International Crime

Plot synopsis:
Lamont Cranston is an amateur criminologist and detective, who hosts a daily radio program sponsored by the Daily Classic newspaper. He has developed a friendly but occasionally terse feud with Police Commissioner Weston. Cranston complains to his managing editor, Edward Heath, about his incompetent new assistant, Phoebe Lane. Heath advises him that because she is the publisher's niece, she cannot be fired. During his radio broadcast, Phoebe gives Cranston a note that the Metropolitan Theatre is to be robbed at eight o'clock. Afterwards, he learns she got the information from a man she met in a café. Cranston goes to the theatre; Weston and his men have already arrived, but there is no crime. Across town, international banker Gerald Morton is killed and his safe is robbed.
Cranston arrives there ahead of the police and gathers evidence. The irate Weston has him jailed as a material witness, but Phoebe gets him released with a writ of habeas corpus in time for his next broadcast. Honest John, a safe cracker whose release from prison was championed by Cranston, bursts into the studio and demands at gun point that Cranston exonerate him; the police suspect that he committed the Morton robbery. Weston rushes to the studio but Honest John escapes.
Cranston takes Phoebe on a tour of night clubs and she identifies the man who gave her the robbery warning. Cranston poses as a European visitor and introduces himself to the man, whose name is Flotow. Flotow recognizes Phoebe and invites them to join him and his companion, Starkov, at his apartment after the bar closes. They leave together, but Cranston suspects a trap. He makes excuses to allow Phoebe and himself to depart, but they make a lunch date for the next day.
While Flotow and Starkov are waiting for Cranston to join them for lunch, Cranston breaks into Flotow's apartment and discovers Phoebe has already done the same. Cranston answers Flotow's phone; Morton's butler, believing him to be Flotow, tells him there is a meeting at the Morton home that afternoon. Flotow and Starkov return and attempt to detain Cranston and Pheobe. Moe, Cranston's driver, rescues them by flashing his "gun", which is really a cigarette case. After they leave, Morton's butler calls back and Flotow knows he is suspected.
Cranston finishes a newspaper column designed to bait Flotow. As he leaves to act on the intercepted butler's call, Cranston is forced into Moe's cab at gun point by Honest John. Cranston gets the upper hand by using Moe's "gun". After John confesses that he only came back to town to get a fresh start, Cranston reveals the fake gun and forgives the "kidnapping". Commissioner Weston is angered by Cranston's column and sends a man to arrest Cranston for withholding information from the police. The policeman gets a tip that Cranston is going to Morton's house.
Flotow and Starkov arrive at the Morton house and are admitted by the duplicitous butler. They surprise Morton's brother and force him to open the safe. As they explain their motive for killing his brother, they force him to write a "suicide" note and give him a gun with one bullet. Cranston and Honest John intervene. John holds the malefactors at gun point, while Cranston lets in the police. As Weston's assistant tries to arrest Cranston, the butler tries to sneak out the front door. Cranston throws a potted plant to hit the butler but hits Commissioner Weston as he enters the door.
Cranston's broadcast reveals the details of the case and compliments the police for their conduct of the investigation; both Weston and Heath are pleased. Cranston closes the broadcast with the line, "Crime does not pay!"

Tags: murder

Review:
The Shadow turns celebrity newspaper columnist.
Definitely the better of the two Shadow movies starring Rod La Rocque.
This time, Lamont Cranston is a crusading crime journalist who writes a daily column entitled "The Shadow"!
Completely lacking in the film noir, supernatural atmosphere of the radio series and the magazine.
This Rod La Rocque/"Shadow" feature is pretty entertaining for a B-mystery.
It combines the main mystery story with the Shadow's running battles of wits with the police and others.
The two Shadow features with La Rocque both have a different feel from the radio and print stories, but both are watchable, and this one is the better of the two.In this story, the Shadow has a radio show and a newspaper column, both of which he puts to use in solving the murder case that arises.
The mystery itself is often just a sidelight to the Shadow's personal entanglements with the police commissioner, with his new, overly eager assistant (Astrid Allwyn), and with some of the principals in the case.It's the kind of interesting, complex setup that a first-class writer could have done a great deal more with.
Kind of disappointing to realize that these two Shadow films made contemporaneously with the Shadow pulp magazine and the radio show's original releases are far less faithful to the character's mythos than the 1993 film with Alec Baldwin!
The pulp magazine is probably the most intense iteration of The Shadow, with plenty of supernatural adventures and mystical side tracks.
The radio show is almost as good, with a little more crime busting/film noir attitude and lots more dealings with common thugs or criminal masterminds than with metaphysical foes.This film and its companion are the most lightweight of the bunch, with a very light tone and no mystical elements whatsoever.
Everybody knows LaMont Cranston is The Shadow, who is merely a newspaper columnist and radio show host.
No cool sidekicks; he has only his ditzy assistant, a narcoleptic leg man and a goofy Yiddish-accented cabbie with a gun-shaped cigarette holder to assist him.Going in to this with no prior knowledge of the Shadow character, I could see how somebody would find this to be an enjoyable puff piece.
But I was bitterly disappointed, having read (only a few!) of the original Shadow stories from the 30's, and heard a few of the original radio shows.
This time the Shadow is nothing more than a lure to get kids to listen to police reports.
The Shadow is purely imaginary and exists only as a picture on the wall of Lamont Cranston's office and the heading of his newspaper column.
The story itself isn't bad, but they could have easily have left any reference to the Shadow or Lamont Cranston out of it and it would have been just as well.
If you are seeking a movie containing the beloved pulp fiction character you would be better to ignore this one and look elsewhere..
The second of the Rod La Rocque Shadow movies is a vast improvement on the first, and bears no relation to that film or anything else about the character.In this, Lamont Cranston is a newspaper/radio reporter who writes a column on crime, as well as having a radio show.
He is aided by Phoebe Lane, an aspiring reporter, in unraveling a mystery.The mystery is interesting enough to hold interest and involves a crime that baffles everyone.
There is some good scenes, especially with Cranston and Phoebe.
But the characters (other than the Shadow) are all over the place.
Her final scene makes no sense after what we've seen before it.But the movie does move along fairly well and the mystery is intriguing enough.
This time the Shadow has a radio show.
Everyone seems to know he is LaMont Cranston.
He is at the behest of radio executives and newspaper men and always seems to have trouble getting to the studio on time.
There is so much potential in the Shadow's character to come up with a first rate noir film.
There are characters coming at each other from all directions, but ultimately the Shadow knows.
I would bet you that given a 1930's audience and a slight rewrite of the screenplay, no one would even know this movie is based on the wonderful old radio show..
Director Charles Lamont and star Rod LaRocque had both been around for a LONG time in the silents.
In this talkie, LaRocque is radio host Lamont Cranston, who thinks he gets a hot tip of a crime about to happen from "citizen" Phoebe Lane (Astrid Allwyn).
When things don't turn out right, the cops are upset, so now its up to Cranston to solve the mystery himself.
He Does NOT Turn Into The Shadow - LAME Film.
To me, this is NOT a Shadow film.
The Shadow in this case is still Lamont Cranston but "The Shadow" is his persona as a radio news broadcaster!
She is the most irritating character, no wonder Lamont Cranston wanted to give her a hard time - but she is the niece of the owner of the radio station so she can do whatever she pleases - including ruin the station I'm assuming (she was doing at great job at that when I started fast-forwarding through the film)!
It was her that totally ruined what might have been an okay film for me to watch - I can't stand her!
Lamont Cranston does not turn into The Shadow as he should and this Phoebe chick *deep sighs*!
I'm sorry I can't give this one a good review - and it's NOT a "Shadow" film if Cranston does not turn into "The Shadow" - and that Phoebe!!
The mystery aspects and especially Rod LaRocque's cheesy foreign accent (used in a few scenes) are not.I like Astrid Allwyn as the young, eager girl-Friday-wannabe-- slightly ditsy, but not outlandishly so.
I remember him as the gruff, put-upon editor in "Nancy Drew, Reporter." And Peter Potter is memorable as Cranston's assistant, with that sleepy-sounding Oklahoma drawl of his.The mystery, the safe-cracking Honest John, and all that, is not to be dismissed, though there are some corny aspects of the plot.
Not the radio's man of mystery who always knew everything.
International Conspiracy is the second of two movies about the famous radio detective The Shadow who on radio has a genius for disguise and for blending into the background.
None of that was utilized as in the other Shadow film that Rod LaRocque starred in for poverty row studio Grand National Pictures.Instead LaRocque is a newspaper columnist with his own radio show where he delights in continually showing up the cops in the solving of crimes.
My criticism is the same as it was for the other Shadow film, that audiences were probably buying tickets in anticipation of seeing the Shadow they knew from radio and LaRocque while interesting and entertaining just wasn't it.The International Conspiracy involves The Shadow battling some foreign counterrevolutionaries who are trying to prevent US banking houses from funding loans to the new government in their country.
Do I have to tell you who came out ahead?LaRocque and girlfriend Astrid Allwyn made a fine pair of sleuths aided and abetted by Lew Hern as a Jewish cabdriver who seems to be on permanent retainer by The Shadow.
Hern was quite droll in his characterization.This Shadow film was slightly better than the other one LaRocque made for Grand National, but it wasn't the regular Shadow that millions of radio listeners expected..
Rod La Roque stars as "the Shadow"--a combination radio celebrity and amateur crime solver.
And, along for the ride is one of the most common clichés in crime films of the era--the spunky and occasionally annoying reporter (who also happens to be the daughter of the radio station owner).
Together, they investigate a crime AND have a good time!
But, on the positive side, La Roque was very good in the movie--and it makes you wonder why he had faded to a B-actor after a relatively promising series of films in the 1920s and early 30s.Adequate..
Actually it was in my DVD Mystery set and "The Shadow"s exploits are well-known, even if am too young to have heard his radio shows."International Crime", however, does nothing to enhance his memory or reputation.
The biggest shock was to find that Rod La Rocque was such an incredibly bad actor - he must have been better in silents, as here he overacts and seems to have no range and no flair for light comedy.
The sole bright spot is Lou Hearn as a cabbie with a yiddish accent.The screen play is embarrassing and pointless, something to do with Nazi agents extorting money from a rich merchant, plus a running (unfunny) gag about an inept local Police Dept.If you own the same DVD set as myself, skip this one - or turn on the radio..
Rod Laroque is back for a second film as Lamont Cranston.
As presented here, the Shadow is none other than a radio host who does a nightly broadcast commenting on crime in the city and offering theories and suggestions to listeners and police alike—he's a kind of Walter Winchell of crime.The plot concerns a blown up safe, a murder, and a large sum of money that a pair of shady Europeans are attempting to send or prevent from being sent over to their homeland.
Those plot details are not abundantly clear; however, plot here is really secondary to the witty interactions between characters that produce quite an entertaining little film.There is, of course, the police commissioner who resents the Shadow's criticism but never misses a broadcast; Moe the cabbie always on standby to transport Cranston; and Cranston's crusty news editor.Most importantly, there is Astryd Allwyn as Phoebe Lane, a sort of unwanted assistant to Cranston who has her job only because she is the publisher's niece.
Allwyn brings in misleading scoops, follows her boss around despite his protests, and—when alone in the office studio—practices her own radio broadcasts, imagining herself as the real brains behind the Shadow ("Ladies and gentleman, this is Phoebe Lane, the Shadow's shadow").
Allwyn and Laroque have a nice chemistry and some fun wordplay; especially silly but amusing is the scene in which Cranston tries out on her every European accent he knows as they narrow down the nationality of the mysterious man she had earlier encountered.This Lamont Cranston is a harder egg than the one seen in the previous year's The Shadow Strikes.
Early on in the picture, he is asked, "If it wasn't robbery, what was it?" His one word answer—"Murder"—is delivered while lighting a cigarette and with an edge altogether different from the secretive and somewhat mild character he played in the earlier film.Whether or not this Shadow is a worthy entry among the uneven ranks of other movie Shadows is for the purists to decide; taken strictly on its own as a low-budget mystery, International Crime is fast-paced, easy to watch and offers plenty of laughs..
This picture has all the slap dash feel of it's predecessor, "The Shadow Strikes" from the prior year, also starring Rod LaRocque.
Even movie neophytes can figure out that this Shadow has no resemblance at all to the character made famous in pulp magazines of the era.
To make matters worse, Lamont Cranston even utters the line from my summary above, lending credence to the idea that the writers of this picture really had no idea what they were doing.
It was simply an attempt to capitalize on the Shadow name by putting together a loosely constructed story around a murder and espionage scheme involving foreign bonds, and it's so convoluted that it's hard to maintain focus while watching.Case in point - the lounge scene when Phoebe Lane (Astrid Allwyn) intrudes upon Cranston's conversation with the two foreigners.
The bad guys want to lure the couple back to their apartment for a drink, Cranston (in a disguise consisting of a single monocle) declines, Phoebe insists on going.
Once outside, it looks like rain, can't go, Cranston gives Phoebe the bum's rush, and the pair of international heavyweight crime barons just go along with it.Believe it or not, the most interesting thing I found about this picture had to do with the posters outside the Metropolitan Theater where Phoebe's phony robbery tip sent Cranston and the police.
What I couldn't figure out though, was why the film makers decided to place Cranston and Commissioner Weston (Thomas E.
second in The Shadow series of movies.
this second movie in the Shadow series is no better or worst than the first one,in my opinion.Rod La Rocque is back as Lamont Cranston.however,in this one,Cranston plays a newspaper columnist,with a column called The Shadow Says and he hosts a short radio show running through the latest crime,as the voice of The Shadow.so if you're expecting Cranston to solve this case as The Shadow,or the Shadow to make an actual appearance you might be disappointed.in this movie Cranston solves another case,this time with the assistance of Phoebe Lane(who works at the same newspaper)who he meets while pondering the case.yes,i said Phoebe,not Margo.(Margo Lane is Cranston's sidekick in the long running The Shadow radio program)..
64 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Lamont Cranston, alias The Shadow (Rod La Rocque) is a witty Walter Winchell character who writes and broadcasts a newspaper column in which he lampoons the city's bungling police force.
Cranston rescues the paper by foiling an elaborate murder/embezzlement plot and handing the police a full (if totally undeserved) credit for the capture of the criminals.
NOTES: Second of the seven The Shadow pictures.
The first, The Shadow Strikes (1937) also starred Rod La Rocque.
Monogram Pictures entered the fray in 1946 with The Shadow Returns, starring Kane Richmond, who also played The Shadow in Behind the Mask (1946) and The Missing Lady (1946).
Finally, Republic lensed Bourbon Street Shadows in 1958, starring Richard Derr.COMMENT: One of the best "B" films ever made, it's hard to believe that this movie is so little-known today.
Based on an extremely popular radio serial, you'd expect to find a host of fans singing the picture's praises.
The Shadow depicted here cleverly departs somewhat from the comic strip character with cloak and wide-brimmed hat.
Instead La Rocque and his ingenious scriptwriter have opted to present the hero as a suave, sarcastic radio commentator who has it in for the police.
The problem here of course is that former matinee idol La Rocque, despite his ingratiating performance (we love the scene in which he runs through a variety of foreign accents in radioese for the benefit of the My Friend Irma-brained heroine, so capably impersonated by Astrid Allwyn), is unknown to the corduroy set.
But, as it happens, The Shadow is not the only colorful character in the play.
Case of the Missing Shadow: A Light-Weight Mystery Comedy.
In the late 1930's Grand National Pictures released two films based on the popular magazine and radio character, The Shadow.
The first outing, 1937's THE SHADOW STRIKES saw silent film star Rod La Rocque donning hat and cape, in a rather bland drawing room mystery.
Ironically, this crime thriller without the thrills had been very loosely adapted from a legitimate Shadow Magazine adventure.
Gone was almost any connection to the Shadow character as he appeared in the magazine series, or even the character from the previous film.
This time out, all inspiration was derived from THE SHADOW radio program.The thing that needs to be understood here is that The Shadow is really a split personality.
On radio he was Lamont Cranston, amateur criminologist and "wealthy young man about town", who in the ancient Orient had learned the "power to cloud men's minds so they cannot see him." "Friend and companion" Margo Lane was also an invention of the radio series, though she was later shoehorned into the prose adventures as well.
INTERNATIONAL CRIME features almost all the standards of the radio Shadow: Lamont Cranston, amateur criminologist, Margo Lane (though here called "Phoebe Lane") as his Girl Friday, cabbie Moe Shrevnitz, and foil Commissioner Weston.
In fact, the only significant player missing is The Shadow himself.Cranston (still played by Rod La Rocque, but with considerably more energy) is now a newspaper columnist and radio personality who goes by the on-air non deplume of "The Shadow".
In the middle of a broadcast, his overeager and stereotypically ditzy blonde assistant, Phoebe, hands him an ill advised tip on an upcoming box-office robbery, that is actually a red-herring to draw away the police so that another crime may be more easily committed elsewhere.
Already in the doghouse with Police Commissioner Weston for his caustic commentary on the capabilities of the constabulary, Cranston's reputation is now on the line, unless he can solve the real crime, a combination theft and murder, himself.
But the sleuthing is never really the main point of the film: the detecting is really just a framework to hang the movie's humorous elements on.
From the moment that Phoebe crashes into the middle of Cranston's radio broadcast, the audience knows what kind of film this is supposed to be and just sits back to enjoy the ride.There is one other very odd element to the film that begs noting one that may have gone unnoticed by the movie going public of 1938.
Today it is remarkable to consider that such a plot device could have been used in the same year that Neville Chamberlain made his fateful, "peace in our time" speech, and impossible to believe that such an element would have been allowed to stand if this film had been made even a year later.While fairly predictable, the film nevertheless rolls along at a good clip, providing a light weight, light-hearted and fairly amusing crime comedy in a similar vein, but a lower rent district, to the Nick and Nora Charles or Mr. And Mrs. Smith adventures.
INTERNATIONAL CRIME is both a drastic change and a huge improvement over the feeble and stodgy THE SHADOW STRIKES.