My dad would sometimes play cassette tapes of old radio dramas on camping trips and that was my first exposure to The Shadow. I later saw a comic that had him appear with Batman and thought it was great... one of the first times I began to think about unlikely team ups and how fun they can be. The Alec Baldwin Shadow movie is a guilty pleasure for me, I like to pop it in every couple of years. I must say that even though I get a kick out of the film it doesn't really seem like The Shadow to me, save for an early scene where he confronts gangsters on a bridge. I am glad the kept with the appropriate time period, but I would still like to see an adaptation that really digs into the noir roots of the character. I have heard rumblings of a new cinematic version of The Shadow and it will be interesting to see what kind of take a new interpretation will have.
Have you ever noticed that that 1990's movie seems to have great big chunks missing? I've always suspected that there's either a four-hour edit in a vault somewhere or somebody yanked the checkbook before all the scenes were shot. The designers did an astonishing job of keeping everything visually in period, clothes, cars, hairstyles, even the architecture. Then why did Jim Steinman do the music? When I think of the Shadow and want to evoke that mood, the first thing that comes to mind is not, "Get me the guy who wrote 'Bat Out Of Hell'"! They should have asked Woody Allen to recommend somebody. All his movies sound like they were recorded in the 1920's.
ReplyDeleteI was just wondering, it would probably work better with Batman instead of the Thing, but is there any chance you could do a team up with Columbo in memory of Peter Falk?
ReplyDeleteI used to play the Shadow radio shows when on long drives with my kids. My son Eddie could do a hilarious imitation of the Blue Coal commercials.
ReplyDeleteLee - great idea but Columbo illustrations are limited... maybe when I return to B&B though...
ReplyDeleteTony - Heh, my siblings and I used to do imitations of E.G. Marshall from Mystery Theater! I recently have been enjoying some of these great shows on Radio Classics, a Sirius station. Sure brings back good memories!
The Batman/Shadow team up was how DC introduced the character to a new generation when they acquired the license in the early 1970's. I actually bought this comic off the rack and went as the Shadow for Halloween that year.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.comics.org/issue/26834/cover/4/
It's BATMAN #253 (11/73), but shipped around September.
Another great one and I am a huge Shadow fan!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Ben would go back to the Thirties, via Doc Doom's time platform, for this kind of team up?
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