mark.waltz Review of The Shadow Strikes

The Shadow Strikes (1937)

The shadows of this plotline are in the fog as the mystery unfolds.

[4/10 · 7 January 2018]

Silent and early talkie star Rod La Rocque lacks in real screen magnetism in this murder mystery where he's involved in the family scandals with a rich man, shot and killed through a window as they spoke. The murdered man had made threats to disinherit certain family members, giving plenty of people motive for murder. There's even more suspects as this convoluted mystery gets underway, with presumed members of the underworld doing their best to get their hands on the will. It's slow, pondering, creaky with long pauses, and only passably acted. The insinuations of a series never came to fruition, fortunately, perhaps because of the success of the unrelated radio series, and mostly because of the obvious necessity to replace La Rocque had they decided to go that route. Only a minor actor playing an amusingly tough butler gives this any spark, with the romantic and family angles of the mystery never interesting enough to really get the audience to be in invested in really caring "Who done it".