The Invisible Avenger (1958)

Nice effects though.

i must have seen a different film!!

Excellent adaptation.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Also known by its re-issue title, "Terror in the Night", this el cheapo production with its cast of nonentities – Bill Bloom had previously played a waiter in "The Party Crashers" (1958) and a role in the Mr. Novak television series, but none of the other players seem to have enjoyed any other credits at all – is not too bad by the humble standards of the non-mainstream exploitation flick, and it certainly has a time warp curiosity value. Director Bill Parker/Ben Posner did have a modest Hollywood career and went on to film in 1964 a re-make of "The Shepherd of the Hills" with Richard Arlen in the title role. Most of his movies, however, were shorts. So "Teenage Strangler"/"Terror in the Night" is really a somewhat incompetent but not too bad a flick for completests like me, rather than the casual DVD buyer. Yes, you can buy at least a thousand murder mystery/teenage trauma movies better than this one And yes, this particular film is now available on DVD from Alpha in a very good print.

A nice waste of an hour. The acting was passable, though the Shadow's mentor guy was a little creepy. The plot was mostly predictable with a few plausibility issues. (Yeah, we're going to show what we believe to be an execution on television.) Having listened to quite a few episodes of the radio Shadow, my conclusion is the Shadow does best when operating like a Super Hero, as he did with Orson Welles in the lead. When the Shadow operates as a shamus with a special trick, it's a lot cheaper.This is okay, but if it was a pilot for a TV show, I can see why it didn't make it. Still, for fans of the Shadow, this is a rare opportunity to see an attempt at bringing that mysterious voice to film.

Personally I am a radio drama fan who enjoys learning about the old time radio series's and I have come across a little information I would like to share about this movie.1) The film was made in the attempt to make a series based upon the radio series. The movie was originally intended to be a pilot episode of a "Shadow" television series.2) Someone made a comment about Margo Lane being needed. However, the creation of the Shadow as a character predates the creation of Margo Lane. The Shadow was originally a mysterious host of the "Street and Smith Dectective Story" program. Soon, however, the creators of the series realized that the mysterious host was more famous than the series. Thus, a series of novels came out identifying the Shadow as having the ability to steal identities of other people. He did not seem to have an identity of his own. Originally, Margo Lane first met him when he was pretending to be Lamont Cranston (originally, she meets the real Lamonte Cranston and mistakes the Shadow for him. Also, the identity of Lamonte Cranston was originally an identity that the Shadow stole).I have not personally seen the movie "Invisable Avenger". I just wanted to clear some things about the Shadow up.

This 57 minute film is of some historical interest, especially to collectors of films based on comic book characters. The plot is only mildly interesting and certainly not very original, the acting wooden, the production values low budget. In fact, I began to wonder if this was an early made-for-television effort rather than a film for cinemas.At any rate, it does not follow the original concept except for Lamont Cranston's ability to "cloud men's minds" so that he seems to disappear. He does not don the familiar broad-brimmed hat and cape (although it is shown on the cover drawing), nor does he consort with Margo Lane, "the only person to know the Shadow's true identity." Instead he is in the constant company of a certain gentleman named Jogendra, who is trying to discipline him in the Oriental art of they are practising.But all this aside, it is really a lot of fun in its own way because of its defects and a good example of how Hollywood had no respect for its sources. I have sought in the recent and in back copies of Maltin for some mention of this item, but it seems to have been forgotten by all except Video Yesterday--for which I thank them.