On My Shelves: The Shadow

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"

     In 1930, Street and Smith's Detective Story Hour began featuring a sinister-sounding narrator who identified himself only as "The Shadow". Somewhat to the publisher's surprise, The Shadow was so distinctive that listeners started asking for "The Shadow" magazine rather than "Detective Story". Not being foolish, they immediately began publication of such a magazine, featuring a fleshed-out version of the character who had previously been little more than a voice with an eerie laugh. The Shadow went on to become one of the most iconic pulp heroes of all time, and one of the ancestors of many modern superheroes such as Batman.

There were two early versions of The Shadow in terms of identity and capabilities. The pulp version is a skilled combatant without any particular special powers, who began as very much antihero, a noir hero-thief who would gun down the badder bad guys or arrange their deaths; his real name was Kent Allard, a former flying ace who used numerous identities, including that of the wealthy Lamont Cranston, in the pursuit of his avocation.

The radio play version – which is generally considered the second, even though technically the character first appeared on radio – is the one that became more famous and ultimately iconic, however – a man who, in the "far East", learned the power to "cloud men's minds", a superior and speedy form of hypnosis that could be used to confuse people into not seeing him, or believing he was elsewhere; this was apparently at least partially due to the demands of radio broadcast, since it was difficult to explain on radio where the Shadow was, how he moved from place to place, and so on. This version was, in fact, Lamont Cranston ("Wealthy young man about town") and disposed of the other identities.

I am most familiar with the Shadow through his comic-book and most recent movie incarnations, though I have read a couple of the pulp novels and heard a few episodes of the radio play, so my discussion will be much more focused on these sources, which are similar but separate.

Aside from having heard part of one of the radio plays in my youth, my first encounter with The Shadow was in the classic Batman #253 and #259 – why and how I ended up with those two Batman issues out of the maybe 5 total I had at that age, I do not know. But those two carried much of the impact of the Shadow, and let me know that he had a stature that was mythic even to the Batman himself.

 

My main comic exposure to The Shadow, however, did not occur until the late 1980s and early 1990s, with The Shadow Strikes, a relatively short-running (I think 3 years) comic which nonetheless had a number of excellent stories, the most impressive of which was a four-issue crossover with Doc Savage (starting in The Shadow Strikes #5) which was most amusing partly because of the contrasts between the two pulp superheroes and their teams (for instance, Doc's team never uses lethal force, while The Shadow and his men are often throwing lead around like confetti).

From this and my earlier two-comic exposure, and spotty encounters with the novels and radio plays, I developed quite a fondness for this dark avenger; the Batman is far more well-known today, but he would not have existed without The Shadow, and to my mind the Shadow is still a more impressive, more mythic, figure.

With this as my attitude, it can be easily understood that I awaited the 1994 release of the big-screen version of The Shadow with considerable trepidation; at the time, of course, comic-book adaptations had an… at best spotty history, with the recent experience including the abominable 1990 Captain America.

The Shadow starred Alec Baldwin as Lamont Cranston/The Shadow, Jonathan Winters as Cranston's uncle and the commissioner Wainwright Cranston, Penelope Ann Miller as Margo Lane, and John Lone as Shiwan Khan, with excellent secondary performances by none other than Sir Ian McKellen as Margo Lane's absent-minded father Rhinehart Lane and Tim Curry as the slimy Farley Claymore.

As a young man, Cranston traveled to the far East, but in this version of the modern myth, did not do so for high-minded reasons; he became an opium runner and a barely-civilized savage calling himself Yin Ko. One night, Yin Ko is abducted and brought to the temple of the Tulku, a childlike holy man who has seen something worth saving in Cranston. The Tulku forces Cranston to face the monster he has become, but also teaches him to master the abilities that lie within him – teaching him the power to "cloud men's minds", passing invisibly through the world, with the only trace of his passage being his own shadow. Eventually Cranston returns to New York, but brings with him his new identity as The Shadow, to atone for the evil he did as Yin Ko by bringing justice to the streets of New York.

We see some of the Shadow's work, including his apparently superhuman capabilities, and some interesting aspects of Cranston's life – including his first encounter with Margo Lane, who will turn out to be more important than Cranston suspects, and a discussion with his uncle Wainwright, who strongly disapproves of the Shadow's vigilantism.

But then a mysterious sarcophagus arrives at the New York Museum of Art… a sarcophagus linked to Temuchin, AKA Genghis Khan, and carrying a very dangerous passenger…

Critics didn't seem terribly enthused about this movie; I found it wonderful. It was a fantastic period piece with the pulp sensibilities added and brought to brilliant life, right down to the Shadow having a network of spies across the city in the form of people whom he had saved, and assuming his classic pulp appearance, materializing from darkness to bring vengeance with twin .45s, as well as being able to fight hand-to-hand against the best. Shiwan Khan was an excellent villain, a strangely civilized barbarian with a complete pulp-fiction plan for conquest and destruction that combined civility with savagery; inquiring after a tailor for the best suits on the one hand, and sending a taxi driver to a fiery death on a whim on the other hand.

The only real flaw in the film was towards the end, when Cranston manages to master a mystical and savage dagger called the Phurba which had previously never responded to him. I would have liked some lead-up showing how the Shadow managed to figure out how to gain control of this weapon earlier.

Other than that, the film captured precisely the power and mystery of this most classic of pulp heroes, and I very much recommend it.

As a character, the Shadow is one of the most influential of the pulp era. He is the direct ancestor of Batman and nearly any dark-themed hero, especially one with a wealthy secret identity, owes something to him. He was one of the first to use mystical martial arts powers, especially in the manner described, and could be considered an ancestor of the Jedi as well – for the "Jedi Mind Trick" is certainly very close in spirit to the power to "cloud men's minds".

And I do indeed get a chill down my spine when I hear the tagline and the echoing laugh: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows…"