Best movie of this year hands down!

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Jeff Mann is a terrible person. He's a part-time new reporter and part-time blackmailer. In other words, as he investigates crimes, he digs up lots of dirt on people and uses it do bleed these crooks. Not surprisingly, he is soon killed--by a man dressed up like the Shadow. Now Lamont Cranston (the real Shadow) is going to prove he's innocent by finding the real killer.This movie came out many years after the pulp magazine and radio versions of The Shadow. That is why it's so inexplicable that the film ISN'T close to being correct--they SHOULD have known the character better. The radio version (the most famous of them) was a practitioner of Asian arts--with the hypnotic ability to cloud people's minds, to influence them to do what he wants and to make himself seem invisible. This was a HUGE part of the character--yet NONE of that is in this film. Instead, he just guides a dumb cop to solve the crime. As a result, he's pretty much like any other B-movie detective--and bears MUCH more similarity to Bulldog Drummond and the Saint--both of which also were always about to become married when crimes strike and distract the hero. As a result of this sameness, the film comes off as much blander than it should. Overall, a typical B-movie that has lost its sense of uniqueness--which it SHOULD have. Not terrible (especially since it has a mildly funny sense of humor about it) but not all that great either.By the way, although it's been used in films and TV, killing someone by injecting air into the veins is NOT an easy thing and is way too impractical and difficult a thing to really be employed. I've talked to doctors about this (since my wife writes thrillers) and they assure me it's just not a way you can easily kill someone--especially not in the manner you see here in the film. Trust me on this one.

Lamont Cranston, aka the Shadow, has his hands full as the murder of blackmailing reporter Jeff Mann is blamed on him.After having seen "The Shadow" with Alec Baldwin, I felt it was important to seek out older incarnations. This one was on Netflix, so it was easy to pick. And, while I enjoyed it, it also lacks the crime-fighting elements that I enjoyed with the newer version.The Shadow here does not seem to have any powers, or even much charisma. He is just a rich guy with a butler. And Margo Lane is more on his case here, coming off as a nag. I like her better in the newer version, as well. It may not be fair to compare a film from 1946 with one made 50 years later... but what choice do I have? There is still much to enjoy here, but I cannot see this as a lost treasure.

An early B comedy by Phil Karlson this was a nice surprise with a stone cold open on an odious blackmailer making his rounds. Ooops! It's a crusading reporter shaking down his list of suckers. The opening scene has him slapping a "sucker", who kinda likes it, and then relieving her of the stiletto she was about to slide into his back. So there's no shortage of suspects.Kane Richmond is solid as Lamont/Shadow with a Jack Carson-like presence, albeit on a B level. The rest of the cast has a few familiar faces. Condolences to others who also peg the killer. It's a formulaic cliché that has been done to death but I actually liked that I could finger the culprit at first siting. Lots of inappropriate humor, S&M is a strong undercurrent with a comical cross dressing sequence thrown in, this movie begins and ends with slaps and spankings. If you think this stuff is "corny" because it's period 40s... too bad for you.

Kane Richmond returns for his second stint as Lamont Cranston/The Shadow in this fourth movie in The Shadow series.up to this point,this this is my least favourite.for me,it was boring and tedious.i didn't find the story all that interesting,or engaging.and the movie annoyed me at times,especially with how loud it was at times.by that i mean lot of shrill screeching,a lot of it by the character of Margo Lane(Barbara Read).Shrevvy(George Chandler)is fairly helpful to Cranston,having more to do this time,and is less of a dim bulb than in the previous movie.that's a positive,at least.overall though,this was a disappointing entry.my vote for Behind the Mask is a 4/10