Comic Book Movies 101: The Shadow

• 9th Feb 2011

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow – able to cloud the minds of men. The Shadow clearly by these statements never went up against any women in his time. Or perhaps these statements are merely justified by the era they were created in. An era when men were very much in charge. The Shadow first came to the limelight when Orson Welles portrayed the character on radio in the late 1930’s. There were also some films made in the 30’s and 40’s. Since then it has been some time for it to make it to the silver screen. Sam Raimi wanted it but didn’t get it. It was 1994 and Russell Mulcahy was the lucky director that got to take a shot at it.

Perhaps a little too overlooked in the mid 90’s – this well cast and enjoyable romp was fairly well directed and more importantly – beautifully set directed. The period of the film has some lush detail – and John Lone serves as quite a worthy bad guy Shiwan Khan (a descendent from Genghis Khan). The Story tells of one Lamont Cranston who in the earlier part of his life was something of a tyrant. Then one day after he is confronted about his crimes by a holy man he changes his ways – moves to America, and then sets about using his new found powers (to cloud men’s minds) to fight evil and injustice. His biggest threat eventually comes along in the face of Lone’s newly imported invader.

Alec Baldwin spent much of the 90’s utilising his talents in some interesting projects that all could have or did become franchises. And yet whether they did or not, he did not carry on to appear in them. The Shadow was perhaps a prospective franchise that failed at the box office. He is fine in the part and carries the weight of his alter ego well. When he is in costume though he looks less impactful, but, thankfully, never embarrassing. Quite why his eyes turn from blue to black and his nose gets bigger is anyone’s guess. But the eyes do have a unique glare about them.

The problem with this could be that it was just a bit too hokey and old fashioned for some people. When you look at what else was released this year The Shadow seems dated already. The film is aided by a fairly dramatic music score. It is unique to this character – and whilst there is no real anthem, there are strong moods that the film balances with its music.

The film probably is a little light on action with our hero spending much time solving mysteries and flirting with his allotted damsel. There is a couple of nice confrontations between Shiwan and Lamont that do manage to convey both character and tension which helps when we finally have The Shadow’s final assault on the bad guys HQ.

Beyond the main antagonist, the supporting cast is fairly hit and miss. Peter Boyle is funny, but comes and goes never really leaving much of an impression as the cab driver who helps out. Penelope Anne Miller dials in the same performance she has been doing all her career. She fits into the costumes well, but if you dressed the extras as well she would blend right in. Time Curry doesn’t fare any better as a bit of a two-note fool who falls under the wing of Khan. His character would have been served better if he had at least a couple of more scenes in the middle as opposed to going missing for half the movie and then showing up acting campy and evil. Curry’s performance doesn’t help. This leaves Ian McKellen as a brain washed professor (and father of Miller’s character). He is fine, but thankfully he gets much better roles as the years to come.

The effects are quite bad now, the morphing effects have dated, the stop animation is obvious and the composite shots at the end (especially with all the exploding glass) as terrible. Save for one practical shot in the penthouse with Shiwan and a wall full of glass exploding behind him (It recalled a similar effect used in Highlander – by the same director). But the effects shots after this are all pretty bad and detract from the action and performances.

I think The Shadow works and fails equally sitting it in a place where it is hard to call whether it is worth having on your shelf. It is a wonder what Sam Raimi would have done with the character had he been given the chance to do it (He tried and failed, so went and made Darkman instead- his own version of The Shadow).

Steven Hurst