go back to the Yard, harass a judge, and get warrants and a large force together to arrest the guy! Not this movie I bet!

But why stop there? The Shadow is here. Inspector is coming with his identity. Jenny knows his identity. Enter a pair of unknowing con artists, a husband/wife duo playing as siblings. They’re here to rob the place, unaware of the madness they walked into.

And so this carnival of would be victims and one Shadow has been gathered. Why is the Shadow here? Is he really going to carry through with the blackmail attempt he was given those letters on? Despite the fact a Yard cop have it to him?? Is he really that dumb??

Sigh. Guess next time we will find out why the Shadow decided to arrive at the obvious gathering in the woods. See who he tries to blackmail… And see how the unexpected addition of com artists to the mix affects his plans.

The stage is set. Let the drama commence. Tomorrow. See you then everyone. Oh. Yes. After this? The Shadow Strikes 1937. Which actually stars Lamont Cranston aka The Shadow. Promise.

Twickenham Film Studio (TFS) The Shadow 2933 Movie Review Part 1

The Shadow? There Is Another… Skywal… I Mean Shadow!
Excuse me. Anyway yes. There is more than one Shadow. In this case Twickenham Film Studio’s The Shadow. UK film based on… The Shadow. A UK stage play by Gerard Verner (pen alias Donald Stuart).

Released by a classic movie group called Film Hub, you have a feeling that Film Hub… Just did all this for cheap easy money. Why? Because they didn’t bother spending any money on film restoration! That’s why!

And no. Telling me they wanted it yo feel authentic won’t cut it. They wanted it yo feel authentic they would have restored the film to visually look like how it was released in 1933!!

Worse yet, this version sold by Amazon Prime? 70 minutes. While this means you are watching the original uncut version? (The United States 1933 release was edited down to 64 minutes) It also means 6 minutes of the original version is lost!

…eh… No. Six minutes of decayed in restored footage is not enough to stick the whole of this movie into Lost Media Resistance over at Facebook. Its just poor restoration work.

But, alternatively, Im guessing this is the best copy found. This is a over 90 year old film reel we are talking about here. And remember, proper authentic film archiving and storage won’t be invented until the 60s thanks to Desilu Productions!

So yes. This is The Shadow. But the source material is a London West End stage play about a blackmailer named The Shadow. Not the crime fighting vigilante The Shadow. Heck, if the movie ends with The Shadow being defeated by The Shadow? Meta!!

So keep its stage play history in mind as we roll into London 1933, and The Shadow. The movie opens with The Shadow, A rather posh arrogant sounding guy, blackmailing the London District Attorney.

He might be a criminal, but he wouldn’t be here unless the targets he’s after had some dark skeletons in their black and white closets. What is it exactly this district attorney has? Whatever it is means prison time if his secrets are revealed.

Unable to come up with the 10K British Pound that The Shadow wants, he decides to commit suicide… Which is exactly the way we see past victims of The Shadow have ended their lives. Blackmailed into suicide.

So… Either The Shadow is the UKs worst blackmailer? Or he has a hidden vendetta past the supposed monetary gains by blackmail. After all… You can’t get blackmail from dead people!

Enter… Then quickly exit Scotland Yard Inspector… Jeffrey? He does seemingly fast so who cares. Before committing suicide, the DA called in to Scotland Yard. Reporting that he was visited by The Shadow… But not why he was visited.

Once he was dead? They found the blackmail note. They might have even deduced why he wad blackmailed. But we don’t find out anymore about his blackmail. The movie is moving on.

Despite hid superior’s warnings, our Inspector decides to try and entrap The Shadow. How? For the past so many weeks he’s been milling about the dark underbelly of London, under the guise of an information peddler.

Turns out he’s struck gold. He was approached by The Shadow for info he has. Letters implicating a rich woman of having an extramarital affair. However he decides to arrest him alone.

Under said Info peddler guise, he goes to a remote location and sells The Shadow the info for 200 Pounds. Then… He makes the mistake of trying to arrest him. Revealing his identity only to himself. Which… Shocks him.

Who is The Shadow? I’m guessing he’s a rich influential individual with an axe to grind against the six men he blackmailed to death in the past eight months. Why? Only the movie kbows… For now.

They end up fighting (all in the shadows), and the Inspector is shot dead. But not before wrenching a vital clue as to The Shadow’s identity off of him. A piece of jewelry that might be a family crest or indicate his motive for killing these powerful men.

It doesn’t take long for Scotland Yard to recover the body of their fallen comrade, and that sends the whole Yard into a tailspin. Only this time, after the death of one of their own, they have a lead.

As one of the Inspectors who worked on the case the longest hunts down clues to the one piece of evidence that cost an Inspector his life? We find out that the head of Scotland Yard… Is suddenly a potential next target.

Why? Well its the weekend. His posh estate is filling up with potential suspects as The Shadow (all people that said head knows as family or close friends). And we seem to be focusing on his mild House Party over the weekend.

You think we would follow the Inspector as he chases The Shadow. Nope. Looks like the Shadow has been working his way through the powerful of 1933 London. With the head of the Yard being his next victim? Maybe?

So we start the trip to Evil Mirror Universe Downton Abbey Estate by listening to a posh guest complain about how the UK is so foggy! Really! Next he’ll complain about how Egypt is sandy!!

So which one of these guests is The Shadow? What is the significance of the item that cost that Inspector his life? Who is the target st this remote manor? And why all this blackmail?

These are the questions we will slowly unpack from our British Steamer Trunk as we continue with The Shadow. Tomorrow. See you.