"The Shadow", starring Alec Baldwin, was an attempt to finally bring the legendary character to the big screen that fell just short of its goal.
Alec Baldwin, while not the first actor that comes to mind to play the character, nevertheless does a stellar job as Lamont Cranston/Shadow. Great voice!! Ditto for John Lone as Shiwan Khan. Thankfully, a real Chinese actor was hired to play a Chinese character. The rest of the cast was equally stellar.
The sets were 1930's perfect. There were little touches here and there, like the wallpaper on Moe Shrevnitz'z living room, or the "Llama Cigarettes" billboard blowing smoke rings, that really gave me a feeling for what life was like in Depression-era New York. I could almost imagine stopping at an Automat for a slice of pie.
Most of the faults with the film are in the script. The one-liners are dreadful, and while the "mind control" aspect of the script was original, the story just didn't seem weird enough to be a true Shadow story.
All of the best Shadow stories, either on radio or in print, always had an air of the macabre to them. Why were the gangster guys at the beginning of the film so conventional? Why didn't they have their own weird back-story, like they would have in the novels? And when the Shadow dispenses orders to his agents, why do they all just blindly follow? Not everyone would be as dedicated to a lifetime mission of fighting evil as the Shadow, regardless of what he's done for, or to, them. If Margo Lane can resist him, why not the other agents? Also missing from the script is an example of one of the classic Shadow "impossible escapes", like the ones in the novels. The novels were written by Walter Gibson, who studied under Harry Houdini, along with a young Orson Welles. It was this connection that persuaded Welles to play the Shadow on radio!! And yet there were no "escape artist" stunts on screen like the ones found in the novels. An "impossible escape" is as essential to the Shadow character as a martini, shaken not stirred, is to James Bond.
The other glaring fault with the film was the soundtrack. For all the great sets and costumes on screen, why was a Kenny G-styled soundtrack inserted in the nightclub scene? The Chinese percussion used through the rest of the film was appropriate; why screw it up with some Kenny G crap? Jellybean Benitez was listed as "music supervisor;" I can only assume that the fault lies with him.
Regardless, the film was incredibly entertaining, and the costumes were as fantastic as the sets. I remember reading somewhere that real Tibetan monks appear in the beginning of the film, and Shiwan Khan's burial clothing was actually made in Mongolia. And the twin .45 automatics made for the film always turn up at gun shows with people trying to buy them. Pretty good movie, but it could have been better. Hell, with a few minor changes, it would have been GREAT.
Alec Baldwin, while not the first actor that comes to mind to play the character, nevertheless does a stellar job as Lamont Cranston/Shadow. Great voice!! Ditto for John Lone as Shiwan Khan. Thankfully, a real Chinese actor was hired to play a Chinese character. The rest of the cast was equally stellar.
The sets were 1930's perfect. There were little touches here and there, like the wallpaper on Moe Shrevnitz'z living room, or the "Llama Cigarettes" billboard blowing smoke rings, that really gave me a feeling for what life was like in Depression-era New York. I could almost imagine stopping at an Automat for a slice of pie.
Most of the faults with the film are in the script. The one-liners are dreadful, and while the "mind control" aspect of the script was original, the story just didn't seem weird enough to be a true Shadow story.
All of the best Shadow stories, either on radio or in print, always had an air of the macabre to them. Why were the gangster guys at the beginning of the film so conventional? Why didn't they have their own weird back-story, like they would have in the novels? And when the Shadow dispenses orders to his agents, why do they all just blindly follow? Not everyone would be as dedicated to a lifetime mission of fighting evil as the Shadow, regardless of what he's done for, or to, them. If Margo Lane can resist him, why not the other agents? Also missing from the script is an example of one of the classic Shadow "impossible escapes", like the ones in the novels. The novels were written by Walter Gibson, who studied under Harry Houdini, along with a young Orson Welles. It was this connection that persuaded Welles to play the Shadow on radio!! And yet there were no "escape artist" stunts on screen like the ones found in the novels. An "impossible escape" is as essential to the Shadow character as a martini, shaken not stirred, is to James Bond.
The other glaring fault with the film was the soundtrack. For all the great sets and costumes on screen, why was a Kenny G-styled soundtrack inserted in the nightclub scene? The Chinese percussion used through the rest of the film was appropriate; why screw it up with some Kenny G crap? Jellybean Benitez was listed as "music supervisor;" I can only assume that the fault lies with him.
Regardless, the film was incredibly entertaining, and the costumes were as fantastic as the sets. I remember reading somewhere that real Tibetan monks appear in the beginning of the film, and Shiwan Khan's burial clothing was actually made in Mongolia. And the twin .45 automatics made for the film always turn up at gun shows with people trying to buy them. Pretty good movie, but it could have been better. Hell, with a few minor changes, it would have been GREAT.