Originally published August 5, 1994 in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1081
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a grim, gritty metropolitan setting, where skyscrapers are set against a stormy sky, and no amount of imminent rain can wash away the grime and the crime.
Hold on! The movie camera is careening forward at high speed, vaulting over the building tops, zipping in, swooping out, all at dizzying speed, eventually coming to rest on a mysterious man in black whose head whips around as he stares malevolently and significantly into the camera.
This can only mean one thing:
We’re watching a superhero movie.
It ain’t The Crow. No rock and roll music.
It ain’t Batman, Batman Returns, or Batman Forever (but not Michael Keaton forever; then again, that writing was on the wall as soon as Tim Burton went away. You gotta love it. A bunch of years ago I was on a panel at a convention and almost got crucified when I supported the then-scandalous choice of Mr. Mom Keaton and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure Burton as star and director of Batman. And now fans are going around muttering, “I dunno… without Keaton or Burton, I dunno…” But I digress…)
Who knows what film lurks?
The Shadow does.
My first exposure to The Shadow as a character–as I suspect was the case with many folks–was not through the old pulp stories, but rather the old radio show. The two incarnations developed almost simultaneously (both under the aegis of Street and Smith publishing company) and yet varied greatly.
In the former, The Shadow (a.k.a. Kent Allard, a.k.a. Lamont Cranston) was an avenger against crime, most of whose adventures were written by pulp writer Walter Gibson as Maxwell Grant. He was depicted with an enveloping cape, a slouch hat, a schmata obscuring the lower half of his face, a beak nose that could open cans of tuna fish, and… more often than not… clutching in either hand a Forty Five (and I don’t mean a record). He had a network of aides, a girlfriend named Margo Lane, and he hid in shadows a good deal as he chased down criminals (thus giving new meaning to the phrase “Don’t quit your day job.”)
In the latter, Lamont Cranston (no Kent Allard) had the power (learned in the Orient) to cloud men’s minds. He could have had a hëll of a career in politics or show business, but instead he, too, battled crime, using this power to render himself literally invisible (as opposed to the pulps, where he was virtually invisible).
Shadows? Don’t make him laugh (please). His power was so overwhelming that he could be standing in the middle of the Sahara at high noon and you still couldn’t find him. His fearsome chortle would ride across the airwaves, chilling the kids at home and striking fear in the hearts of men (wherein evil lurked, as The Shadow knew.) There was no network of aides as I recall, save for the occasional appearance of Moe “Shrevie” Shrevnitz, and of course Margo Lane, described as his “friend and companion” (Uh… huh).
The radio series was written by a variety of freelancers, most notably Alfred Bester. As for the actors, the most renowned vocal pairing in the run of the series was Orson Welles (pre-Martians) as Cranston and Agnes Moorehead (bewitching even then) as Margo Lane, who got into trouble so frequently that one suspected she had to be related to Lois. That sort of accident-prone tendency has got to be genetic. Shrevie was voiced by Alan Reed, most notable in later years for his animated performance as Fred Flintstone.
In 1940, Columbia produced a 15-episode serial starring Victory Jory as Lamont Cranston, wealthy criminologist who donned black duds and became The Shadow to fight the mysterious Black Tiger. Other than that, The Shadow hasn’t received much movie exposure…
Until this year, when we’ve been handed the most high-tech, high-budget, big-star treatment that The Shadow has ever seen. It’s part of the ongoing 1994 genre heaven for comics fans that began with The Crow, continued to Flintstones, and will carry on through to The Mask.
The Shadow gives us, this time, Alec Baldwin as Lamont Cranston. This Shadow is an amalgam of both radio and pulp. Baldwin sports the traditional black ensemble, complete with a prosthetic nose when he’s in full regalia (there’s only one shot of him with the nose sans bandanna; mercifully it’s brief, since it looks ludicrous without the mask), and he uses his .45s when he’s in a pinch. However he’s made even more formidable since he’s got the radio version’s mind-clouding ability. This enables him, via computer-aided enhancement, to dart in and out of visibility while mopping the floor with bad guys.
(Unfortunately, it’s played inconsistently. For example, at one point he’s given away when, standing in knee-deep water, villainous henchman Tim Curry spots water surging around the unseen Shadow’s legs. That’s acceptable if one is battling the Invisible Man, whose body is still theoretically bound by physical traces, such as footprints. But The Shadow’s using hypnotism. If he can order a mind to ignore his entire bodily presence, it should be a cakewalk to command, “You cannot see me, or any sign of me.” Presto. Swirling water is no more visible than The Shadow himself.)
The script even expands Cranston’s mental techniques, granting him telepathic abilities (which had been present in earlier radio episodes, but were eventually dropped) and hypnotic powers. Powers so formidable that he’s even able to make his police commissioner uncle, Wainright (Jonathan Winters, wasted in a small, serious, dull role) decide not to pursue The Shadow for his reported transgressions. (Indeed, one watches the scene and waits for the shadow-cloaked Cranston to intone, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for…”)
Even when he’s nattily sporting a tux as Cranston, Baldwin does a superb job of invoking the image, the intensity, of the silhouetted savior of New York City. Mostly its through the blazing fury in his eyes. The only actor right now who matches Baldwin for intense glowering is Sean Connery, and–unlike in The Hunt for Red October–Connery is not around to compete this time.
And Baldwin/Cranston/The Shadow certainly has a lot to glower at in this film.
David Koepp’s script gives us Shiwan Khan (John Lone), descendent of Genghis Khan), whose ancestor conquered half the known world. Shiwan, undaunted by the fact that the world’s a lot more known, and a lot bigger, resolves “to finish the job.”
His plan is twofold: Blow New York City to kingdom come (which, if one rules the world by winning a popularity contest, will get him major points in many places outside of New York) and enlist the aid of The Shadow himself.
Yes, that’s right… he wants Cranston to help him. And here is the major wrinkle that Koepp has added to the Shadow mythos. Rather than simply being a crime-fighting persona, The Shadow comes across as a barely-controlled, even feared, evil side of Cranston whom he lets out–almost reluctantly–to nail the bad guys.
Jekyll-and-Hyde like, Cranston’s features morph into those of The Shadow’s whenever his dark side is accessed. It’s a nice way to explain the variant features; Baldwin’s rugged handsomeness doesn’t jibe with the formidable masked appearance. The thought that Cranston has to glue on a rubber nose before swinging into action is even more ludicrous than realizing that Keaton’s Batman has to stop and put make-up rings around his eyes before leaping into the Batmobile. This psychological explanation, while a tad convenient, nonetheless provides story potential.
For the movie version of Cranston is a tortured soul. When we first encounter him (in a sequence that inexplicably confused some reviewers), Cranston is a dispirited, brutal opium lord in the Orient. He is shanghaied (so to speak) and brought to mysterious Monks, who promise that they will redeem him (not unlike Green Stamps). They do so by teaching him to focus and control his dark, shadowy side.
(Although they never challenge him to snatch the pebble from someone’s hand, there is an extended bit with a flying knife that has a grimacing, snarling face on the handle. It’s supposed to look fearsome, I presume, but it comes across as somewhat silly. The weapon is intended to have some sort of significance, but I was never clear on precisely what that might be. It figures in to the climax of the film, and is apparently supposed to be symbolic of some sort of epiphany that Cranston undergoes. But I’m not sure what the epiphany was, or what caused it. Nor do I care overmuch.)
At any rate, when The Shadow swings into action, one senses Cranston’s discomfort. It’s as if The Shadow represents a side of himself he’d rather forget he had.
Trying to cut through the shadow world of Lamont Cranston is, as always, Margo Lane… luminously played by Penelope Ann Miller. With blonde hair and frequently radiant gowns, she is literally light to Cranston’s (and Baldwin’s) darkness. The film’s best moments (not unlike Vicki Vale and Bruce Wayne) are when the romantic relationship staggers into existence. The foreboding side of the male lead threatening to overwhelm the budding romance. But Miller’s Margo is a tough cookie, not easily intimidated. When she informs Cranston that she does not fear his evil side, one can only take her at her word.
Director Russell Mulcahy milks thoughtful, controlled and focused performances from his cast, which also includes Peter Boyle as Moe and Sir Ian McKellen as Margo’s father, Reinhardt, who possesses a red/green colorblindness that nearly has fatal consequences.
Koepp’s script has a witty, playful quality to it. There’s just enough pretension-puncturing wisecracks to prevent the material from being too ponderous. Occasionally the flip, inopportune colloquialisms cause the film to teeter on the edge of self-parody, and only the rock-solid acting and directing salvages it.
The special effects give us a range of visual treats, ranging from The Shadow’s rapid-fire now-you-see-him-now-you-don’t fighting style, to a sequence wherein Margo–experiencing Cranston’s dark side first hand–finds herself completely surrounded by a wall of fire that seems to have a life of its own.
So there’s a lot to recommend The Shadow. I’d even recommend that fans see it.
But be aware that there’s just one little problem.
It doesn’t really work.
The elements are all there… the acting, the directing, the script. Even Jerry Goldsmith’s music, which frequently sounds the same from one film to the next, is snappy. But the whole is not equal to the parts.
With a film like this, there’s two ways to play it: Either you’ve got to make the leads accessible and likeable as individuals; or else you’ve got to involve the viewer by building up the mystery. “The Shadow” does neither and, consequently, long stretches of the film are uninvolving.
There’s no mystery because we’re introduced to Cranston too early in the game. The entire backstory is in the first ten minutes. We know he starts out as a sadistic creep. We know what he’s going to be taught to do, and how he’s going to do it. Then there’s a 45-second expository crawl to tell us again what he was just taught, and what he’s going to do with the knowledge. And then we cut to New York where (in the film’s best sequence) he goes out and does it, kicking ášš and taking names on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Far better to have cut the first ten minutes, start on the bridge, and make us wonder who and where the guy comes from. When you’re dealing with a walking enigma, allow us to spend at least a few minutes wondering about him.
But the filmmakers opt not to. Instead they focus on Cranston the man. Cranston, though, is too cold, too remote, and too consumed with his inner darkness to be likable. We don’t want to spend two hours with him; we’d prefer to get as far away from him as possible because, frankly, he gives us the creeps. (Unlike, for instance, Keaton’s Bruce Wayne, who at least had a sort of goofy distractedness in Batman that made him entertaining… although that seemed to vanish in the second film.)
The burden then falls to Penelope Miller’s Margo to make Cranston accessible to us. Ideally we should identify with her, and what she finds loveable about Cranston will draw us to him as well. Theoretically, she should serve the same function as Kim Basinger’s Vicki Vale.
But she doesn’t because–well–she’s weird.
Margo can’t serve as the everywoman, civilian, audience POV to Cranston, because she’s almost as loopy as he is. She complains of hearing voices, she reads Cranston’s mind, she communicates telepathically, she enters his dreams. This is not an audience representative being drawn, irresistibly and against her better judgment, into The Shadow’s world. This is someone who never belonged anywhere else but with The Shadow. She’s not one of “us.” She’s one of “him.”
The rest of the characters in Cranston’s world… Wainright or Moe… are merely functionaries, given no personalities or quirks of their own.
We want to care. We want to be mystified. Instead we simply watch, and marvel at the effects, and the costumes, and the sets, and Miller looks dámņëd good in those sexy gowns. (There’s one sequence where she’s changing behind a dressing screen and Cranston can’t keep her eyes off her. Naturally. What he’s seeing is her shadow.) We’re even entertained, although we check our watch from time to time and find ourselves wishing that there was more neat stuff with The Shadow in action.
And even when The Shadow does swing into operation, too often he quickly ditches the hat and cloak and pursues matters as the un-made-up Cranston (although, in those instances, he does bear an uncanny resemblance to Dominic Fortune.) It’s as if The Shadow is an arbitrary creation that Cranston doffs at will, thus diminishing the interesting psychological bent that the script suggests.
There are moments. Moments such as a morning scene wherein Margo, just waking up (her nightgown modestly low rather than having ridden up around her hips… sorry, guys), describes in sensual and intimate detail a dream she had about basking nude on a beach. Then she makes the mistake of asking Cranston how his slumber went.
“I dreamt I ripped the skin off my skull and there was someone else underneath,” he replies truthfully.
“You really need help,” she informs him.
Ultimately, The Shadow should be seen (so to speak) and enjoyed for what it is: A decent film.
It’s just a shame since, with some thought–and a lot more moments like the one just described–it could have been more than just a shadow of a great film.
(Peter David, writer of stuff, can be written to at Second Age, Inc., PO Box 239, Bayport, NY, 11705. If you’re masochistic enough to want to meet him in person, he will indeed be attending the San Diego Comic Convention. Generally he’ll be hanging out around the Claypool Comics table.)
• 
You know, as I was thinking about the new Green Hornet movie the other day, I wondered why nobody had ever made a movie out of the Shadow. In 1994, I was an adult with disposable income, a frequent moviegoer, and a comic-book fan, and I still managed to completely miss this movie, and forget that it ever existed 16 years later.
I suspect the reason works like THE SHADOW and THE GREEN HORNET take so long to get the movie treatment (or current movie treatment, anyway) is that they were most popular in radio or pulp form — and were largely forgotten when they weren’t big in comic books or television. (There was a Green Hornet show — who remmebers it?) Fans think of them fondly, they sometimes have a great influence over what followed, but that doesn’t translate into an audience big enough for a blockbuster movie. I suspect it’ll be a long time, at least, before we see a current movie of DOC SAVAGE or JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS.
They are working on John Carter right now. From the Director of Wall-E.
TAC
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“There was a Green Hornet show — who remmebers it?)”
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Swing by my place, James, and you can listen to a CD or 20 to refresh your memory.
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“DOC SAVAGE or JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS.”
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Both are in the pipeline with JC being in much more active development.
Yeah, Mark Strong (bad guy from Sherlock Holmes) is in the role of John Carter. And Thomas Haden Church is in there too.
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TAC
(There was a Green Hornet show — who remmebers it?)
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Well, for starters, just about anyone who remembers the Adam West “Batman” TV series. It not only ran concurrently, but the characters even appeared twice on “Batman,” first having a conversation out the window, and second in a full-blown two-parter.
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The opening and closing theme music–a jazz version of “The Flight of the Bumblebee” recorded by Al Hirt–is THE best instrumental TV theme song ever (with, to my mind, “Hawaii 5-0,” “Mission Impossible” and “Jonny Quest” right behind it.) Who remembers it? Quentin Tarantino, obviously, who dropped it into the Bride’s arrival in Japan during “Kill Bill, Vol. 1.”
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And then, of course, there’s everyone who’s ever heard of Bruce Lee and knows it as the show that (pun intended) kick started his career to such a degree that in Asian countries, it was referred to as “The Kato Show.”
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Also, the SyFy Channel remembers it. How do I know? Because–and everyone say, “Thank you, Uncle Peter, for giving us a heads-up about it”–they’re going to be running a “Green Hornet” MARATHON on January 11, presumably to tie into the January 14th release of the film. All day 1960s greatness with Van Williams and Bruce Lee. Thankfully they appear to be sparing us the painfully campy “Invasion from Space” two parter. If you’re tight for space on your DVR, then the two can’t-miss episodes I would recommend:
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2:30 PM, “The Preying Mantis.” A branch of the Tong terrorizes Chinatown. A fantastic episode for kung fu (or as they say it, gung fu) fans that climaxes in a face off between Bruce Lee and (you better get) Mako.
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8:00 PM, “Bad Bet on a 459-Silent.” The Green Hornet is shot and wounded by the police and is effectively screwed; the bullet has to come out, the Hornet needs surgery, and the cops are watching all the hospitals.
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I suspect it’ll be a long time, at least, before we see a current movie of DOC SAVAGE or JOHN CARTER, WARLORD OF MARS.
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I don’t think 2012 is THAT far off. That’s when Disney is slated to release their “Warlord of Mars” film..
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PAD
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Yeah, Mark Strong (bad guy from Sherlock Holmes) is in the role of John Carter. And Thomas Haden Church is in there too.
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No, Taylor Kitsch is John Carter. According to imdb.com, Strong is Matai Shang. Church is Tal Hajus.
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Release date is June of 2012.
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PAD
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That really should be “watch a DVD or 20” up there. I blame the meds. I’m still a bit on the wiggy side.
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Doc Savage (2012)
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Note: Because this project is categorized as in development, the data is only available on IMDbPro and is subject to change.
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1606752/
The opening and closing theme music–a jazz version of “The Flight of the Bumblebee” recorded by Al Hirt–is THE best instrumental TV theme song ever (with, to my mind, “Hawaii 5-0,” “Mission Impossible” and “Jonny Quest” right behind it.)
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My mind has Barney Miller up there.
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TAC.
Wasn’t there a Doc Savage movie in the ’70s?
The Hub has been running the Adam West Batman,and I’ve been getting a kick out of just how campy it is… and they showed the ep with GH and Kato hanging out the window chatting with Batman and Robin… but then the very next night, they had Ðìçk Grayson watching the Green Hornet TV show. Kinda threw me there.
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Though I suppose that in that particular universe, it wouldn’t at all surprise me to learn that there’s a Batman TV show, so I guess a GH show isn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility.
Bruce Lee as Kato was so popular in Asia that, not only was the show called “The Kato Show” (as PAD mentions) but the image of Kato has become iconic (the molded over-the-ears mask and black chauffeur’s uniform) and still pops up in Asian action films to this day.
I think, too, that there was a French Green Hornet film (or short film) from 2002 or 2003.
As far as theme music goes, while it’s from Japanse Anime, the themes to Cowboy BeBop and Samurai Champloo are both quite excellent.
I know I’m looking forward to Disney-Pixar’s Warlord of Mars. I understand Willem Dafoe is Tars Tarkas.
I saw it, and I’ve pretty much forgotten it existed. Very forgettable movie.
Forgettable? There are portions of that film burned into my cerebral cortex. How can you forget the lyrics, “Have…no fear! The Man of Bronze is here!” set to a Sousa march? And of course one of the great lines of all time:
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“Mona…you’re a brick.”
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Here. The first three minutes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG6ReEhHFYw
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Go ahead. Click on it. You know you want to. If nothing else, it’s worth checking out for the numbnut commentors who claim that Doc ripped off the Arctic Fortress of Solitude from Superman instead of the other way around.
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PAD
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“Have…no fear! The Man of Bronze is here!”
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Thank you ever so much. I’d actually managed to get that memory out of my head. Now it’s back again and likely there for the weekend.
clutching in either hand a Forty Five (and I don’t mean a record).
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What’s a record? Heh.
TAC
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It’s a thing those Guinness people keep track of.
So a record is beer? Good to know!
A record is a limited edition version of a CD, that has the music written in grooves on a vinyl disc, and that requires a small device called a “needle” to be inserted into the outermost groove as the record spins around for the sound to play.
It’s popular with old-school DJ types, as they can create an interesting variety of scratching and popping noises, by interfering with the spinning disk.
More often than not, music is recorded on both sides of the disk.
And yes, I’m pretty sure that the OP was kidding – but someone sounded serious about not knowing about a GREEN HORNET TV show – and, while I was a bit young to have seen either that or the Adam West BATMAN on original broadcast, the syndicated reruns of BATMAN shown regularly on early evening TV in the mid-70’s let me see the GH crossover, which let me know about the show. But then, I am an old fogey.
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Well, actually, if you’re a martial arts fan you’re likely a Bruce Lee fan and that means you probably at least know of the show since he was in it. Plus, if you’re a big martial arts fan like I am, you probably shop at the kind of stores that sell the “region 0” DVDs and most of those places sell copies of “The Green Hornet Starring Bruce Lee!” or even have a few “The Cato Show with Bruce Lee” in the mix.
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I went to the theater to see it and by the time the credits were rolling I was thinking the only good part of the thing, and the part that gave me the biggest sense of false hope, was the bridge scene at the beginning of the film. Years later it was coming on cable and I figured I would give it a look. I figured that maybe I was expecting more of a feel of the radio series that I liked to be in the film and I was unfairly judging it. After viewing it with lowered expectations… The only good part of the thing was the bridge scene at the beginning of the film.
The only good part of the thing was the bridge scene at the beginning of the film.
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Yeah, to me that was The Shadow. The rest was blah, except that it was nice to see Jonathon Winters.
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The joke on the set, I seem to remember, that with the prosthetic, Alec turned into a lookalike of his brother Billy.
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TAC
I loved the Shadow, and still do. One of the times that style worked even without much (or any) substance, much in the way I love Walter Hill films (the Warriors, Extreme Prejudice, Streets of Fire). Just pure popcorn. And every now and then, it is nice to just enjoy the popcorn. The fact that a Jim Steinman song, “Original Sin” was featured at the end, and Tim Curry was one of the baddies is also big for me. I love over-the-top, and the Shadow had that in spades. (So satisfying seeing the insane Curry cackling.) To this day, when I hear the last name “Lane”, I always think of Khan’s hypnotic voice, “Margo Laaaaaaaaane”. Makes me giggle.
Anyway, thought I’d put in my two cents.
I had problems with the film – basically what is mentioned hereby PAD and others.
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Got to say that Curry’s mad scene convinced me that (as i had suspected for some time) he would be perfect to play the Joker…
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Also, Gibson didn’t write as many of the pulp stories as sometimes given credit for – i know, for instance, that Bruce Elliott wrote the series for a year or two. (Lester Dent wrote at least one, for that matter.)
I’d love to see Curry play the Joker. Alas, two problems with that.
1) Who wants to try playing the Joker after Heath Ledger? (Except for Mark Hammill, of course.)
2) Tim isn’t as young and lithe as he used to be. But he could pull off the older Joker of a Dark Knight Returns!
Oh, and keeping up with the Curry love:
1) If you haven’t seen it, see him as Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island. The whole film is great, but he’s one of the best parts.
2) He did the voice of Count Olaf in Lemony Snicket’s first Series of Unfortunate Events Audiobook, and was great. (Also great is the Daniel Handler interview attached to that audiobook. Hilarious.)
It’s been suggested before, but it’s worth mentioning again: If BATMAN had been cast with actors from THE SHADOW instead (Baldwin as Bruce Wayne, Miller as Vicki Vale, McKellan as Alfred, Curry as the Joker, etc.), it would have been a much better movie.
I return, getting to play the villain/non-GH fan here. As to some of the points:
Yes, I remember seeing the Green Hornet and Kato on BATMAN — but never the GH show (or, as it was known in Japan, “The Kato Show”) on its own. Yes, Quentin Tarantino used the music from it; he also uses a box of the defunct cereal Fruit Brute a lot, which doesn’t mean it has a fanbase or it’ll be back on the shelves.
I always thought THE GREEN HORNET was more famous for starting Bruce Lee’s career than for defining it, as people remember him starring in movies rather than as the sidekick on a tv show. (Kinda like Johnny Depp fans know he started in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, but that’s hardly what he’s most known and loved for.)
Getting a SyFy tv marathon isn’t an automatically terrific sign, as at least once a week they’ll show a short-lived, quickly-cancelled show. The fact that they’re showing episodes of a show that’s the basis for an upcoming movie is less surprising. (MYTHBUSTERS had their own “Green Hornet Myths” episode, which was pretty weak — and not just for Seth Rogan browbeating the Build Team into changing a clear “busted” into “plausible” by inserting superhero standards into a show ostensibly based on science.)
For my dough, the best instrumental tv theme song ever would be the opening to COWBOY BEBOP (also instrumental jazz, btw). Honorary mention goes to the instantly-recognized theme from THE TWILIGHT ZONE.
I didn’t know about the John Carter movie — but I’m one of the few here that didn’t.
And I’ll watch a few episodes of the GREEN HORNET marathon — the ones you mentioned, if I’m in — but I suspect that overall, I’ll have to agree to disagree with folks about the original GREEN HORNET.
(For something to put me back in irate GH fans’ good graces, here’s a terrific quote from Phil, the dorky dad, from last night’s MODERN FAMILY: “I’d love it if I could be one of those people who thrives on living a double life. You know: Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker, Hannah Montana…”
I reviewed The Shadow when it came out. I recall stating that while because of my liking the character I wanted to give the movie a B- it only deserved a C+.
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I’d have to pull the review from my files to remember everything I said, but one thing does remain in my memory. I pointed out a problem of internal logic (one PAD mentioned as well, I see). If Lamont Cranston has the power to cloud men’s minds (and presumably women’s and children’s, too) so that they cannot see him, then he should also be able to keep them from seeing evidence of his presence. In this case, in the water. I guess whoever wrote the script forgot that Lamont isn’t physically invisible; he’s clouded their minds.
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Of course the way hypnotism really works, he’d have to come into a room, get the person or people there to relax and get comfortable, speak to them in a soothing tone (and maybe show them some object or other to concentrate on), then once they’re in a trance, make them forget about him coming in the room in the first place. Yeah, I can see the criminal element playing along.
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But we’ll just ignore that bit. It’s more fun that way.
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Another thing I remember from my review is that I liked how elements of both the radio show and the pulps were integrated. For example, you had the invisibility of the former and the various agents of the latter (though, as I recall, for the most part the network of agents was more implied than shown). I recall a network of pneumatic tubes being used on at least one occasion, but not who used them. Was Burbank in the film, even if not named?
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The Shadow is one of my favorite radio shows (I have 139 episodes, excluding duplicates); but I have to say I like it better when The Shadow doesn’t tell people (especially the bad guys) that he’s actually a flesh and blood human being standing in the room with whomever else is there. Bad guys can and have used that against him. As in “Appointment with Death.”
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Sure, if he’s with someone he wants to help, it may make sense to reassure them that he’s neither a ghost nor a figment of their imagination; but with criminals, let ’em believe he’s anything but human. And in many cases, Orson Welles’ Shadow did just that, while it seems that more often than not, both Bill Johnstone and Bret Morrison said something like, “you can’t see me, but I’m standing right next to you.”
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Again, I like the radio show; but here’s a Shadow scene I’d like to hear:
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Cranston: Well, Margot, with Dr. Madscientist in jail, the world can breathe easy.
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Margot: Yes, Lamont. It can.
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SOUND: A HARD, FORCEFUL PUNCH.
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Cranston: Margot, you hit me.
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Margot: Ðámņ right I did. You were in the laboratory the entire time, and yet you waited until Dr. Madscientist was just about to put that scalpel to me before going into your whole Shadow laugh shtick. Why do you always wait until the last moment, Lamont? It’s like you’re trying to draw out the suspense for the benefit of some radio audience somewhere. Next time, worry about me first and drawing out the suspense later. Or Else.
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MUSIC OUT.
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Also, Margot really needs to learn to lock her car doors when she’s waiting for Lamont to return from Shadowing (no pun intended) the bad guys.
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Oh, speaking of radio, my original radio script, “The Widow’s Revenge”, will be performed by All Ears Theatre in Kalamazoo on March 5, and broadcast on a subsequent date. More information can be found here:
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http://www.kalamazooarts.com/calendar/index.asp?id=21778
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Rick
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P.S. speaking of Margot Lane, Margot Stevenson, for whom the character was named, and who played Margot in the 1938 summer season, died recently. She was 98. There was a profile of her in Vol. 22 of the recent Shadow pulps re-releases.
A little bit of trivia, Tim Curry was going to be the voice of the Joker on Batman: The Animated Series. I forget if he had a schedule conflict or if his version of the Joker was judged to be too frightening for children.
I enjoyed his performance as Pennywise the Clown in “It”.
“Kiss me, fat boy!” 🙂
I do recall reading that the FOX executives were afraid Curry’s take on The Joker was too dark for a “kid’s show.”
Oh man, I forgot Pennywise. Money aside, I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t want to play the Joker given that he’d already done the killer clown bit.
For those who don’t know Anthony Tollin’s Sanctum Books is reprinting both the Shadow and Doc Savage pulps, two originals in one volume, on a roughly monthly basis. Diamond carries them, and they’re listed in Previews (although I forget if it’s in the Books or Magazines section). They’re both up to around 45 volumes each.
And for those who already about Sanctum books, here’s a video of a surprised kitten.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bmhjf0rKe8
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I’m both looking forward and dreading the Disney John Carter movie, hoping it brings back the pure adventure of the books as I read them back in the early 70’s, and dreading a repeat of “The Prince of Persia”.
And on a side note I already pre ordered my 1/6 scale John Carter action figure from Triad Toys which is based on the books as is their version of Zorro.
The DOC SAVAGE movie was a fine example of something which failed badly, especially given the glimpses it showed of how great it could have been if he’d done it straight instead of camping it up.
Swartznegger was reputed to have optioned Doc for a movie but then wound up in politics. Pity. Not many people have the physique and demeanour to do Doc right but I can’t help think Arnie does. Have to do something about the accent, though.
You guys know that John Carter finished filming last year, right? But it’s going to take until 2012 to do all the post-production, notably the big-ášš green Martians. And personally, I would kill to see a really great Doc Savage movie. The awful George Pal version made The Shadow look like the best film ever made.
But the end of the Doc film, where he hears the “millions could die” message on his nifty telephone recording device’ and dashes off, cut to him on the running board of a big roadster as it speeds off into the snowy night … pure Doc. If the rest of the film had been done that well, it could have been a real doozy.
I just hope some know-nothing film critic doesn’t shout “Avatar Rip-off!” when JCWoM released!
David, there are people who say, “Man of Bronze instead of Man of Steel? Arctic Fortress of Solitude? First name of Clark? Doc Savage was an obvious Superman rip-off!” Of course there will be people who will yell “Avatar Rip-off.” The really funny ones will be the people who shout that it’s a rip-off of “Tarzan.”
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Anyone else hear that Quentin Tarantino apparently wants to do a Shadow film?
Lamont Cranston: the role Adrien Brody was born to play.
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Just so they don’t make the mistake some writers have made trying to ‘update’ the characters, such as setting Doc into modern day rather than thirties Manhattan. Updating Holmes worked, but I never felt it did for Doc for other Pulp heroes.