International Crime

International Crime is the second of two Grand National programmers inspired by the popular "Shadow" pulp novels by Maxwell Grant. Rod La Rocque plays Lamont Cranston, famed criminologist and (in this film at least) radio crime reporter. This time around Cranston does not "cloud men's minds" hypnotically to become the invisible Shadow: he remains fully visible from beginning to end, with nary a clouded mind in sight. In attempting to solve the murder of a wealthy financier, Cranston exposes a gang of foreign saboteurs. Based on the story "The Fox Hound" by Ted Tinsley (not Maxwell Grant, as the credits claim), International Crime includes several of the supporting characters from the "Shadow" pulps. However, the heroine (Astrid Allwyn) is Phoebe Lane, not >Margot.