The Shadow Fan

Plot Overview for The Shadow 1940 Serial:

The Shadow battles a villain known as The Black Tiger, who has the power to make himself invisible and is trying to take over the world with his death ray.

The plot begins with dynamited railroads, wrecked airplanes and blown-up industrial plants, with the clear message that nothing is safe from the machinations of the secret mastermind of the underworld known only as The Black Tiger. The man has plans to take over everything. While the police make only a few futile arrests, Lamont Cranston, noted scientist and criminologist, assumes the disguise of a black-garbed, masked figure (The Shadow) to combat this evil. The police,of course, assume that The Shadow and The Black Tiger are one and the same.

Cranston works with Police Commissioner Weston and a group of solid citizen businessmen including Joseph Rand (Charles K. French), Gilbert Hill (Gordon Hart), Stanford Marshall (Robert Fiske), Turner (J. Paul Jones) and Stephen Prescott (Griff Barnett), and somewhere in nearly every chapter Cranston, Weston, Cardona and these solid citizens gather at The Cobalt Club and Cranston brings them up to date on the next steps to rid the city of The Black Tiger.

Summary written by Les Adams {longhorn@abilene.com}

The most interesting thing about this serial is that the Black Tiger is only invisible when he goes into this special light that he has in his lair. Then The Shadow can only be seen by light so how is The Shadow supposed to win!? Well I guess you'll just have to see the movie to find that out...

Cast and Crew:

Directed by
James W. Horne

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ned Dandy
Walter B. Gibson stories
Joseph O'Donnell (I)
Joseph F. Poland

Cast (in credits order)
Victor Jory (I) .... Lamont Cranston/The Shadow/Lin Chang
Veda Ann Borg .... Margo Lane
Roger Moore (II) .... Harry Vincent
Robert Fiske (I) .... Stanford Marshall
J. Paul Jones .... Turner
Jack Ingram (I) .... Flint, chief thug
Frank LaRue .... Commissioner Weston
Charles Hamilton (I) .... Roberts
Edward Peil Sr. .... Inspector Cardona
rest of cast listed alphabetically
Philip Ahn .... Wu Yung (uncredited)
Griff Barnett .... Stephen Prescott (uncredited)
Dick Botiller .... Henchman Green (uncredited)
Budd Buster .... Beggar giving Cranston tip on radio shop (uncredited)
Horace B. Carpenter .... Driver of Hi-jacked Car (uncredited)
Richard Cramer (I) .... Voice of 'The Black Mask' (uncredited)
Vernon Dent .... Kent (uncredited)
Joe Devlin .... Henchman (uncredited)
Charles Dorety .... Henchman (Ch.4, 7) (uncredited)
Lester Dorr .... Henchman (uncredited)
Franklyn Farnum .... Henchman Sparks (Ch. 5, 6) (uncredited)
Eddie Fetherston .... Henchman Williams (uncredited)
Charles K. French .... Joseph Rand (uncredited)
Kit Guard .... Henchman Clark (uncredited)
Frank Hagney .... Henchman kidnapping Cranston (uncredited)
Gordon Hart (I) .... Albert Hill (uncredited)
Lloyd Ingraham .... Judge (Ch. 1) (uncredited)
Johnny Kascier .... Henchman (uncredited)
Charles King (II) .... Henchman Russell (uncredited)
Rex Lease .... Garage Henchman (uncredited)
Tom London .... Driver of Hi-jacked Truck (Ch. 12) (uncredited)
Sam Lufkin .... Attendant & Henchman (uncredited)
Mary MacLaren .... Nurse Plunkitt (uncredited)
Murdock MacQuarrie .... Richards, the Butler working with the gang (uncredited)
Lew Meehan .... Dispatcher (uncredited)
Frank Mills (I) .... Henchman (Ch. 4) (uncredited)
George Morrell .... Man selling Newspapers (uncredited)
Jack Perrin .... Airplane Mechanic (uncredited)
Constantine Romanoff .... Henchman (uncredited)
Dick Rush (I) .... Policeman (uncredited)
Lewis Sargent .... Henchman (uncredited) (as Lew Sargent)
Cy Schindell .... Henchman Streeter (uncredited)
Charles Sullivan (I) .... Diner Man (uncredited)
Harry Tenbrook .... Henchman Adams (uncredited)
Al Thompson (I) .... Henchman (Ch. 2, 10, 15) (uncredited)
Duke York .... Henchman (Ch. 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15) (uncredited)

Produced by
Larry Darmour .... producer

Original Music by
Lee Zahler

Cinematography by
James S. Brown Jr.

Film Editing by
Dwight Caldwell

Special Effects by
Ken Strickfaden .... electrical effects

Other crew
Lee Zahler .... musical director

Runtime: 285 min (15 episodes)
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Black and White
Sound Mix: Mono
Release Date: 2 January 1940 (premiere)

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