[The Shadow 23] • The Shadow's Shadow

THE SHADOW'S SHADOW was originally published in the February 1, 1933 issue of The Shadow Magazine. The tables are turned on The Shadow. For once he must give up his fight against crime and use all of his ingenuity in self-defense, as a man from The Shadow's past patiently "shadows" the strange creature of the night and sets his traps. The crime of crimes is underway. Gangdom's out to get The Shadow! This is probably one of the better known Shadow pulp mysteries in the huge body of 325 stories. And all because of a short passage on the last page. That's where the tale's master villain, one Felix Zubian, actually sees the true face of The Shadow. This is the "horror face" that was hinted at, but never fully described, in the early Shadow stories. And it's such a terrifying sight that it causes Felix Zubian's trigger finger to falter, thus spelling his doom. Much was made of The Shadow's never-seen face in the early years. He always wore a disguise to hide it; sometimes that of Lamont Cranston, other times Henry Arnaud or Phineas Twambley. It was speculated that perhaps his true face was horribly disfigured in the war, but it was only speculation. The whole concept of the horror face was abandoned early in the series, author Walter Gibson figuring it was too grotesque, and wasn't mentioned after the first three years. Its last mention was in 1934's "The Black Falcon." When the Black Falcon sees The Shadow's true face at the story's climax, he slumps in horror. His ashen face reveals terror, something the evil fiend had never felt before. Although that was the last official mention of the horror face, there was slight allusion to it in 1935's "The Python." In that story, The Shadow was rendered unconscious in an automobile accident. Under the slouch hat was the face of Lamont Cranston, but the accident had damaged the disguise and... "a grotesque hollowness had come upon his hawklike countenance." This was the last reference, vague though it was, to The Shadow's horror face. Then, two years later, the mythology changed with 1937's "The Shadow Unmasks," and his true face became the unscarred one of Kent Allard, world famous aviator. How to reconcile the issue of The Shadow's face? How could it be terribly scarred in the early years, but then never mentioned later? I could hypothesize that perhaps between 1935 and 1937, Kent Allard's horribly disfigured face went under the scalpel for some extensive plastic surgery. In that way he could finally reveal his true face in the 1937 tale. It might have been Dr. Rupert Sayre who did the work. As The Shadow's personal physician since 1933, he could certainly be trusted with such secret work. Or perhaps it was some other skilled medico. But this is all conjecture. What we know for fact is that The Shadow's horror face was never mentioned after 1935. But, let's get back to this story. It's a quite interesting one, not only for The Shadow's horror face reference, but also for a bit of historical background on our hero. It seems the villain of this piece has some history with The Shadow. The man in question is Felix Zubian. Felix Zubian, is the man who styles himself The Shadow's shadow. Zubian is a thick, square-set man of military appearance. Shoulders erect, his right hand holds a long, thick cane straight beside him. Zubian is a crook of international repute, who has known The Shadow during World War I. During the War, The Shadow was an aviator in the air forces of the United States. He was called The Black Eagle, because of his penchant for flying at night. He was shot down and became a secret agent within the enemy lines. He located and mapped an enemy air base, escaping at the last moment in a plane of the German air squadron, flying in safety back to the American lines. With the war over, Zubian knows that The Black Eagle is still alive and has taken on a new identity as The Shadow. He seeks vengeance upon The Shadow because of the difficulties he afforded Zubian in the past. And he also knows that The Shadow must be removed in order for the success of a series of jewel robberies planned by Douglas Carleton. Douglas Carleton is a tall, handsome man, immaculately attired in perfectly fitting evening clothes. He is one of the most popular young clubmen in New York. He was wealthy in his own right, and is now planning massive crime, with Felix Zubian as his cohort. Yes, The Shadow must be eliminated. Zubian knows that in order to do that, he must first find out who The Shadow is. To accomplish that, he masterminds the abduction of Harry Vincent and Rutledge Mann. He figures they'll tell him who The Shadow is. He literally becomes The Shadow's shadow, as he secretly follows Lamont Cranston, and later Henry Arnaud. How will The Shadow maintain his secrets? How will he thwart Felix Zubian and Douglas Carleton? Can Rutledge Mann be rescued from the hideous Chinese torture before the timer releases the huge guillotine blade? Whew! This story makes reference to the radio show hosted by The Shadow, commenting on how millions of people were held spellbound by his awesome tones. It also refers to a previous adventure wherein a raid was pulled on the Bolsheviks in Moscow and a mob went after the Russian crown jewels. The Shadow thwarted that plot in the 1932 story "The Romanoff Jewels." There's also references to "Diamond Bert" Farley, who appeared in three previous Shadow tales, "The Living Shadow," "Eyes of The Shadow" and "Gangdom's Doom." It's through Diamond Bert's description of one of The Shadow's aides, that Felix Zubian identifies Harry Vincent as working for The Shadow. And, as you might guess, that puts poor Harry in the hot seat. A couple points of interest. I've seen reference to the keys that The Shadow carries. Apparently, he carries enough skeleton keys to open just about any door, or so it's been said in other stories. But this story indicates that they are black in color. I've never seen that mentioned before; I always assumed they were normal metal colored keys. And then there's the girasol ring. The Shadow wears it, but it's rarely that he openly wears it while in the disguise of Lamont Cranston. In this story, he does! One point of interest is the passing character of Hawthorne Crayle, a curio dealer who The Shadow visits in the guise of Lamont Cranston and later as Henry Arnaud. It's in his closed shop that one of the gun battles takes place between The Shadow and the minions of Felix Zubian. Crayle turns up again ten month later in "Treasures of Death." In that story, The Shadow assumes his identity in another of his masterful disguises. This is one of the rare cases where a character appears in more than one Shadow adventure. Although it's never stated, it does make me wonder if Crayle was a part-time agent of The Shadow. Just conjecture, though... The Shadow continues his annoying habit of throwing away his empty automatics in the heated pitch of gun-battle. He discards the empty pair to pull out a fresh brace from beneath his cloak. But he never seems to retrieve the empties, later. I've mentioned this before, when I've noticed it. It's not a rare occurrence. It's a distressingly regular habit with him! Leaving around guns for anyone to find seems pretty irresponsible to me. And sadly, this won't be the last time he does it, either. And we wonder why there's such a problem with illegal handguns in New York, today. I'm pretty sure it all stems from those hundreds of .45 caliber automatics that were casually discarded back in the 1930s that are still showing up today. Well... pretty sure... In this story, many of the familiar characters appear. Detective Joe Cardona, Rutledge Mann, Harry Vincent, Lamont Cranston, and Henry Arnaud all have major roles. Burbank, Cliff Marsland and Clyde Burke appear in minor parts. And let's not forget Cranston's chauffeur Stanley, and his butler Richards. Both show up here. There is a unique error in this story. Rutledge Mann's office is described as being in the Grandville Building on seven different occasions. Apparently author Walter Gibson forgot that it was Claude Fellows who had his offices in the Grandville Building. Fellows appeared in the first five Shadow novels; he was killed in the fifth. In the eleventh novel, "Double Z" Rutledge Mann first appeared, and took over Claude Fellows' responsibilities. Mann's office was in the Badger Building in that inaugural story and in all the others to follow. But Gibson slipped up in this story and had it in the Grandville Building by mistake. He got the suite number right; 2121, as verified by another mention in the last story of 1933 "Treasures of Death," but the building was wrong. You'd think an editor at Street Smith would have caught that. But let's ignore the trivial error and give this story its due. It's a terrific Shadow pulp adventure. It's got murder and mayhem. There's a romance angle for those so inclined. It gives readers a bit of background on The Shadow's history as well as a brief tantalizing glimpse into his hidden face. There's torture. There's death traps. Plot twists and intriguing characters. It all adds up to a very satisfying Shadow story that I can heartily recommend.