The Shadow battles a villain known as The Black Tiger, who has the power to make himself invisible and is attempting domination of major financial and business concerns.

Columbia, however, relied on fistfights, chases, and headlong action in its serials, and disliked the prospect of a 15-chapter adventure where the audience would not see much of the heroics, because the leading character was supposed to be invisible.

The serial is split into fifteen episodes.Source:[1] The Shadow was released on 1 June 1940, Veda Ann Borg's 25th birthday.

Filming The Shadow in brightly lit environments undermines the mystery and menace of the character.

This lent an ambiguity from the point of view of the other characters that also pervaded the source material, so "for the audience the result was perfectly compatible and a pure delight".