Review: "The Crime Master" (The Shadow)
John Olsen
The Shadow Magazine. All of New York's seamy underworld has been pulled
together by one man - one amazing mastermind who treats crime like a
game of chess with the law. The Shadow must tax his analytical mind to
the utmost in order to oppose the Crime Master.
I enjoyed reading this Shadow adventure. It's a good solid story from
the early years. It's not terrific; it's not fantastic. It's good. It
has enough plot twists and turns to entertain any pulp fan. It has a
seemingly unbeatable foe for our hero. And we get to root for the
underdog, when The Shadow is seriously wounded and through sheer grit
perseveres in his battle against evil. Yes, a very respectable Shadow
mystery.
Somewhere in Manhattan, secluded in his paneled room, The Crime Master,
wizened and gray-haired, places pawnlike pieces upon a many-squared
board. He controls the mob bosses of the city. The underworld is in the
hollow of his scrawny hand. This fiend incarnate is about to assault the
entire city of New York with a crime wave unparalleled in the history of
the city.
He forms a grotesque sight as he rests in his chair. His scrawny fingers
are clasped beneath his chin. His grayish face, thin nosed, with
scowling lips and fanglike teeth, is as terrible as his fiendish eyes.
The mass of white hair adds to his insidious appearance. He looks like a
portrayal of the figure of Death, ready to hew down victims with a
sharpened scythe.
It is this monstrous force of evil that The Shadow must battle. The
Shadow, lone wolf of action, who uses but a handful of trusted agents;
The Crime Master, generalissimo of evil, relying upon massed hordes
organized into a mighty fighting body. Can The Shadow drive a wedge into
The Crime Master's cunning game? Which will win? I'm betting on The Shadow!
But author Walter Gibson doesn't make it easy on our hero. The Crime
Master is the intellectual equal to the amazing brain of The Shadow. And
our poor hero has a few disadvantages working against him. First, Joe
Cardona, ace detective of all Manhattan, is seriously wounded and put
out of action. Then The Shadow himself is injured as well, making battle
nearly impossible.
At the Fergis Building, in the offices of the Associated Importing
Company, the Shadow battles the forces of the Crime Master. He's
inundated by the massed gangsters gathered by the crime lord. He's shot
in the right arm. Another bullet in his thigh. He tries to make his
escape out a window and falls forty feet to the sidewalk below, hitting
a theater marquee on the way down. He lies, a crushed man, barely conscious.
Now's the time for that vial of purplish fluid that can give a temporary
burst of strength. This unique liquid appeared in two dozen Shadow pulp
stories over the years. This was the ninth time it was used. This time
around, its color isn't mentioned, but it's definitely the same
stimulant that revives a nearly unconscious Shadow and gives him
temporary strength. He uses that strength to drag himself to the private
clinic of Dr. Rupert Sayre, his personal physician.
Yes, Dr. Rupert Sayre appears in this story. He only made it into 43 of
the 325 pulp novels, so it's good to see him here. This was his third
time in the Shadow stories. He finds the unconscious body of The Shadow
in his small clinic. He recognizes that beneath the features of Lamont
Cranston is actually another person - a crime fighter extrordinaire
known as The Shadow. And so he nurses his patient back to health. But it
does put The Shadow out of action for a week.
Luckily, The Shadow has his agents who can be put into action while he
recuperates. In this story we see Clyde Burke, reporter with the New
York Classic, Harry Vincent, long-time agent who plays a small role this
time around, underworld informant Cliff Marsland, and the two contact
men Burbank and Rutledge Mann. Cliff gets to see the most action, this
time around. He's even captures by the Crime Master, drugged and made
to... well I won't spoil it for you.
As for the police, we have Detective Joe Cardona, who is put out of
action in chapter seven, Inspector Timothy Klein, who replaces poor
Cardona, and Police Commissioner Ralph Weston. We also see a policeman
named Grady who acts as the commissioner's chauffeur. He also briefly
appeared in the previous magazine issue, "Chain of Death," but other
than that was not a regular character.
Was Pietro, the push cart peddler, part of this story? Pietro, for those
who don't remember him, was a minor agent of The Shadow. He first
appeared in the 1933 story "The Silver Scourge." At that time, he was
not an agent, but assisted the law in a counterfeiting matter. His
second official appearance was in the 1934 story "The Chinese Disks,"
and it was in this story that he became an agent for The Shadow. He only
appeared in three more Shadow stories after that. There's no direct
mention of Pietro in this story, but perhaps an indirect one? Early in
the story, Joe Cardona meets one of his stool pigeons in an Italian
section of town near a fruit peddler's wagon. Could that fruit peddler
have been Pietro? Walter Gibson doesn't specify as he writes it; but I
prefer to think that it was in his mind at the time. Perhaps this was
Pietro's second Shadow appearance.
This story takes us to some familiar underworld hangouts. We get to
visit The Pink Rat and The Black Ship. Both were notorious dives where
criminals met for a drink and to plot in secret meetings. The Pink Rat
was made famous in thirteen Shadow stories. The Black Ship appeared a
full two-dozen times.
As always, there are a few things that deserve mention in this story.
When the Crime Master sends out his written orders, he doesn't need to
sign his instructions. He embosses his special seal at the bottom. It's
the head of a skeleton, crossing behind it, a scimitar. It's a pretty
cool symbol, but unfortunately, nothing ever comes of it, and it's never
explained.
The Shadow's amazing rubber discs show up in this tale. Those are the
suction cups that he attaches to his hands and feet in order to ascend
the outside walls of buildings. This time, he uses them to climb to a
third-floor window. These concave rubber discs were quite popular in the
early years of The Shadow. They first appeared in the 1932 story "The
Crime Cult" and had shown up sixteen times by their use here.
We also get to see the explosive powder that The Shadow keeps secreted
in the lining of his cloak. In this story, he's caught in a sinister
death trap, and uses that explosive to free himself. Hidden in the hem
of his cloak is a black powder. In another section of the lining is a
gray powder. He mixes the two together, then moistens them with a liquid
from a vial he carries. (Not to be confused with the vial containing the
restorative fluid.) The resulting explosion is powerful enough to free
him from his prison.
And let's not forget The Shadow's amazing abilities at disguise. We know
he often disguises himself as the millionaire globe-trotter Lamont
Cranston. But in this story, we also get to see him fool police
headquarters and Inspector Klein as he takes on the guise of the police
commissioner, Ralph Weston himself!
This is a nice little pulp story from the early career of The Shadow.
It's fun to see how the Crime Master plans his crimes and then goes
about executing them. And it's great to see the powerful Shadow fighting
through his weakened state to conquer the seemingly invincible Crime
Master. It's the story of The Crime Master - superman of evil, against
The Shadow, superfoe of crime.
I think you'll like it.
John
--
"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"
The wonderful old pulp mystery stories are all reviewed at:
http://www.spaceports.com/~deshadow/
russell
GREAT REVIEW! tHANKS, AGAIN.
Russell
"John Olsen" <jro...@teleport.com> wrote in message
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