THE SHADOW
US, 1994, 108 minutes, Colour.
Alec Baldwin, John Lone, Penelope Ann Miller, Peter Boyle, Ian Mc Kellen, Tim Curry, Jonathan Winters, Andre Gregory, James Hong, Joseph Maher.
Directed by Russell Mulcahy.
The Shadow is based on popular comics from the 1930s as well as popular radio programs. The film was released before the popularity of graphic novels in the first part of the 20th century. While Superman has appeared in 1978 and the Batman series with Tim Burton began in 1989, the 1990s was not a decade for this kind of comic strip hero. However, at the same time, Simon Wincer directed a version of The Phantom.
The film was not so well received at the time – though the Internet Movie Database comments are all extraordinarily favourable. It is a film that would find its place in the graphic comic films of 2001 and the years following.
Alec Baldwin is particularly good as Lamont Cranston who becomes The Shadow.
Lamont Cranston is first seen as an evil character. This is in the vein of the Fu Manchu series but also in such films as Spider-Man? 3 where the dark side of the hero becomes manifest. Cranston runs an evil empire, drug-running in Tibet. However, he is challenged by the Master and his good side emerges, despite his fighting against it. He is redeemed without his willing it.
The rest of the film is the confrontation between The Shadow and evil in New York City in the late 1930s, early 1940s. The sets and decor are appropriate – although some of them look artificial, as befits this kind of comic strip story.
John Lone is the arch-villain, seeing himself as a descendant of Genghis Khan, wanting to overcome the world using an atomic bomb – before the atomic bomb was developed. Lone is very good at this kind of arch-villain. Ian McKellen? appears as the scientist who is working on the bomb. Tim Curry has a slightly comic villainous role as an assistant. The heroine is Penelope Ann Miller, the daughter of Ian McKellen?, who has powers of telepathy and understands The Shadow. The supporting cast includes Peter Boyle as The Shadow’s chauffeur and Jonathan Winters as the head of the police in New York City.
The film was directed by Australian Russell Mulcahy, a director of music videos, who made a mark with Razorback in Australia and then went on to film Highlander in the United States. He has had a successful career, directing genre films as well as television series.
1. The popularity of comic heroes? The popularity in the 90s compared with the 21st century? The comic strip hero? Radio programs? The popularity of The Shadow in earlier decades?
2. The recreation of the period, Tibet, the court, the monks, the temples? The mountain scenery? The contrast with New York City, the comic style of the sets? The mansions, the laboratories, the streets? The musical score and themes?
3. The hero and his dark side, struggling against the good, giving in yet fighting physically? The Master, offering him choices? Cranston attacking with the knife? His being overcome? Redemption forced on him? His gift of telepathy, his ability to cloud minds? New York City seen as the centre of evil and his being sent to combat it?
4. The years passing, The Shadow and his work, his role in the city? Unseen? His disguise, the mask-like face, the hat and cloak? The attitude of the police? The initial confrontation on the bridge, the criminals, the Chinese professor in the cement block, their guns? The Shadow bewildering them, overcoming them? The professor and his becoming an agent of The Shadow, his special ring? The arrival of Moe? The chauffeur? His life having been saved by The Shadow?
5. Barth, the restaurant, his complaining about Cranston being late, complaining about The Shadow – and Cranston obliterating these memories from his mind? Margo’s arrival, her glamour, at the table, meeting Cranston, his seeing no future in the relationship, her gifts of telepathy, knowing what was in Cranston’s mind? Answering unasked questions?
6. The museum, the delivery, Genghis Khan, the guard confronting Shiwan Khan? His killing himself? The professors at the museum? Khan and his emerging? His going to visit Cranston? His story, his killing the Master, having the knife, his invitation to Cranston to join him, conquering the world, their clashes? His aims for power, to get the bomb?
7. Khan and his madness, his plans, his allusions to Genghis Khan, the warrior, taking the taxi and making the driver crash it into the oil tanker? The guards, his entourage? Encounter with Margo, his trying to get her to kill Cranston? His spell over Professor Lane?
8. Margo, her father, her disdain of Farley Claymore? His work with the professor? With Khan? The taking of the bomb, the detonating of it?
9. Claymore, his double role, comic villain?
10. The Shadow and the combat with Khan, Cranston and his personal involvement? His own life, home, the encounters with Margo? In love with her? Working with the police? The final fight with Khan? Killing him?
11. The bomb, the split-second timing, stopping the bomb – the professor and his being colour-blind, cutting the wire?
12. The world saved, The Shadow as a crime-fighting hero? His good and his evil, an ambiguous character? The attraction of audiences to the stories of The Shadow over the decades?
