The Shadow Fan

In the summer of 1931 Universal Pictures started making “filmettes” or short movie screen features of The Shadow. Universal Pictures made six of these, they are Burglar to Rescue, Trapped, Sealed Lips, House of Mystery, The Red Scare, and The Circus Show-up.

On October 29, 1937 The Shadow returned to the silver screen in his first feature film called The Shadow Strikes. This movie was about Lamont Cranston unsuccessfully searching for his father’s murder.

Less than a year later on April 22, 1938 The Shadow starred in another film called, International Crime.

The Shadow came back to the movie screens again in 1940, in a 15 episode serial format. This time The Shadow had to fight The Black Tiger, a criminal mastermind who possessed Cranston’s powers of invisibility.

In 1946, The Shadow returned to movie screens in a trio of enjoyable B-films released by Monogram Pictures. They were The Shadow Returns, Behind the Mask, and Missing Lady.

The following year, Orson Welles attempted to direct his own film version of The Shadow, but Welles could not secure film rights.

Director/writer Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, Spider-Man) wrote a script for a Shadow movie. He even wanted Bruce Campbell (Army of Darkness, Spider-Man) to play the tile role. Unfortunately, Raimi could not get the rights to the character, and had to rewrite the script and create a new hero. The movie that resulted was Darkman (1990), starring Liam Neeson (Schindler’s List, Star Wars Episode I, Gangs of New York).

On June 1, 1994, Alec Baldwin, Penelope Ann Miller, as well as other outstandingly known actors starred in the movie The Shadow, a $40 million film with screenplay by David Koepp, the scripture of Jurassic Park and The Lost World. For the U.S. release it made a total of $32 million just shy of its $40 million budget. A mysterious vigilante known as The Shadow uses his occult powers to defend justice and prevent his evil arch-villain Shiwan-Khan, the last descendent of Genghis Khan, from taking over the world.

In 1996, Universal Pictures supposedly had plans to release a direct-to-video sequel of The Shadow. This was following the successful sequel releases of Darkman and Tremors. Unfortunately, the plans never came to fruition and the project was shelved. This Shadow sequel was rumored to be an adaptation of the pulp novel The Voodoo Master.

The Shadow References In Other Films

All Dogs Go to Heaven
Synopsis: In the movie All Dogs Go to Heaven. In the first scene of the run-down church (with all of those pizza craving puppies) a radio is playing which the show says “Who knows The Shadow…”.

A Summer Without Boys
In the 1973 movie, A Summer Without Boys, set in either the 1930s or 1940s, a woman going through a divorce finds respite at a summer lodge. Along for the ride is her daugther. In one scene, the daughter listens to an episode of The Shadow radio show.

Information gathered from J.H.

Radio Days
In the 1987 movie, Radio Days, there is a scene in which 2 parents and a Rabbi are talking about the bad influence that radio is on kids. They included both The Lone Ranger and The Shadow in that comment.

PS - If you enjoy the golden age of radio, this is definitely a must see movie! It’s a comedy about life in the 1930’s and 40’s, which in this movie it all revolves around the radio. They even include a segment of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds.

Brighton Beach Memoirs
In 1986 a character in this film, Eugene (played by Jonathan Silverman), carries around a Shadow magazine.