Film What was the last movie you watched? Part 2

[squeekness]

Young Guns II

 

[Sculder]

Let's Be Happy (1957)
Marche à l'ombre (1984)

 

[Hunter Rider]

It's a great concept and a decent movie but I couldn't help but think how much more could have been done with it, ripe for a remake.

7.8/10

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

The Shadow Returns (1946)

The first of three Shadow movies from Monogram Pictures, all starring Kane Richmond as Lamont Cranston/The Shadow, and Barbara Read as his girlfriend/assistant Margo Lane. The confusing plot involves jewels recovered from a businessman's grave, secret formulas, and a series of apparent suicide leaps that Cranston is convinced are murders - but cannot work out how they're done. As the police plod along in their investigation, Cranston - making a show of being an inept nuisance and getting in the way - secretly does some snooping of his own... as the Shadow.

Nothing is shown here of the Shadow's ability to hypnotise, become seemingly invisible, or 'cloud men's minds', and we never hear his demonic laugh. Instead he's more like the Saint or the Falcon - except that every now and then he pulls on a trenchcoat, hat, and mask. And whilst traditionally the Shadow's adventures have a pretty dark aspect to them (as captured well in the 1994 movie), here it's lighter, with lots of snappy banter played for laughs. The cast are solid, B movie regulars who do a good job with what they're given, and the leads are engaging; but the mystery doesn't really grab hold, and the whole thing ends up feeling pretty frivolous. 5/10

 

[NDX]

Final Destination 2

 

[Frodo]

In Broad Daylight (1991)

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

The Shadow in Behind the Mask (1946)

This second of Monogram's three Shadow movies again features Kane Richmond as Lamont Cranston/The Shadow, and Barbara Read as his girlfriend/assistant Margo Lane. It starts with a well-done, gritty set-up; a blackmailing reporter makes his way through rain-streaked streets at night, to various dingy illegal 'bookies' and nightclubs, meeting with 'clients' and taking payments. One client decides enough is enough and has the blackmailer taken care of in a manner that implicates the Shadow. Cranston sets out to catch the murderer and to clear his alter-ego's name.

Sadly, after such a promising opening this reverts to the 'Thin Man' style banter that dragged the first one down, and by the half-way point plummets into 'comedy' that really isn't funny now. The tension built so well at the beginning just evaporates. On top of that, the Shadow hardly appears, with most of his work done as Lamont Cranston (who, as before, is played like any other amateur detective or adventurer of the era, with no mystical abilities). By the end the killer is caught and the Shadow is exonerated, but it's hard to care. There's a good, noir story in here, but it's squandered. A definite drop. 4/10

 

[Hunter Rider]

Always been my favourite Indy movie, I wore the VHS out as a kid it's really dark in places and also the pulpiest of tbe series, just a rollicking oldschool adventure, i love the film's opening and the mine car chase sequence, while the showdown on the bridge remains epic!

10/10

 

[P Supreme]

Deep Impact
65

 

[Batgirl0202]

Yes it's as bad as you've heard...

3/10

 

[Sculder]

The Frightened City (1961)
Pour cent briques t'as plus rien / For 200 Grand, You Get Nothing Now (1982)

 

[Hunter Rider]

7.8/10

 

[Immortalfire]

Apollo 13

I will die on the hill that this movie should have won best picture instead of Braveheart

 

[NDX]

Final Destination 3

 

[KaijuDude1992]

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

The Shadow in The Missing Lady (1946)

Starring - for the last time - Kane Richmond as Lamont Cranston/The Shadow, and Barbara Read as his girlfriend Margo Lane, this plays like a cheap version of The Maltese Falcon. The 'Missing Lady' of the title is a jade statue, stolen during a robbery in which an art dealer is killed. Cranston sets out to find the murderer and recover the statue, but whenever he thinks he's identified the culprit that person winds up dead as well, leading the police to suspect that he is behind the murders and the theft.

This final Monogram Shadow movie is the best of the three.The God-awful 'comedy' that plagued the second one is dialled right back, and whilst there's still light relief, it's nowhere near as insufferable as before. In fact the picture has a 'heavier' atmosphere throughout, and feels far closer to a straight noir mystery - Bogart and Cagney wouldn't look out of place! Like the last film the Shadow doesn't appear much, leaving Cranston to do the donkey work. But the solution is a satisfying one that makes perfect sense. 6/10

 

[-Arya-]

10/10

 

[Ash J. Williams]

The fourth one is Vacations of Terror.

 

[Gothamsknight]

 

[Hunter Rider]

8/10

 

[Hunter Rider]

Blatantly rips off bits of Raiders and Temple of Doom (they even cast Jonathan Rhys Davies) and stitches them together into a low budget action adventure filled with hammy acting and lame action, i haven't seen this since I was a kid and didn't recall it being so campy.

4.5/10

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

The Shadow Strikes (1937)

This is the Shadow's first big screen feature (he appeared in six 15-20 minute shorts in the early 1930s), and the first of two produced by Colony Pictures. The Shadow foils a burglary at an attorney's office. As the police arrive to arrest the culprits, the Shadow slips into a side office to change to his alter ego, Lamont Granston (spelled here with a 'G' for some reason). However, after being spotted by a police officer, he is forced to pose as the attorney who occupies the office. Before he can get away he becomes embroiled in a mystery surrounding the murder of one of the attorney's wealthy clients, who was just about to change his will...

Setting the trend for the next nine years, this Shadow is not someone with mystical powers and the hypnotic ability to 'cloud men's minds'; he's simply an amateur detective (the Shadow identity gets very little screentime, establishing another bemusing trend). But a plus here is that whilst there are light-hearted moments, there's no attempt to turn the film into a 'screwball comedy' (the absence of the Margo Lane character may have helped with that). The Shadow is played by the likeable Rod La Rocque (who comes across as a discount Ronald Coleman), the supporting cast are good, and the mystery has a strong air of 'Agatha Christie'. 6.5/10

Incidentally, whilst watching this it suddenly struck me what a fantastic Shadow/Lamont Cranston Vincent Price would have made, maniacal laugh and all!

 

[psylockolussus]

Breakfast at Tiffany's

 

[Gothamsknight]

oh my god

10/10

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

The Shadow: International Crime (1938)

This second of Colony Pictures' two Shadow movies again stars the hugely likeable Rod La Rocque as Lamont Cranston (this time spelled correctly with a 'C'). Weirdly, this shares zero continuity with the previous entry, The Shadow Strikes; Cranston here isn't a masked avenger, but a crime reporter, with a newspaper column and his own radio show. Both are done under the title of 'The Shadow', but everybody (readers/listeners, police, criminals) knows he's Lamont Cranston. There is secret no alter ego. The muddled plot involves Viennese criminals who are either a) trying to secure funding for a foreign power, or b) trying to prevent funding for a foreign power; it isn't really clear, but along the way we get murder, burglary, and kidnapping.

What's interesting is that a misfire of the 1940s Shadow movies actually works well here; the banter between Cranston and the newly introduced Phoebe (not 'Margo') Lane, played by Astrid Allwyn, some of which is 'laugh-out-loud' funny. The chemistry between them is first rate, and if you take this as its own thing and not a Shadow movie it's very slick and enjoyable. Of course, it is a Shadow movie, which comes with certain expectations - none of which are met. All of which makes it difficult to rate. I guess overall... 7/10