ListNook

TerryGranules Mar 30, 2026 +59

There is so much cackling in this film. MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

59

Ill_Refrigerator_593 Mar 30, 2026 +30

If you're going to cast Tim Curry...

30

TerryGranules Mar 30, 2026 +25

Yeah but even Baldwin was at it... "The Shadow knoowOWWWS AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA"

25

Lord_rook Mar 30, 2026 +13

If anything, his was downplayed compared to the original radio shows

13

colinisthereason Mar 31, 2026 +2

Nobody controls my mind, Shadow!

2

MovieMike007 Mar 30, 2026 +57

It’s important to note that [The Shadow](https://manapop.com/film/the-shadow-1994-review/) was released during a time when superhero films were still finding their footing in Hollywood. Disney's [The Rocketeer](https://manapop.com/film/the-rocketeer-1991-review/), an even better comic book movie, didn't do all that well at the box office.

57

msprang Mar 30, 2026 +40

The Rocketeer is awesome. You can tell Timothy Dalton is having a blast. Plus you can't beat prime Jennifer Connelly.

40

HelloIAmElias Mar 31, 2026 +7

And Terry O'Quinn, who's great in everything

7

msprang Mar 31, 2026 +6

"Thanks to the diligence of the FBI, this particular vacuum cleaner won't fall into the wrong hands."

6

arkemiffo Mar 31, 2026 +7

Is there another type of Jennifer Connelly?

7

msprang Mar 31, 2026 +3

Ok, good point.

3

SailorET Mar 31, 2026 +2

Labyrinth is arguably pre-prime. She's a little wooden and hadn't quite refined her talent at that point.

2

Dismal_View_5121 Mar 30, 2026 +26

The Rocketeer is criminally underrated and still holds up. Fun fact - his work on the Rocketeer earned Joe Johnston the director role for the first Captain America movie. Feige really appreciated it and wanted something similar in tone.

26

SojuSeed Mar 31, 2026 +13

Here’s an even better fun fact. In the Rocketeer, we see Terry O’Quinn playing Howard Hughes. Jennifer Connelly shares screen time with him towards the end of the movie. Tony Stark was based off of Howard Hughes. In Spider-Man: Homecoming, Peter wears the suit designed by Tony Stark which had an onboard AI that he calls suit lady, which was voiced by Jennifer Connelly (the wife of Paul Bettany who plays Jarvis). Little Jennifer Connelly/Howard Hughes inception there.

13

Lmoorefudd Mar 30, 2026 +9

My kindergarten backpack, trapper keeper and pencil box beg to differ. Rocketeer ruled.

9

Dookie_boy Mar 31, 2026 +2

My only criticism is that the main character seemed to get beaten far too easily in the first 2/3 of the movie.

2

LeBronGOOD Mar 31, 2026 +2

When I first played this movie I wasn’t aware it was going to be a superhero movie lol. Took me by surprise.

2

YoHuckleberry Apr 1, 2026 +1

I wish Disney would take this as a fun pulp adventure show and just run with it. Action, romance, laughs, cool helmets… Nazis getting comeuppance. What else do you need?

1

MovieMike007 Apr 1, 2026 +1

Yeah, all we got was a kid's cartoon on *Disney Junior*. Which was cancelled after one season.

1

Chris_Robbin Mar 30, 2026 +38

This, Darkman, D*** Tracy, and The Rocketeer were my fave movies to rent every weekend. My parents must have been so tired of seeing them week after week.

38

Sol_Train Mar 30, 2026 +26

The sun is shining…

26

Chris_Robbin Mar 30, 2026 +24

…but the ice is slippery.

24

Grenflik Mar 30, 2026 +27

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

27

VampireHunterAlex Mar 30, 2026 +47

An Avengers-style movie in the 90s featuring The Shadow, The Phantom, D*** Tracy, Batman, & Darkman (hey it’s comic book logic: They’d figure something out.)

47

Guardllamapictures Mar 30, 2026 +8

What’s funny is most of these movies were greenlit after Batman’s success. Studios wanted to cash in on comic book properties. Did they go for other current or even silver age comic book heroes? Absolutely not. Clearly what audiences wanted were comic book heroes from the 1930’s!

8

TomBirkenstock Mar 31, 2026 +4

I was a kid at the time, and it's absolutely what I wanted! I loved the '30s era and art deco aesthetic (even if I didn't know that term at the time). Of course, whenever they try to revive a pulp hero, general audiences reject them, and they bomb. I like to think Hollywood just likes to light money on fire for freaks like me every decade or so.

4

droidtron Mar 30, 2026 +10

Eh, Defenders of the Earth found a way to have Flash Gordon, The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician be a team.

10

kvlt_ov_personality Mar 30, 2026 +10

Would like to add the Rocketeer, Pluto Nash, and the Mystery Men to this movie

10

msprang Mar 30, 2026 +2

Someone created a sort of fan trailer for something like this years ago called OXG (Organization of Extraordinary Gentlemen). The Shadow, The Phantom, The Rocketeer, and The Green Hornet + Kato.

2

haysoos2 Mar 31, 2026 +2

Maybe throw Doc Savage in there

2

ibyczek78 Mar 30, 2026 +14

This and Billy Zane as the Phantom was peak early comic movies.

14

Dismal_View_5121 Mar 30, 2026 +5

Another underrated movie. My sibling and I watched it a few years ago during a run of watching infamous box office bombs. We loved it. Billy Zane is so f****** charming in that movie - it showed he can play wholesome just as well as his commonly typecast role as creepy jerk.

5

JimBrown75 Mar 30, 2026 +12

I always wondered why this movie didn't do good, but who knows what lurks in the heart of man

12

TJ_Fox Mar 30, 2026 +10

I still get a kick out of the Shadow's private pneumatic tube system for sending secret messages around the city. [https://youtu.be/PMR2UPP2eoU?si=wDiOaeaYJqg1oBSO](https://youtu.be/PMR2UPP2eoU?si=wDiOaeaYJqg1oBSO)

10

So_be Mar 31, 2026 +2

vacuum!

2

Ok-Nothing-4737 Mar 31, 2026 +1

It actually existed.

1

TJ_Fox Mar 31, 2026 +2

Yep. The early ancestor of the pneumatic tube systems that are still used in some banks, hospitals etc.

2

Least-Improvement-49 Mar 30, 2026 +9

totally agree, this movie's such a trip with its vibe! it’s wild to think how underrated it is—definitely deserves more love in the superhero genre.

9

tricksterloki Mar 30, 2026 +9

I love the opening. Alec Baldwin is dripping sweat and looks super greasy, then he is mindfucked by a decapitated head into becoming a hero who is a snazzy, sophisticated dresser. Dude is still unhinged but without the warlord part, maybe. He still seems to ruin everything.

9

StewartDC8 Mar 30, 2026 +7

This will be lost on a modern viewer, but as a kid I can't tell you how stunning that fight with the CGI knife was. I was in awe. Early CGI looked so incredible at the time and people forget that

7

haysoos2 Mar 31, 2026 +3

Probably lost in home theater, but that fight with the knife had some of the best audio effects I've heard in a movie, with the sound of the knife swirling from speaker to speaker around and behind you. They also did it with Tim Curry in the flooding sphere, as he's trying to hit The Shadow taunting him invisibly.

3

Lfsnz67 Mar 31, 2026 +6

I've maintained that Christopher and Jonathan Nolan must have loved this movie because they borrowed the backstory scenes from this pretty heavily in Batman Begins

6

LittleBoat9295 Mar 31, 2026 +2

Good point!

2

SevroAuShitTalker Mar 30, 2026 +7

I still check microscopes for eye blades before using one

7

redditisawesome555 Mar 30, 2026 +9

Wasn't that Phantom?

9

Horkersaurus Mar 30, 2026 +2

It's still sound advice.

2

redditisawesome555 Mar 30, 2026 +2

Absolutely.

2

SevroAuShitTalker Mar 30, 2026 +1

Was it? I get the two movies confused a lot

1

redditisawesome555 Mar 30, 2026 +1

I'm not gonna lie I don't remember anything from Shadow so something similar might be there too... but I remember that scene from Phantom very vividly lol. Love that movie.

1

Data_Chandler Mar 30, 2026 +1

It's from The Phantom! I had to check to make sure. The Shadow is a much better movie, but that microscope blade scene sure is memorable... Since I saw both together on a movie night I used to think the scene was from The Shadow, but nope.

1

redditisawesome555 Mar 30, 2026 +1

I gotta rewatch The Shadow. I watched both when I was younger but I liked The Phantom more then. I also read his comic strips so that probably contributed too :)

1

LosIngobernable Mar 30, 2026 +24

If it was a cult classic it wouldn’t be forgotten. 😉

24

GeekAesthete Mar 30, 2026 +7

Yeah, you need a cult following to be a cult classic.

7

Southern-Brother5693 Mar 30, 2026 +2

Penelope Ann Miller is WOWZA.

2

firedrago1 Mar 30, 2026 +5

One of my all time favorites, I'm so happy to see it being given some love.

5

Macabre_Noir Mar 30, 2026 +9

Fellow The Shadow fan here: Although this is the officially licensed adaptation of The Shadow, this particular film falls and follows more closely to the tone direction style of the radio show rather than the pulps which were more adult oriented, darker, and far more violent. Therefore, if you want to watch a film that follows more closely to the pulp version of The Shadow, but isn’t officially licensed adaptation look to Sam Raimi’s 1990 film DARKMAN starring Liam Neeson and Frances McDormand which started out as attempt to be an adaptation of the pulp hero, but he couldn’t get the rights so he made his own original character based off of it.

9

Dookie_boy Mar 31, 2026 +3

Wait Darkman was supposed to be Shadow ??? That's wild

3

haybai81 Mar 30, 2026 +5

Yep, loved this film when it came out when I was 14 and love it still. And Jerry Goldsmith is my favourite composer and this is one of the first cds I ever bought

5

sxszwast Mar 31, 2026 +4

I love that his power isn’t invisibility - it’s the ability to cloud men’s minds. That is so much cooler. Also, Margo Lane is a very hot name

4

Alucard1138 Mar 30, 2026 +3

I wanted to like this movie because I loved the rocketeer and the phantom. For whatever reason I just could never get into the shadow. The kenner toy line was amazing though, big fan of that

3

Ill_Refrigerator_593 Mar 30, 2026 +3

I saw this as kid. One little thing that sticks with me is there was a scene in a museum with an Iguanadon skeleton in the background. They had the spikes on the nose as per historical reconstuctions rather than the thumbs as we believe now.

3

Alaska_Jack Mar 30, 2026 +3

Also maybe Darkman?

3

Hellboydce Mar 30, 2026 +3

On the same level as Doc Savage man of bronze - most excellent

3

sxszwast Mar 30, 2026 +2

Loved that movie as a kid in the 70s. Especially the glowing green snake things. I remember that as being an AMAZING special effect. Saw it again recently and … not so much. But the characters are awesome and it’s a trip back to being a kid in a theater

2

kdean70point3 Mar 31, 2026 +3

And a score by Jerry Goldsmith, no less!

3

CutOfTheMill Mar 31, 2026 +3

When someone around me ends their statement with "Who knows?", there is a big chance I will answer with "The Shadow knows!" Sadly..not many people actually get it. I absolutely loved this movie as a kid. While everyone at school was talking about Batman, Spider-Man, etc., I was talking about The Shadow and (one of my personal favorite movies of all time) The Phantom. There was just something different compared to the typical Saturday morning superheroes. Thanks for bringing this into a small spotlight and now, I am probably gonna watch it tonight.

3

Galemp Mar 31, 2026 +3

And Moe's taxi! A gorgeous 1930s Cord. Same model as Bruce Wayne's car in Batman TAS.

3

Ok-Nothing-4737 Mar 31, 2026 +3

Penelope Ann Miller. Absolute peak hotness.

3

EpicLifeLover Mar 30, 2026 +2

This movie works really well in black and white, i always recommend new viewers watch it that way

2

s_grundy Mar 30, 2026 +2

I did an experiment and color graded the movie in black and white using DaVinci Resolve. I tried to push the blacks and contrasts. The production design was still beautiful. An amazing movie for sure.

2

tbrewo Mar 30, 2026 +2

Loved this movie as a kid in the 90’s. Fantastic music too.

2

DigitalBoy05 Mar 30, 2026 +2

Saw it at the dollar theater and was the only one there.

2

bkwrm13 Mar 31, 2026 +2

I went as The Shadow for Halloween one year cause of this movie, my dad made me some wooden six shooters he painted silver and I had the scarf and whole outfit. Everyone asked if I was a cowboy 😂

2

Birmm Mar 31, 2026 +2

The music from this movie lives rent free in my soul.

2

GoliathPrime Mar 31, 2026 +2

Fantastic soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith too. The Shadow is one of my favorite films.

2

Lloytron Mar 31, 2026 +2

Could add Darkman to that list too

2

General_Kick688 Mar 30, 2026 +1

I love this movie up until the climax. They famously ran out of money and didn't have an ending so just threw something together and it shows. Baldwin, Miller and Lone all have such great chemistry. I will also say that while I'm a fan of his in general, Tim Curry's choices didn't really fly.

1

Milnoc Mar 30, 2026 +1

I think I found this movie in a Laserdisc bargain bin. It definitely wasn't a title I would have bought new. The movie itself was okay, but not more than that.

1

jbles462 Mar 30, 2026 +1

I liked this when I was a kid and still enjoy it from time to time

1

QueensOfTheNoKnowAge Mar 30, 2026 +1

Great score. Love this movie

1

lukistke Mar 30, 2026 +1

There was a Shadow pinball game at this bar I went to last weekend.

1

EnderCN Mar 30, 2026 +1

This genre apparently just isn’t for me as I didn’t like any of those movies.

1

AnUnbeatableUsername Mar 30, 2026 +1

A film has to be good to be a cult classic.

1

Dismal_View_5121 Mar 30, 2026 +1

The score and the visuals from this movie are phenomenal and Tim Curry is just...well...Tim Curry. Also the shit talk between the hero and villain is a blast. I unironically love this movie and everyone thinks I'm crazy. It's a schlock masterpiece.

1

shaggy9 Mar 31, 2026 +1

Great movie!

1

KieferMcNaughty Mar 31, 2026 +1

I just saw the pinball machine at a convention this weekend.

1

Rex_Suplex Mar 31, 2026 +1

Loved this and The Phantom. Great movies and both are super underrated!

1

ryaaan89 Mar 31, 2026 +1

This movie, and The Phantom, are movies I rewatched a lot. I had a Shadow decoder ring as a kid, my brother and I will still sometimes do that “the ice is slippery…” bit from The Shadow.

1

TheCreativeComicFan Mar 31, 2026 +1

“Next time, *you’ll* be on top!” Definitely have a soft spot for this film, it’s entertaining and has its clever moments alongside some of the cheesier ones. Wouldn’t mind seeing a reboot of the character at some point that’s darker in its approach but keeps the period setting and playful tone.

1

georgeststgeegland Mar 31, 2026 +1

It sounded pretty rough on the HDTGM episode 🥴

1

profgray2 Mar 31, 2026 +1

God, we missed so much when this, the phantom, and the rocketeer all failed to chatch

1

ChuckBS Mar 31, 2026 +1

Man, I’m gonna go on a bender of listening to the old The Shadow radio shows again, aren’t I?

1

voivod1989 Mar 31, 2026 +1

Fantastic movie. It has such a cool vibe to it.

1

liltooclinical Mar 31, 2026 +1

I like to group "The Shadow", "The Rocketeer", and "The Phantom" for a classic funny books triple feature.

1

S34K1NG Mar 31, 2026 +1

Listening to the radio show on a cassette collection camping at night around a fire is a core memory for me.

1

bksbeat Mar 31, 2026 +1

The face on the blade was my childhood's nightmare. It looked so life-like on a VHS tape.

1

xPeachFlirt Mar 31, 2026 +1

A cult classic hiding in plain sight.

1

Nevic1984 Mar 31, 2026 +1

I absolutely love this movie. I also consider it a spiritual spin-off of The Rocketeer. But I've never liked The Phantom film, so I included Indiana Jones and D*** Tracy films as part of "the series"

1

Devolutionator Mar 31, 2026 +1

I completely disagree. The movie has WAAAY too much exposition. There is more boardroom scenes than action scenes.

1

maybe-an-ai Mar 31, 2026 +1

Just did a double feature of this and Darkman. The Shadow was better than I remembered but the plot is all over the place at times it felt like the second movie in a trilogy.

1

meantussle Mar 30, 2026 +1

MBMBAM was just talking about this in today's episode.

1

Helmut1642 Mar 31, 2026 +1

The Shadow is a fairly good movie and deserves a better remake or going back to origins with a big budget series.

1

JulietteBlisss Mar 31, 2026

The only thing that could make this movie any better is if it had Nicholas Cage in it. That man can make any movie a cult classic.

0

Imaginary-Style012 Mar 30, 2026 -5

They got the character wrong. His relationship with Margo Lane in the movie is wrong. There is so much wrong with that movie, I refuse to watch it. But I am glad you enjoy it!

-5

Dookie_boy Mar 31, 2026 +1

Can you tell more ? Why is the Margo relation wrong ? Are you comparing to the radio show or the prints since the movie is based on the radio

1

The Shadow (1994) - Alec Baldwin - A forgotten Cult Classic

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