The Shadow (1994) - Comic to Movie #4

"The sun is shining. But the ice is slippery."

Director
Russell Mulcahy

Cast
Alec Baldwin - Lamont Cranston/ The Shadow
John Lone - Shiwan Khan
Penelope Ann Miller - Margo Lane
Peter Boyle - Moe
Ian McKellen - Dr. Reinhardt Lane
Tim Curry - Farley Claymore
Jonathan Winters - Commissioner Wainwright Barth

The superhero known as "The Shadow" started in pulp fiction back in the 1930s. His way into comics back in the 1940s starting with a syndicated newspaper strip.
The 1994 movie The Shadow isn't necessarily a film that's too obscure, though it should be. There were serials back in the day on the big screen. And I should really be reviewing one of those to keep in the spirit of this blog.
But I've had this movie on my mental back burner to watch at some point.
Seeing the trailer back in 1994, I had the impression The Shadow was attempting to be another 1990's Dick Tracy style-wise, with similar color schemes, and film noir feel. I was wrong except for the film noir feel. It's there.
My dear ol' dad had a collection of old radio programs on cassette - programs he'd listen to in the 1940s and 50s. That was my introduction to the Shadow. He listened to those old recordings made long before the advent of high fidelity while he worked at his desk at home. A static filled voice from before I was born would over-dramatized, as it ought to be, the foreboding, ominous, yet alluring question, "who knows what evil lurks in the heart of men?" The answer, of course, coming out of his Sony single tape player would be, "the Shadow knows..."
So, like most superheroes, he's a vigilante.
The movie starts shortly after the first World War as an American named Lamont Cranston (Alec Baldwin) finds himself overwhelmed in darkness while he's in Tibet.
Cranston passes himself as an opium lord, and is kidnapped by gang members who work for a magician named Tulku.
Tulku offers Cranston a chance to turn away from his darkness and be a source for good.
At first, Cranston refuses, and attempts to take Tulku's phurba - a living knife that bears the head of a monkey. The knife awakens and ultimately persuades (for lack of a better word) Cranston through painful means.
Cranston then trains under Tulku for seven years. This includes hypnotism, mind reading, and distorting reality so that others can't see him, but can only see his shadow.
After those seven years, he returns to New York City where he picks up right were he left off as a playboy. We first encounter him as the Shadow when some mafia thugs are about to throw a victim, wearing cement shoes, over a bridge.
When he rescues the guy, the Shadow recruits him as a personal agent as he does with others he has previously saved from criminals. These agents act as the eyes, ears, and brains to the city.
He meets Margo Lane (Penelope Ann Miller) whom he takes out for dinner, but realizes right away that he can't see her again. She's telepathic, and could easily figure out his secret identity.

Meanwhile, a Natural History Museum receives a mysterious sarcophagus they didn't request.
One museum expert reads an inscription on the sarcophagus which indicates it dates back to the era of Genghis Khan.
As it's guarded by a security guard in a storage room, the coffin begins to open.
Inside lies Shiwan Khan (John Lone), a decedent of the historically well known Mongol Emperor, Genghis Khan.
Having transported himself to New York City in the same sarcophagus that once held his ancestor in an unknown burial location, Khan awakens to continue Genghis's quest for world domination.
He demonstrates his power of hypnosis and mind control by telling the security guard to kneel before him, put his pistol to his head and kill himself.
Khan then seeks out Cranston.
His powers are greater than Cranston's and he offers him an allegiance.
When Cranston declines, Khan learns than Lane's father, Dr. Reinhardt Lane (Ian McKellen) is working on an atomic device at the request of the U.S. War Department.
Dr. Lane's assistant, Farley Claymore (Tim Curry) has sworn his allegiance to Khan. And now to get at the Shadow, Khan hypnotizes Margo to kill Cranston. He also hypnotizes her father to build him an atomic bomb in order to help fulfill his world conquest.
Despite what seems to be a typical edge-of-your-seat serial plot, with truly decent special effects, this movie is lazy and underwhelming.
To begin with, it was as though the movie expected 1994 audiences to be familiar with the Shadow as though his place in pop culture is at the same pinnacle as superheros such as Batman or Superman. There's a lot of story elements thrown to the audience with little explanation.
Call it a nitpick, but for some reason, Cranston's eyes change from brown to blue half way through the movie. Is this a continuity error, or is there some deeper meaning to this. I don't know. I admit my attention wandered aimlessly several times during the movie. I could have missed something.
As far as other story points go, the only explanation the audience is treated to is a narrated title card screen a few minutes after the beginning of the film. I found it laughable.
Though the premise is beautifully reminiscent of the old pulp fiction style of story lines, as well as those of the black and white serials from the 1940s and 1950s, story elements are breezed over.
The pace of the movie makes it seem as though the movie thinks everyone already knows who the Shadow is, and what he's capable of. Not even the movie Superman was that presumptuous in itself.

Ian McKellen, Tim Curry, and John Lone.

The Shadow's height of popularity was in the 1940s and 1950s. Before 1994, the Shadow hadn't been on screen since the 1948 low budget movie The Shadow Returns. And it goes without saying his place in pop culture wasn't quite as well known as the Man of Steel or the Caped Crusader.
Baldwin's performance seems to confuse suave and debonair with lethargic and emotionally void. He barely has any emotion! Even Batman shows emotion occassionally.
In one scene (SPOILER) where Margo Lane figures out Lamont Cranston is the Shadow, his reaction reminds me of someone denying they passed gas in the room when called out on it. Baldwin's delivery is blatantly uninterested and scripted.
Seeing Tim Curry and Ian McKellen act together is a treat despite McKellen's character being a hypnotized vegetable for most of the film. Still, they share a scene together and it's fun to see.
The plot just seems a little lost. I understand Shiwan Khan is on the loose, and the Shadow is out to stop him. But there's something more taking place, and I either lost just enough interest to miss it completely, or something wasn't explained well. Maybe it's a mix of both.
If The Shadow isn't obscure, it deserves to be...lost in the shadows.