Title: The Shadow
US Release: 7/1/1994
Directed by Russell Mulcahy
Written by David Koepp
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Cast:
Alec Baldwin – Lamont Cranston/The Shadow
John Lone - Shiwan Khan
Penelope Ann Miller - Margo Lane
Ian McKellen - Dr. Reinhardt Lane
Tim Curry - Farley Claymore
Jonathan Winters - Inspector Wainwright Barth
Peter Boyle - "Moe" Shrevnitz, the cabbie.
The Skinny:
The first
(and only to date) film adaptation of the classic hero from the radio days of
the 1940’s. Lamont Cranston (Baldwin) is
a deserter of the American army after the end of Word War I. Becoming a kingpin of the opium fields in
China, he’s known for his decadent living, and taking pleasure in eliminating
his competition, mostly through brutal and sadistic methods. He’s kidnapped from his lair late one night
and taken to a palace high in the mountains, which he does not see at first
until “allowed” to by the guards. Inside
he meets the Tulku, a supposedly mythical teacher who has mastered the power of
the mind, but appears only to be a young boy.
Attempting to fight his way out, he grabs a nearby dagger, only to
discover the dagger is alive, and bites his hand. The Tulku commands the dagger, named “Phurba”,
to stop before it kills Lamont. With no
other choice, Lamont agrees to learn from the Tulku. For the next seven years, he learns to master
his own mental powers, and discovers he can hide inside the “darkness” that
exists all men, and even use it against those who do evil to others, becoming a
“Shadow”.
Returning
to New York, he dispatches a small mob hit squad about to murder a helpless professor,
and, in a demonstration of his abilities as The Shadow, convinces the leader to
turn himself into the police for his crimes.
Taking the professor back home in the cab of Moe Shrevnitz (Boyle), The
Shadow makes him into one of his agents, payment for saving his life. Moe informs the professor that he too is an
agent of The Shadow, so are many others all throughout the city.
Reverting
to his original identity of Lamont Cranston, he meets his uncle, Inspector Wainwright
Barth (Winters), at a local night club. Barth
is informed of another Shadow sighting but is “dissuaded” from investigating by
Lamont. Changing the subject, he notices
pretty woman entering the club. Barth tells
him not to get involved with her since she’s Margo Lane (Miller) daughter of physicist
Dr. Reinhardt Lane (McKellen), and is known to be “odd”. Lamont ignores the warning and introduces himself. Immediately smitten, she accepts his invitation
for Chinese food. While enjoying Peking
duck at a local Chinese restaurant, Lamont becomes aware of Margo’s mental
abilities (that Margo herself is unaware of) when she can “hear” his thoughts about
her dress. Parting for the night, Margo
is depressed she may never see him again, with Lamont planning to do just that
as she could interfere with his business as the Shadow.
At Dr.
Lane’s lab, his conniving and annoying colleague, Farley Claymore (Curry), is
trying to convince him to collaborate on a project that they could eventually
sell for millions. Dr. Lane, a brilliant
physicist working on a device for the War Department, is somewhat absent
minded, even forgetting which color is which, and turns aside his suggestions
out of ignorance. Claymore leaves
defeated but tries his luck in asking Margo out on a date, to which she rebuffs
with extreme prejudice, as this is not the first time it seems.
At the
New York Museum of Natural History, a crate arrives with no return address
listed on the invoice. Inside is a
Tibetan sarcophagus, made out of pure silver.
The inscription reveals that at one time, it held the remains of Genghis
Khan. A security guard (Ethan Phillips
in an early bit part) is left alone with the sarcophagus as the night manager tries
to research its point of origin. The
sarcophagus opens seemingly by itself, to reveal Shiwan Khan(Lone) inside, the
last living descendant of Genghis Khan. Hibernating within the sarcophagus for
centuries, Shiwan has now absorbed all of Genghis Khan’s mental energy, and
seeks to finish conquering the world. He
demonstrates his power by forcing the security guard to kill himself, and a cab
driver, who delivers him to a seemingly random location, by convincing him to
drive his cab into a tanker truck.
Lamont
is alerted to Shiwan’s arrival through a dream, and receives a message from a
police officer, also an agent of his, on the scene of the security guard’s
apparent suicide. Retiring to his hidden
lair, “the sanctum”, to decode the message, he’s surprised when he’s greeted by
Shiwan himself. Addressing him as “Yin-Ko
the butcher” Lamont’s moniker from his opium days, he tries to persuade him
into joining his crusade for world domination.
Not interested, Shiwan vanishes, leaving behind a coin made of “bronzium”,
a metal substance believed to be just a myth.
Shiwan
soon hypnotizes Dr. Lane into joining his quest. Margo is suspicious when her father suddenly
stops seeing her, and stays in his lab for days, even speaking Mandarin Chinese
over the phone, a language he never knew before. Sensing something is amiss, Lamont investigates
as The Shadow. Nearly foiling a robbery
by men dressed as Mongol warriors, he pursues Dr. Lane and his captors, only
for them to seemingly disappear into an empty lot.
Margo
is tricked into going to her father’s lab, only to be hypnotized herself into
killing The Shadow. Finding his mansion
estate, she mistakenly shoots a mirror reflection of Lamont. Lamont is able to free her from hypnosis, soon
revealing himself as The Shadow.
Lamont,
having the Bronzium coin tested by the professor he saved earlier, discovers
that, given the right circumstances and within the right apparatus, the metal
could cause a massive explosion, an “atomic explosion”. Discovering, from Margo, that Dr. Lane’s
invention could generate the necessary reaction to disrupt bronzium, and that Claymore’s
invention is the apparatus needed to provide the right circumstance to allow
such a reaction.
Evading
Shiwan’s mental prodding to join him, and trying to keep Margo and her father
out of danger, The Shadow must find Shiwan’s hidden lair somewhere in the city and
stop his plan to decimate New York City using Dr. Lane’s device and continue
his plans for world conquest.
On the Surface:
The
film was a big budget summer release, intended to capitalize on the trend that was
doing well for big budget films for many years.
The Shadow was a recognizable figure, enduring in pop culture since the
1940’s, so interest was noticeable when Universal Pictures announced its
release. The film plays out almost like
a radio serial, the different acts like the separate parts of a mini-series broadcast
over the radio back in the day. Released
before the regular use of CGI, the film uses practical and optical effects,
which did not age well. Still, when given
the latitude, the film is an example of a 1990’s big budget production, and
deserves more credit that it received at its release, which has sadly tarnished
its reputation since.
Production Wise:
Producer
Martin Bregman had acquired the rights to The Shadow in 1982, and would
eventually enlist screenwriter David Koepp (known for writing “Jurassic Park”,
its sequel “The Lost World”, “Carlito’s Way” along with many others, and
himself of a fan of the character) to craft the story. Australian action director Russell Mulcahy,
known for “The Highlander”, was brought on to give the film the fast pacing
needed for action piece. Composer Jerry
Goldsmith composed the dark and retro 30’s-esque music for the film, giving it
a big but dark presence.
Typical
of big budget films, The Shadow was filmed over many sets and took up most of Universal’s
famed backlot. Period specific storefronts
and streets were built, and 30’s era cars were rented from collectors, along
with 30’s era clothing used from Universal’s massive wardrobe archive to dress
the main cast and extras to give the film the near mid-20th century
aesthetic.
The
film, however, did suffer from bad luck.
On January 17th 1994, the Northridge earthquake rocked the
Universal backlot during production, destroying an elaborate hall of mirrors
set intended for the film’s climax.
Already behind scheduled and over budget, the ending fight scene was rewritten
and shot in a very different way.
Why I like the film:
I’ll
admit, I like this film more for the nostalgia than for the film itself. Alec Baldwin was on his way to becoming a
global movie star at the time, and production quality of the film calls back to
when films were still almost entirely practical yet contemporary for the mid-90’s. Tim Curry plays the role of the weasel very well,
and Ian McKellen, becoming more known to American audiences at the time, fits
perfectly in his small but important role in the film. John Lone, though typecast as the Asian
villain in my opinion, did give his all for this performance, throwing himself
into the role and delivering a performance fitting for the substance of the
film. Baldwin in a fedora, black trench
coat with cape, and dual wielding 1911 colts (heavily modified “Silver Heat”
pistols based on LAR’s Grizzly handguns, specifically made for the film, still
common in movies) is still an image that gets me to stop and think “Who is this
guy? I’d like to see him in action.” That image deserves icon status.
After re-discovering
this film awhile ago, the ending did seem a bit underwhelming, and when I found
out, via IMDB, that the Northridge Earthquake had disrupted the film’s
production, I could see why this film failed to deliver when released. Since the hall of mirrors set was destroyed,
the director and editors had to work with what they had to make the film flow as
much as possible.
This film
pays homage to its source material from the 1940’s radio broadcasts with dialogue
true to its decade, and characters that finally got to be seen instead of just
heard. It still works on that level, and given its
bad luck during production, it’s still a good product, worth watching more than
once, even regularly.
The film is rated PG-13 for “fantasy violence” I guess the
oversized 1911 colts were overkill for the sensors in the 90’s. Stream or rent where available when you would
like to see Alec Baldwin when he was still just an actor.
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