For what it's worth, I think one of the reasons Orson Welles struggled professionally in his post Citizen Kane career was he lacked a solid commercial bread-and-butter fall-back option. That is, a type of movie he could make to re-establish himself at the box office and reassure financiers. The only time he really had that was on radio in the late 30s, where he was one of the biggest names on air with the Mercury Theatre and starring as Lamont Cranston in The Shadow. It’s a shame he never made a Shadow film project (apparently one was discussed) – or churned out a couple of more thrillers in the vein of Journey Into Fear or The Stranger. He was a wonderful adapter, and could have made some marvellous thrillers. But that’s the thing about Welles – you’re always going “if only he’d X.” He still left a wonderful legacy, including a season of Shadows (it ran for many more years without him.)
The Shadow is particularly well suited to radio, dealing with a mysterious figure with a memorable voice, and who specialises in mind control and freaking people out, all things that work well on air. (Come to think of it, the Shadow doesn't do much hard detection - more freaking.) It’s done tongue in cheek though there is a serious under-current - he would take on gangsters, anarchist bombers, corrupt judges.
“The Death House Rescue” is about a really stupid person on death row because he agreed to drive a getaway car (they want him to park outside the bank all day… and he doesn’t think it’s dodgy?). Most of the villains are your standard 30s bad guys - mad scientists, gangsters, insane people getting revenge, crazy Rajahs. The series has a surprising lefty slant – one story is about a war veteran who goes bonkers and the Shadow blames society for causing war; another takes on thinly-disguised KKK; another bags out a British Empire official. Good fun. Welles is perfect in the role and Agnes Moorehead offers good support has Lamont Cranston's lover/friend/helper (they keep changing her title), Margot Lane.
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