The Shadow is a superhero movie starring Alec Baldwin, Penelope Ann Miller, John Lone, Jonathan Winters, Peter Boyle, Ian McKellen, and Tim Curry. It's based on the old radio show and pulp novels starring the titular hero; I used to listen to old recordings of The Shadow a lot.
Lamont Cranston (Baldwin) is living in Tibet as a crime lord and drug dealer, but gets recruited by a mysterious fellow called Tulku (Brady Tsurutani, voiced by Barry Dennen) and taught the secret of clouding others' minds. He returns to New York and settles into the "wealthy playboy" lifestyle, all the while fighting crime as the Shadow. His uncle (Winters), conveniently, is the police commissioner, which means he can employ his powers of hypnosis to keep the cops off his back, but then he runs afoul of a couple of folks he can't so easily control.
The first is Margo Lane (Miller), another socialite who has psychic powers of her own and is immune to Lamont's mental manipulation, and can pick up surface thoughts from him. The other is Shiwan Khan (Lone), a descendant of Genghis Khan and student of the Tulku who forces dudes to commit suicide and/or dress up like Mongol warriors in the middle of New York, which doesn't seem to bother anyone. He has an evil plan, 'cause obviously - specifically using Margo's father (McKellen) to create an atomic bomb. Tim Curry tags along as a henchman with a really inconsistent accent.
The Shadow is one of several mid-90s attempts to make feature films out of old timey superheroes (see also The Phantom, Rocketeer) and it's kind of the middle, quality-wise. It's pretty well-cast - young Alec Baldwin works as a superhero because he doesn't have to be the muscle-bound type that we get nowadays, and his voice and presence sell as Cranston. Likewise, Miller is weird enough to work as a quasi-psychic Lane.
I think the biggest problem with the movie is the same one that haunts a lot of mid- or low-tier superhero movies - it's really formulaic, and it doesn't try to lean in to the cool stuff about the character. The Shadow is scary because he's invisible - he laughs from nowhere and taunts criminals, accusing them and making them do stupid shit like shoot each other. Having him pop out of nowhere and punch dudes is perhaps more cinematic, but it also misses why the character is fun. A lot of the old radio plays starring the Shadow having truly horrific elements, and even if you're leaning more towards pulp it would be cool to have some pulp horror and not be quite so tongue in cheek. But, OK, you want to make it about the mental control, that'd be awesome! Except we've got Mongol warriors in armor and atomic bombs, and it just feels a bit of a mess.
The movie is fun to watch, and the Shadow having a network of informants is a nice touch. Again, though, I wish they'd have done more with that, rather than make a bog-standard superhero gig.
And like, maybe an endorsement from Blue Coal or...whatever the tire company was (Silverline? Silverstone?).
My Grade: B
Rewatch Value: Medium-high
Next up: The Birds
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