This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. Find all my work at MJMunoz.com
Welcome to Red Panda Report Special Number 5 where I will be talking about Season 17, Episode 43 of The Shadow, which aired June 27, 1954.
It's called The Vengeance of Angela Nolan.
And my little pet title for this review is A Scorned Woman, and you'll learn why as you continue to listen.
So, the first thing is, I was surprised that Margo came back, or that the episode started with Margo out of town, and then she came back so quickly after things went downhill.
Anyway, if you want to know what I mean by things went downhill, well, I might talk about it later in the notes, but for sure, you can find out yourself by going to MJMunios.com.
You can either find the show notes on MJMunios.com for this episode of Red Panda Report Number 5, the special, Special Number 5.
When you're in the show notes, you'll find a link to the episode of The Vengeance of Angela Nolan.
It's there without extraneous commercials. It's the original broadcast, captured, and archived.
It's sourcedfromarchive.org, but you can stay on the website. It's also on my website.
And you just click on it, and you can listen to it right away. And once you do, you can come back here and finish this.
So, anyway, going into it. Margo was supposed to be gone for at least a couple more days, and she seems to have come back the next day after the crisis happened with Lamont.
And I'm curious as to why that is. It seems odd. It seems like sloppy writing.
Is it the sloppy writing or something that didn't get explained, or maybe it took a few days for things to process for Lamont to get in the jam that he was in?
But it sure doesn't sound like that by the dialogue in the rest of the episode. People keep referring to last night.
And last night, earlier before the incident, Lamont was telling a lady who is deeply involved in this case that Margo was due back sometime next week.
And tomorrow is not sometime next week, unless, of course, it's Saturday night, and then Sunday is the first day of next week.
But still, that doesn't make sense and that doesn't sound right. Again, it could be sloppy.
There's a Shadow documentary, which I will post a link to, that one of the actresses, I think the lady who played Margo Lane in the final years of The Shadow,
says that things got sloppy and because people were doing it so long, they just put less care into it,
and it kind of became a machine where they were by factory process, banging out these episodes.
I don't know if that's what happened or what, but it still works. I didn't catch it till listening to this the second or third time,
and honestly, this episode blew me away the first time I heard it, so I don't know what to say about that.
Okay, something else that I want to talk about. Margo's performance as the sane mam to Angela's guilt-ridden maniac is borderline brutal
and illustrates well the high level of rapport she and Lamont have, as well as how fiercely dedicated she is to helping her friend and seeing justice done.
Now, this episode's called The Adventures of Angela Nolan. If you listen to it, you know Angela Nolan did a bad, bad thing,
and the way that Lamont and Margo go about entrapping her is impressive, especially because Lamont says something to her like,
Now, Margo, just follow my lead, and she goes in and speaks with Angela under the guise of being a, I can't remember, a reporter or something like that,
and it's brilliant the way they drive this woman to madness. Anyway, it's just, it's very good stuff.
Something I found kind of peculiar. I believe Lamont, I believe Lamont that Angela Nolan turned out to be a serious threat for him,
but it seems funny that some lady who was no criminal mastermind was able to put together a solid frame-up job on Cranston.
It is also curious that she blames Cranston not the shadow for her brother's conviction and execution.
Is he helping the police consistently as Cranston now, and if so, why? Again, I listened to this episode out of context.
It's possible that all of season 17 or all of season 2 through 17 were Lamont Cranston working with the police
and having to become the shadow when he had to, but if he's just a wealthy young man about town,
then what is he doing helping the police explicitly? It doesn't really make sense.
Now, because the shadow did it, the red panda did it, where there are instances, especially like in the novels,
especially Android assassins, that the civilian identity of the superhero gets mixed up with things,
and it's kind of interesting, and yeah, I just find it curious. I do find it curious.
Okay, so moving on, I do want to talk a little bit about Angela Nolan.
She had no powers or scientific weapons, just a burning hatred for Lamont Cranston,
and I guess sometimes hate is all you need because she really did come close to getting this guy thrown into the electric chair.
I don't think they were going to do it that soon because it would have had to have been a trial, but really, she did...
If Cranston wasn't the shadow and the shadow wasn't around to help Cranston, then he would have died
for a crime he didn't commit, and that's pretty darn impressive.
Anyway, that lady sticks out in my mind, and it's not even like...
They could have had her in more of the episode. She was barely in it, but still, what she was in left a very profound impression,
so that was good stuff. I really enjoyed that episode. For it being, as that one actress said,
kind of rougher in its later years, I still think they were turning out a very high-quality product with the shadow,
even in 1954. So I believe that is all I have to say.
By the way, that's a 17-year span. There's 17 seasons. I believe 37 to 54 is 17 years,
and that is... Wow, that is darn impressive, especially for a radio show.
I think it's impressive for a radio show. I don't know of anything that has such a close record,
but then again, I haven't checked into all the radio shows either. Maybe Buck Rogers has 16 seasons. I'm not sure.
Anyway, for me, that is it. I'm going to go ahead and get out of here. Next episode, I will be talking about the 1994 cult classic,
perhaps, The Shadow, starring none other than Alec Baldwin. And I won't make any comments.
Anyway, it's an interesting movie. This is going to be my third time watching it. The first time I watched it was in 1994,
you guessed it, I went with my family to the theater as a kid, and after that, I didn't really watch it anymore,
except for a few months ago, and then actually, I'm not yet finished with watching it for this analysis.
So, I'll be doing that pretty soon, and I'll be getting back to you, and then after that,
we'll be talking about Red Panda from then on out on Red Panda Report. For now, this is MJ signing out.
I hope you enjoyed that. Go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments, or other feedback you might have.
There, you can find all of my analysis, art, and fiction. I cover books, tokusatsu, comic books, anime, and more.
Look around, you're sure to find something else that you'll enjoy as well. This has been a Story Over Everything production.