Cheap Whispering Shadow (DVD) (Colbert Clark, Albert Herman) Price

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Customer Reviews of Whispering Shadow

Where Are My Family Jewels??
The search for the crown jewels of the czar continues! Meanwhile, the true identity of the Whispering Shadow grows foggier by the minute! Just who IS he?? Is it Professor Strang (Bela)? The odd Mr. Steinbeck? Someone else? There are many suspects in this last half of the story and those wacky jewels just keep hopping along, winding up with almost everyone at least once! Can Foster and inspector Raymond solve the mysteries before it's too late? Watch and see...

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The sinister Professor Strang--Bela Lugosi no less
Actually the good (or is he good?) professor is the focal point of this serial. Basic plot line has the young hero tracking down his brother's murderer who is known as the whispering shadow; and it sure as heck looks like Professor Strang is one and the same. One little difficulty, our hero falls in love with the professor's daughter while he's trying to prove that her dad is a criminal mastermind. I don't think I'm spoiling the plot for anybody if I suggest that maybe Bela isn't the bad guy after all, although he does a darn good job of trying to convince us he is!

The other review here complains about the long flashbacks. Don't forget, this is a 13 chapter serial which was originally shown one chapter a week over a three month period, so the flashbacks are obviously necessary. And no, they should not be edited out for today's audiences...we serial fans want them exactly as they were.

btw, I do suggest viewing this serial a chapter a day, or at least no more than three chapters a day. That way, you will get more out of it with less feeling of repetition.

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Weak Plot, Weak Acting
A rather weak 12-episode serial (228 minutes) starring Bela Lugosi. Lugosi plays Professor Strang, the strange owner of a wax museum, who is accused of being the "Whispering Shadow" that has been terrorizing the drivers of a storage warehouse in search of some priceless jewels. Aside from a few of the veteran actors (Lugosi, Henry B. Walthall of Birth of a Nation fame, and Karl Dane, who was excellent in silent films like The Big Parade), the acting in this serial is pretty bad (comical at times). The epsiodes do not flow together very well (a lot of long flashbacks are used which was probably very appropriate when it was first released, but are quite redundant in video form). The numerous silent fist fighting scenes are odd (where did the sound go?) and tiring. Karl Dane is genuninely comical in his role as the dopey radio dispatcher. Unfortunately, Shadow would prove to be his last acting credit as he would commit suicide the next year (his thick Danish accent getting in the way of employment in the Talkies era). It's interesting to watch those old vehicles in the car chasing scenes. I am the worst at whodunnits, but I was able to guess the Shadow's identity by the second episode.