Flickering Shadows - The Shadow!

I pulled out The Shadow movie from 1994 starring Alec Baldwin as the mysterious and gloomy hero and Penelope Ann Miller as a decidedly slinky Margot Lane. This is a pretty decent actioner with good Shadow gimmicks for the time. Love that Jim Steranko poster. 

The story is pretty good with Shiwan Khan showing up in a bravura performance by John Lone who chews up the scenery perfectly as the megalomaniacal uber-villain. His plan to hypnotize all of New York City while getting his mitts on a prototype of an "atomic bomb" is perfectly dastardly. His sidekicks, a bunch of dimwitted Mongols are pretty good too. Tim Curry as Khan's American-born henchman is definitely over the top, but for him it works. His inevitable demise is well earned. 

Alec Baldwin is a bit debonair for the role, but when they hit him with the makeup, he looks just like the Steranko covers I loved as a kid. Seeing the Shadow in action is highlight of this movie. He gets to do some dandy shooting, though I will confess he has a propensity for getting shot himself. The Shadow in this story is far from a superman, but a man with powers which overmatch regular thugs, but find their limits against a villain like Khan. 

I don't know how the origin story fits with the canon (not well I suspect) but giving the Shadow the need to atone for past crimes does give his focus a reason to exist. The sidekicks are great in this one. Penelope Ann Miller is ravishing as Margo Lane and stands up to Baldwin neatly in her scenes. Moe Shrevnitz is brought to the screen wonderfully by the much-missed Peter Boyle, a man who always had a devilish twinkle in his eye despite the role he played. And Ian McKellan gives a first-rate offering of a daft professor who just happens to be Margot's Dad.

There are some plot holes in this one you could drive a truck loaded with cliches through for sure, but some of the scenes are magnificent. When the Monolith Hotel is revealed in all its glory for the first time it is fantastic and gives a scope to the movie that elevates the whole affair for me. The movie owes a lot to the Keaton Batman flicks of the time, but those influences don't overwhelm the movie. I like this one a lot, and thoroughly enjoyed this time as well. 

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Nights Of The Shadow Thirteen!

The Shadow #11 is a humdinger as it guest-stars another pulp hero DC was trying to kickstart, The Avenger. The issue is written by Michael Uslan (his second effort on the series) and drawn by new regular artist E.R.Cruz who also does the cover. The story is titled "The Night of The Avenger" logically enough, following the established pattern.

The tale kicks off with the Shadow on the trail of some stolen munitions, a threat he takes so seriously that he calls in many of his reserve agents but before orders can be given the meeting is attacked clearly indicating a traitor in the Shadows team. The leader of the attack force is captured and is revealed to be Smitty, an agent of The Avenger. We cut to the Avenger's headquarters where he is visited by Margot Lane who gives him the Shadow's location. The Shadow later indicates that Margot is the traitor, or at least that's what his notes might indicate. (Special note though, it's a neat touch when Shrevvy is reading the debut issue of Detective Comics).

The two teams of crimefighters end up at a summer resort in New Jersey at a lighthouse where Oriental villains are discovered. One calls The Shadow "The Dark Eagle" and we suddenly realize the threat to the Shadow is from someone who knows his secrets. The Avenger's team show up and gunplay ensues, but the battle is halted when The Shadow seems to realize the true nature of his opponent. The debate crimefighting technique meanwhile discovering that both Smitty and Margot have been controlled by another mastermind, specifically it is revealed almost immediately to be Shiwan Khan. There's more gunplay, Khan attempts to escape in a submarine but is locked in battle with the Shadow and then a well-placed grenade from The Avenger blows the sub up. The Shadow survives and the teams go their seperate ways with The Avenger hoping that someday he won't have to bring The Shadow to justice.

Solid issue, if a tad jammed. But I like that feeling in my comics. To heck with decompression, give hyper-compressed comics!

 Visit the Internet Archive to read this actual issue at this link. 

One more to come.

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Justice Inc. Files One!

Justice Inc. #1 is titled "This Night an Avenger is Born!" and purports to adapt the novel of The Avenger by Kenneth Robeson. This time "Kenneth Robeson" was Paul Ernst who wasn't the creator of Doc Savage, but just one of several men who wrote under the house name devised by Street and Smith. Having just read the original, this is pretty concise adaptation of the original, though of course they had to drop several details. The script is by Shadow veteran Denny O'Neil and the artwork this time is by Al McWilliams, an artist while somewhat lacking in dynamics was pretty good at street level realism. The cover is by Joe Kubert.

The story begins as Richard Benson and his wife and daughter board a plane. Mysteriously during the flight Benson's wife and daughter disappear and he is knocked out during a fight with thugs on the plane. He wakes up three weeks later in hospital with his skin having gone ghostly pale and his facial muscles paralyzed. Quickly he uses his skills as a world adventurer arming himself with "Mike" his slender gun he keeps hidden and "Ike" his throwing knife. He returns to the airport, but soon is in struggle with a giant who turns out to be the Physicist Algernon Heathcote Smith or "Smitty". Smitty is a fugitive, wrongly convicted and he agrees to help Benson. They board the plane, gunplay ensues, and they find a map to a distant island. Getting into disguise as an old man the Avenger boards the ill-fated plane again and off they go until he's threatened to be thrown out of the plane sans parachute. It seems the scheme is to kidnap and drop certain controlling shareholders in Acme Motor Company to coerce them to sign over control of the company. Benson learns his wife and daughter were thrown from the plane and killed. He himself is thrown from the plane but he has a hidden parachute. He confronts the thugs who killed his family and the mastermind a man he thought was at first a victim. He is saved from killing the man in revenger by Smitty who then bonds with The Avenger to form Justice Incorporated.

There is a text piece by Allen Asherman about the history of The Avenger. Next time will see more on this DC comics series when Jack "King" Kirby takes the helm. But even before that we got to enjoy The Avenger guest-starring with The Shadow. 

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Nights Of The Shadow Twelve!

The Shadow #10 offers up another change for the series. Denny O'Neil returns on scripts and Mike Kaluta turns up to give the issue its cover. But E.R. Cruz becomes the new regular artist on the series.

The story is titled "The Night of the Killers" and it involves a murderous family named Crouch. Papa Crouch, Ox Crouch and his wife Flossy kidnap some citizens after a hold-up and Harry Vincent and Shrevvy (returned from vacation which is mentioned pointing to some hint of continuity in the series) come across it. There's gunplay and Shrevvy is hurt but not before he spots an important clue which he passes to the Shadow. The Shadow seeks out the one law-abiding son, Moose Crouch a bartender but he's gunned down by another thug. There are many twists and turns with the auto-gyro coming into play and a bridge getting blown up to stop pursuit. The action moves to a train graveyard where there's a final shootout with the Crouchs. The lone survivor, Flossie reveals that one of the earlier hostages a Judge Blaney is the real mastermind who attempts escape but drives his car accidently over the exploded bridge. Shrevvy's clue is not revealed but made into a contest for readers.

The story is okay, and the artwork is more muscular. I have to confess that despite his virtues as an artist, Cruz doesn't really excite me much. He tells a decent story with solid images, but the overall impression is less than its parts, at least in my estimation. Still they could've done much worse.

Visit the Internet Archive to read this actual issue at this link. 

More to come.

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NIghts Of The Shadow Eleven!

The Shadow #9 is titled "Night of the Falling Death". This one offers up artwork by Frank Robbins with inks by Frank McLaughlin. Joe Kubert though does the cover. The script though is done by Michael Uslan and there's definitely a different tone in the story.

It concerns a smuggling ring which somehow uses Niagra Falls. A man on death row points the Shadow towards a villain named "Murdock", but apparently that's all and several "Murdocks" fall unders suspicion. Shrevvy focuses on one who turns out to innocent, and the Shadow sends Shrevvy away on vacation, clearly a rebuke. The Shadow in this story is much tougher with his aides, less sympathetic. Eventually the action ends up at the Falls with Lamont Cranston and Margot Lane getting "married" to cover the investigation. The Murdock they are looking for turns out to be a woman who does some daredevil stunts at the Falls and she and the Shadow battle on a rope across the Falls before predictably she tumbles to her death.

One dandy addition to this issue is a two-page text piece on the history of The Shadow. It's titled "The Shadow: A Dossier" and it's written by then DC staffer Anthony Tollin, the same Anthony Tollin who gifted us with those wonderful Shadow Double-Novel reprints some years ago.

 Visit the Internet Archive to read this actual issue at this link. 

More to come.

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Nights Of The Shadow Ten!

The Shadow #8 was written by Denny O'Neil and illustrated by Frank Robbins who also does the cover. It's titled "The Night of The Mummy".

 

The tale begins in the jungles of Central America and almost immediately a Mummy attacks a Professor's assistant (not unlike the original Mummy movie from Universal). Margot Lane is at the dig and surprisingly so is the Shadow who jumps in and battles the Mummy and some natives who run to his assistance. There's a trap, gunplay and all sorts of mayhem, possibly the most rockem sockem beginning yet in the series. The assistant, named McMasters is saved, and the Professor, Margot, a guy named Louis and he are taken back to the city in a plane flown by Kent Allard. (An aha moment for all Shadow pulp readers indeed!)

Louis is killed aboard the plane which is met by Lamont Cranston. Margot who thinks Cranston is the Shadow is shocked and she is told that as we know the Shadow only takes Cranston's place from time to time. Harry Vincent is involved and the story rolls along with more gunplay and a Mummy threatening folks here and there, and whatnot until the finale in which it is revealed that McMasters was the Mummy after they returned to the city and the mastermind behind the scheme all set up to make sure he got the credit for the great archeological find. He ends up hanging himself accidently when his wrappings catch as he falls off a building.

This is a solid adventure, and points to a move to the pulp side of the Shadow's backstory away from the radio play.

Visit the Internet Archive to read this actual issue at this link. 

More to come.

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Flickering Shadows - Invisible Avenger!

Fans of The Shadow would have to wait until 1958 for the next attempt to bring the highly successful pulp hero to the big screen. The Invisible Avenger is sadly yet another failed effort though in a long line of less-than-ideal attempts to capture the glory of Walter Gibson's hero. 

(Helmore)

But before we take a gander at that flick, there is the unsold pilot titled The Shadow from 1954 starring Tom Helmore as a British Lamont Cranston, who teamed with Margo Lane is a criminologist brought into tough cases by Police Commissioner Weston. In this noiresque but low-budget effort The Shadow solves the murder of a young woman. Sadly, despite some good details, the plot of this one is so full of holes that it makes enjoying it tough. Helmore does a creditable job, though both he and the police have to be stupid to make the plot continue.

Our big item today though is Richard Derr in The Invisible Avenger, a "movie" made from compiled episodes of yet another failed Shadow tv show from four years later. In this one, Lamont Cranston is partnered with his mentor, a mystic named "Joegendra" played by Mark Daniels. The two of them use their powers of mind control to appear invisible at times and to force information from a variety of thugs.

(Daniels and Derr)

The plot is centered in New Orleans and deals mostly with the return of an exiled leader to some generic Hispanic nation or other. There's a murder to be solved and some thugs to round up, but mostly it's a series of mind tricks and attempts at sophistication that seems overwrought. Cranston's infatuation with jazz is a big part of the early parts of the show.

Apparently, this "movie" was also released later as Bourbon Street Shadows with more sexy stuff added to make it seem adult. The poster above shows several scenes not in the version I watched. Neither of these is a fantastic bit of entertainment, but they both are worthwhile for anyone interested in the Shadow and that hero's lengthy influence in pop culture.

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