Son of the Revenge of the 31 Days of Cheese- Day 25: Behind the Mask

As surprising as it may seem making bad superhero/comic book movies is not a holly wood trend limited to the last 20 years or so – actually they usually managed to screw the pooch almost every time they tried which is what made the success of films like Superman or the Dark Knight a surprise.

Still for each good or decent film there are a lot of films like Behind the Mask.

This 1946 B film is the third of a series of films featuring The Shadow.

For those not quite massively into obsessive knowledge of popular culture in the 30’s and 40’s the Shadow was a very popular radio show with its trade mark opening “who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.” This observation was followed up by a low sinister laugh. The Shadow had the power to cloud men’s minds so they couldn’t see him – only hear his voice or feel the business end of his fists. He was aided by – and they always said this – the lovely Margo Lane who was the only one who knew the Shadow’s real identity of Lamont Cranston wealthy playboy and amateur sleuth. Margo was his helper  and sometime the damsel needing rescue in a series of wild adventures – Actually Lamont Cranston coming to your country home for the weekend was pretty much the kiss of death for anybody in the household – the body count of the  radio show was pretty high.

To confuse the issue just a bit – or a lot – there was also the shadow magazine that published monthly an adventure of the Shadow – most of these were written by William Gibson – the pulp Shadow did not could men’s minds with hypnotism and had a bewildering variety of alias of which Lamont Cranston was only one – a master of disguise with a Ninja like ability to disappear into the back ground this Shadow also had a huge number of agents at his beck and call all of whom owed their lives to the shadow.  And each month he fought evildoers armed with his ever present /45 colt automatics. An early punisher if you would.

Apparently Gibson hated the radio show.

The sinister laugh was however a constant.

So you had two versions of the shadow to work with as a film maker what do you do? You ignore both of them. The film starts off with sinister figure in a rain coat gong from nightclub to nightclub (one of which is a bookie front) threatening the owners and demanding and increase in the protection money they had been paying him.

Turns out that he’s a gossip columnist for a newspaper and that night is killed while he’s writing a column.

This is the first 10 minutes – a bit film noir which you ‘d except with a character like the shadow.

Well the rest of the film is comic relief.

No I’m not kidding.

We have the butler who is comic relief. A lot of comic relief.

We have Margo Lane and her  friend Jenny (who is hitched to the butler. Why comic Relief man comic relief!) All Margo wants is to get married and after that Lamont will stop being the shadow. Jenny just wants to marry the butler.

No I don’t know why.

Margo is played as insanely jealous shrew – as is Jenny – folks end up yelling at each other at the top of their lungs. I think this is supposed to be funny but well it just makes me want to hurt myself.

Lamont by the by is played as a sort of second rate thin man, there is no reason for him to go gadding about in a mask except that the movie is listed as a Shadow Film so he’s going to have to do that a bit. Still in the end he’s as about as annoying as the rest of them.

We also have not one but two police men who are played as comic relief – one is always complaining about how he’s got a cold or a fever or something, the other , the inspector hates Lamont with a passion and yells at him all the time except when the commissioner (who knows Lamont somehow) tells him to shut up.

Slapstick farce and murder don’t really go together unless you’ve very very good.

This film isn’t good.

The worst scene is one about the middle of the film, Lamont has asked the dead reporters secretary over to ask her about a possible clue – just before she arrives at Lamont’s apartment Margo and Jenny show up – and unbeknownst to Lamont or the young woman – are hiding behind the couch that they are sitting on. Sub rate farce stuff happens then the women are discovered and they start fighting. Lamont asks the secretary to please wait outside while he settles with Margo.

The secretary gets on an elevator and we see sinister shadow and a hand going over her face.

Cut to Lamont and the butler and coming out and they of course find the secretary dead.

There is not the slightest change in anybody’s behavior after that. You’d think a dead woman in an elevator would change that but no – we have more comic scenes to endure.  The men are stupid and the women are shrews. It’s very unpleasant film to watch really.

At the end the murderer is caught, the shadow cleared of the crime and as the last bit of comic relief  Lamont and the Butler spank Margo and Jenney. Two little “the end” s emerge from each woman’s rear end and merge to form the words “The End” and you being to wonder what really, the big fuss about death is anyway.

Stupid and cheap. To be avoided.

Enjoy with the sound off while playing a recording of one of the shadow radio shows. They are much more fun.