The Shadow (1994) Russell Mulcahy

Production Budget: $40 million Worldwide Gross: $32 million Subsequent Earnings: unknown

This is another movie that tried to capture the feel of the 30’s 40’s noir that failed to capture an audience. I am a huge fan of the Shadow, and I am kinda sad he never made the transition to modern comics. A comic that travels the same ground that I love is Sandman Mystery Theater. I love Sandman in that it really shows the tortured reality our protagonist has in playing both roles and I think the Shadow could have gone the same way. I know a lot about the Shadow, I even own the old 30’s radio programs where Orson Welles played the Shadow. I don’t know if that makes me a Shadow fan or an Orson Welles fan.  Anyway…

The movie is directed by Russell Mulcahy (Highlander) and he has a nice campy kind of humor that never goes over the top. Alec Baldwin is a nice choice for Cranston as he really brings a dark edge to the character he really needed.  After all, he’s called The Shadow for crying out loud. There’s a lot to like about it like Tim Curry. When is Tim Curry bad in a movie? I think Shadow is an underrated Superhero gem that people never gave a chance to.  Give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.

Movie revisit:

I still think The Shadow is a great concept for a revisit.  It is a character that is both clearly defined and yet has no real backstory to him.  This isn’t like Spiderman or Superman where he has a clearly defined origin story.  I mean, the opening exposition for the Shadow in the radio show was almost like this. “The Shadow is in reality, Lamont Cranston; wealthy young man about town.  Cranston traveled to East Asia where he learned the power to cloud men’s minds so he could not see them.  Accompanied by Margot Lane, The Shadow fights crime”

I just love the vagueness of it all.  Cranston is just some rich guy who just decides for undefined reasons to go to “East Asia” and learn the power to cloud men’s minds (its called Opium).  And with this knowledge he fights crime.  No parent’s dying or some revenge plot or being made some champion of the gods.  No, he is just some dude who gets bored and decides to fight crime.  That’s brilliant.

So frankly I don’t mind they try to instill some character into Cranston for the sake of this movie even if that is a tad confusing.  For no explainable reason, when Cranston turns like 21 he decides to leave New York and become the biggest Opium dealer/warlord of the Far East.  Um…kay.  It reminds me of my post college days when I spent a summer as a French heroin smuggler.  Didn’t go so well.  So Cranston gets converted to good by this mystic and now he tries to pay off his debt to society by fighting crime.

I do like how, like the Phantom, they didn’t drastically alter the costume.  The design from the old serials and strips is awesome.  I even like in the movie when Cranston changes even Baldwin’s face turns into some disfigured thuggish face as if from Dick Tracy.  Mulcahy also does a good job with recreating this kind of a old pulp serial.

The cast is uniformly good and the plot (while a little stock) does enough with the characters to make it interesting.  As I mentioned before, Shadow has a nice dark edge mixed in with some good comic touches.  Although, at times the humor can be a bit too campy.  There are some jokes that all the WAH WAH music in the world couldn’t salvage.  Not to mention a very cheesy climax where Ian McKellan is chasing a rolling atomic bomb through a hotel.

Funny note I should mention and I didn’t have a clever segue…  Does Mulcahy (director of Highlander 1 and 2) have a fascination with people standing in front of backdrop of exploding windows going AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!  It happens in this movie twice!

But yeah, I still really enjoy this movie.  It is a very underrated comic book movie that for some reason no one picked up on.  I recommend it and I do hope that someone else tries to resurrect the character.