The Shadow

Before mentioning the story, I have to warn potential buyers of this DVD:

Universal Studios committed the unbelievable "sin" of photographing this in the original 1.85:1 widescreen but only offering it on DVD in formatted-to-TV, so you miss a good percentage of the great visuals. Not only that, they zoom the picture to fill the screen so it isn't sharp, either. I hope this situation is rectified. It's a disgrace.

As for the story, it's simply a very hokey-but very entertaining fantasy/adventure, based on the popular radio hero of the 1930s.

This is just pure escapism, not to be judged seriously because it's a dumb story. It's cartoon-like, an outlandish story that mixes action, comedy and a superhero with time-travel and all sorts of strange happenings. For someone who likes to gawk at the sights and sounds of the '30s and '40s, this is a fun film. The surround sound in here is fun, too, especially when The Shadow (Alec Baldwin) speaks.

Before BATMAN, there was THE SHADOW. In the history of troubled billionaires donning disguises at night, THE SHADOW told the story of Lamont Cranston before Bruce Wayne's story filled DC Comics' pages. Finally, in 1994, the long-running radio drama came to life on the big screen in one of the best adaptations since Tim Burton brought The Dark Knight to the silver screen in 1989. For some reason, the movie never caught on with the public; maybe not as many people remembered the radio version as I did. I loved it, though; I could watch this film again and again.

Alec Baldwin (BEETLEJUICE, HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER) plays Lamont Cranston, a former drug lord who is captured by a Tibetan monk and retrained to fight evil as his penance for doing it. Cranston's power is a kind of hypnotic telepathy; he has the power to "cloud men's minds", which he uses to make himself invisible to evildoers except for his shadow (because light itself can never be fooled).

Cranston lives an exciting double life in what is apparently a glamorized version of the 30's, playing the town as a billionaire playboy and building up a secret network of helpers from those he saves as The Shadow (each identified with a silver fire opal ring given them upon their rescue), until he meets his match in two ways: Cranston loses his heart to enchanting-but-scatterbrained Margo Lane (Penelope Ann Miller), and The Shadow must fight his evil counterpart, Shiwan Khan (John Lone), last descendant of Genghis Khan, who has a hypnotic telepathy of his own and is seeking to bring life as we know it to an end using elements that have never been combined before (Dr. Roy Tam to Cranston: "I guess you'd call it an implosive-explosive-submolecular destruction device." Cranston: "Or an 'atomic bomb'." Tam: "Hey, that's catchy.").

Forget trying to follow the plot; like BATMAN, the plot isn't the point. The point is the look and feel of the movie, and this movie has glamour and pizazz to spare. 1930's New York City has NEVER looked better. The special effects are brilliant (at one point, as water rises in an enclosed room, the invisible Shadow's legs make deep dents in the rising water) and very well used throughout, so that they are not intrusive but rather a part of the story. Like BATMAN, there's also a large assortment of anachronistic gadgetry (pneumatic tubes delivering messages over a sophisticated network, video phones, elaborate neon billboards) that somehow work with the story as well. And the acting--Baldwin, Miller, Lone, Peter Boyle as Cranston's driver, Tim Curry as an evil scientist in league with Lone, Ian McKellen as Margo's father, another scientist whose discoveries are exploited by Khan--is also first-rate. THE SHADOW is the perfect Saturday Night movie: Fun to watch, attractive-looking, and not terribly taxing on the brain. Go see it.

I have watched the movie several times now after purchasing it and it actually gets better each time I view it. I would highly recommend the film to everyone.

At first (see my earlier comment) I found John Lone's villain to be too weak...but I see now why. The REAL foe in the film is not Khan..but the SHADOW himself. His inner darkside vs his good side. Lone is just there to show you what the darkside could be. HE isn't what scares the Shadow. It's his own past, his evil side, loss of control that plagues the hero.

I wish this had been better received because we could've enjoyed a few sequels by now. And the same goes for THE PHANTOM and THE ROCKETEER.

I don't really understand the bad rep this movie has gotten. Sure, its not "high art" (then again, Shakespeare, Dickens and Herodetus weren't meant to be, or perceived as, high art when they were written). What The Shadow was, and remains, in my eyes, is one of the best super-hero adaptations ever (the best until X-Men came out, in my opinion).

I'm not terribly familiar with the old radio drama Shadow, so I can't speak as to the details, but the feeling, the essence of the movie fits with what I've experienced. Much more importantly, it stand out well on its own.

Special effects play a major part, but are not of the over-played. Action is well done, and acting is acceptable, though rarely outstanding (the Shadow's cabbie Shrebnitz is an engrossing exception).

What really makes this movie stand out is the layering. Plots, characters, backgrounds, all are complex. The movie's basic plot is well-paced, occasionally a bit slow, but it makes up for it with the incredible wealth of details it packs in. Watching the movie, one gets the sense of an incredible amount of backstory for each character (little things, like the family life of some of the Shadow's agents, barely glimpsed, or even just the complex web of those agents across the city), or that around the corner there lies a world to explore.

This movie can be difficult to classify, which may lead to its unpopularity. Clearly its not a drama, not is it a comedy, nor even entirely an action. Scifi or fantasy are both possible descriptions, but they fail. The Shadow is comicbook style, in the truest sense of the genre. Complex characters, pull-pounding action, some jokes, some drama...it all mixes together. If you can get a bead on the style, its a very enjoyable movie, far ahead of most other super-hero films (Superman, Batman, the Phantom, etc.)

I recommend watching it, but only with an open mind.

For those of you who have ever heard the old radio show, this film was a masterpiece. It carefully blended most or all of the element's of the hero's long- lasting career.

I can't think of a better choice for the lead than Alec Baldwin. He could easily play up the psychic aspects of the character. He even took the trademark Shadow laugh and made it creepier than ever.

See this movie! If you're a fan of the Batman films or the Rocketeer, this movie is for you.