lge-946-225487 I enjoy this movie and have watched it several times (free on Amazon Prime). The colorful characters and some snappy dialog are what attracts me. 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. She gets off some good lines, like this: Waiter: More caviar, madame? Astrid Allwyn: Oh, no! If I eat any more of that buckshot, I'll pass out!Lew Hearn as Moe is a colorful character. He bails out Cranston, and standing outside the cell, Cranston asks how much he owes him. Moe says something like, "Is this a place to talk business? It'll be on your bill."Thomas E. Jackson is enjoyable as always, as a gruff, put-upon police commissioner. 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. But all in all I like this movie and will no doubt watch it again.

bkoganbing 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. Hardly anything new there. 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.

csteidler 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.

Scott_Mercer 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. None of the "wealthy playboy" secret identity here. None of the secret disguises (unless you count a monocle and a bad German accent), and none of the awesome "metaphysically manipulating the weak minds of criminals" mind tricks. BO-RING! 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. I won't give it the indignity of a one rating, since they did a fair job on a low budget. But a three is as high as I can go.