The Shadow Returns

The Shadow Returns is a 1946 American comedy crime film directed by Phil Rosen and starring Kane Richmond, Barbara Read, and Tom Dugan. It features the pulp-fiction character The Shadow, already a popular hero of novels and a radio show. It was the first in a series of three films released by Monogram Pictures in 1946 starring Richmond in the role.

Plot
Private detective Lamont Cranston steps in to solve a murder for the police with the assistance of his alter ego, The Shadow.

Cast

 * Kane Richmond as Lamont Cranston/The Shadow
 * Barbara Read as Margo Lane
 * Tom Dugan as Shrevvy
 * Joseph Crehan as Police Insp. Cardona
 * Pierre Watkin as Police Commissioner J.R. Weston
 * Robert Emmett Keane as Charles Frobay
 * Frank Reicher as Michael Hasdon
 * Lester Dorr as William Monk
 * Rebel Randall as Lenore Jessup
 * Emmett Vogan as Joseph Yomans, aka Paul Breck
 * Sherry Hall as Robert Buell
 * Cyril Delevanti as John Adams, the Butler

Reception
The New York Times called The Shadow Returns "the first of three above-average Monogram features" but that the character Margo Lane, an intelligent and resourceful character on the radio series, was portrayed as a "blithering idiot" and that Margo came off "far stupider than the film's official comedy relief, Cranston's chauffeur Shrevvie". The Shadow Returns was thought to be "an entertaining mystery" and the disappearing gimmick considered "handled with subtlety and inventiveness" by director Phil Rosen.

Sequels
The film was followed by two sequels, Behind the Mask (1946) and The Missing Lady (1946), with Kane Richmond and Barbara Read reprising their roles.