Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Shadow and The Spirit



Here are a couple of pulp characters that have not had an easy time making the transition to live action.  The Spirit was an artistic triumph on the printed page by Will Eisner, but trying to recapture the inventive visuals on the big screen resulted in a campy bomb.  The Shadow was not nearly as big a misstep, but it certainly had it's cheesy moments and could have done the character a lot more justice.  I would have preferred something a little more moody, as my introduction to Lamont Cranston's alter ego was from listening to the classic radio dramas that he was featured in.


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks ross neat cover hope for issue 500 well get x-men vs secret society of super villians /power girl and capt marvel from marvel/metal men and transformers or tmnt and titans

Ross said...

Metal Men/Transformers is already in here...

Anonymous said...

The Shadow was a movie that didn't know what it wanted to be: serious adventure or campy comedy. As a result, it didn't really work as either, which was a real shame; I had high hopes for the pic initially.

I have the first 20 of the collected hardcovers of the Spirit - Eisner did such amazing things with layout. Haven't seen the movie, but Frank Miller is not exactly the ideal person to be put in charge of that kind of adaptation IMO. Ah well, maybe someday...

-Mea

Isaac said...

Well the Shadow's movie is what happens when you get a team who don't take the source material seriously (
Green Hornet, The Phantom, The Spirit...). If anybody's gonna do these characters right, do it the Marvel way, respect the material and get the best people around. But for God's sake just do it right! Richard Donner did it, so it can't be hard.

Bob said...

I avoided the Miller movie, but i rather enjoyed the 1987 Spirit TV pilot starring Sam Jones. I thought it captured the characters and the humor fairly well, though Will Eisner reportedly didn't like it.

Isaac said...

I didn't know they had a Spirit TV show. How'd I miss that. Well, if Eisner didn't like it, it's a bad sign. Sam Jones, didn't he play Capt. America? Or was it Flash Gordon?

AirDave said...

Cool team-up!
Sam Jones was the same actor who played Flash Gordon. Reb Brown and Matt Salinger played Captain America. The TV movie was pretty good.

I still have not seen The Spirit film...

I liked The Shadow. I think the drama and action compensated for the light-hearted moments...

Anonymous said...

To my namesake, third from the type: I thought it succeeded at both! Much like the first three Indy Jones movies.

Anonymous said...

And, truth to tell, THE SHADOW--even at its worst--was still way better than Seth Rogen's GH.

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