MOVIE MUSIC UK

THROWBACK THIRTY

Original Review by Jonathan Broxton

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

When people think about classic superheroes people usually think of Superman and Batman as being the forefathers of the genre, but one other character actually goes back further than that: The Shadow, who was created by Walter B. Gibson and who first appeared on the radio and in print as early as 1930 – eight years before Superman, and nine years before Batman. Despite being such an influential early pioneer, The Shadow was curiously overlooked in film for a long time; there were a few B-movies and shorts in the late 1930s and early 1940s that were reasonably popular, but then there was essentially a 50-year gap where the character was ignored by the mainstream, up until 1994 when the character finally got his first big-budget cinematic adaptation courtesy of director Russell Mulcahy and star Alec Baldwin.

Baldwin plays Lamont Cranston, a World War I veteran who, as a result of the trauma he endured in the war, flees to Tibet, where he eventually becomes a ruthless opium warlord. Cranston is captured by Tulku, a mystical holy man, who teaches him a variety of mysterious powers, including the ability to cloud men’s minds and make them see what he wants them to see – especially clouding them so that they cannot see him, except for his shadow. Having been convinced to use these powers for good, Cranston returns to New York City and adopts the life of a wealthy businessman playboy, but then assumes the identity of The Shadow to fight crime by night. The plot of the film revolves around The Shadow’s conflict with Shiwan Khan, the last descendant of Genghis Khan, who wants to fulfill his ancestor’s legacy of world domination, and who kidnaps a world famous nuclear scientist to further his goal.

The film co-starred John Lone, Penelope Ann Miller, Peter Boyle, Ian McKellen, and Tim Curry, and was intended to be catalyst for a franchise of Shadow films, but the film was a rather unexpected box-office disappointment. While the film was praised for its stylish film noir-inspired look, it was criticized for its convoluted plot, and for whatever reason audiences never quite connected with it. Personally, I thought the film was excellent, and I have always had a soft spot for it; stylistically and tonally it reminded me of The Rocketeer from 1991, another film which reveled in its pulp comic heritage and classic Hollywood veneer.

The score for The Shadow was by the great Jerry Goldsmith, who with this score was returning to the superhero genre for the first time since Supergirl in 1984. I have always considered it a little bit of a shame that Goldsmith was never asked to venture into the comic book world more often; comic book superheroes were not really in vogue when Goldsmith was in his composing prime, and the current glut of Marvel and DC movies didn’t really start in earnest until Iron Man in 2008, which came out four years after Goldsmith’s death, so it is only through scores like The Shadow that we can wonder about what a Goldsmith superhero franchise might have sounded like. The answer, from my point of view, is terrific. The Shadow is a big, bold, colorful, score, filled with powerful action, sweeping romance, and a richly thematic core, all wrapped up in a nostalgic sheen that is one part classic swashbuckler, one part brooding film noir, and one part Hollywood melodrama.

The score is built around several recurring main themes, including a powerful main theme, a wonderfully atmospheric trombone glissando motif which is usually used as a sort of ‘identity marker’ for the lurking presence of The Shadow, a darker and more percussive villain’s theme for Shiwan Khan, and a gorgeous swooning love theme for Lamont and his femme fatale paramour Margo Lane. All of these ideas are carried mostly by a rich and fulsome orchestra, but are sweetened by a significant layer of Goldsmith’s familiar 1990s electronics, especially in the numerous action and suspense sequences, and also during the scenes of The Shadow’s’ mind control ‘clouding’ in a manner which suggests some distortion of reality.

The main theme receives its introduction during the terrific opening cue “The Poppy Fields,” which starts with a statement of the main theme backed by eerie synths, before exploding into a dramatic, muscular statement for rich, deep brass, accentuated by an electronic texture arranged to sound like a cimbalom or dulcimer. The first two major statements of the theme are bisected by a more lyrical bridge that references the love theme, and then the second half the cue is more mysterious and suspenseful, and contains numerous references to the trombone glissando Shadow motif.

“The Sanctum” offers a quirkier variation on the main theme, backed by electronic textures that actually have a great deal in common with Goldsmith’s work for Joe Dante – Gremlins, Innerspace, scores like that. The action music here is nimble and energetic and at times unexpectedly light-hearted, but that quickly changes in the more ominous “Who Are You?” which blends the main theme and the Shadow motif with the first introduction of the dissonant, textural, and at times quite brutal percussive idea for Shiwan Khan. I really like how Goldsmith is able to break down each of these ideas into smaller chunks and play them off each other – two or three notes of the longer main theme arranged as a fanfare, two or three notes of Shiwan Khan’s theme, a quick trombone slur, and so on – while maintaining the clear dramatic intent of the narrative.

“Chest Pains” is an outstanding action sequence in which Goldsmith underpins his various thematic nuggets with a low-end piano runs, intricate percussion patterns, whooping brass clusters, and fast paced string runs, the roots of which can be traced all the way back to things like The Wind and the Lion and Planet of the Apes. Goldsmith excelled at this type of music; it was so colorful, so full of energy and creativity, and was constantly surprising. When I lamented the endless cello ostinatos that dominated so much of the action music in the 2010s, it was this kind of music that I compared it to, and it’s like night and day. The intricate action continues in the excellent “The Knife,” and then in “The Hotel,” which contains one of the score’s standout moments where Cranston discovers that Shiwan Khan also has mind-clouding abilities, and has been using them to hide his location – the huge Hotel Monolith – in plain sight in the middle of New York City. Goldsmith captures this moment of shocking revelation with a massive rendition of the Shadow’s trombone glissando motif blended with the electronic ‘distorted reality’ whine, backed by huge orchestral crescendos; the effect is spine tingling. The horn performances of the main theme in the second half of the cue drip with old-fashioned heroism, the performances of the Shiwan Khan theme are guttural and threatening, and some of the expressive string writing that accompanies it all reminds me in a good way of the ‘God’ music from Star Trek V.

The conclusive pair, comprising “The Tank” and “Frontal Lobotomy,” offer the score’s most intense and powerful version the Shiwan Khan theme – the clattering wooden percussion seems especially vibrant – while the action music is densely orchestrated to offer stripped-down explosions of both the main theme and the Shadow motif surrounded by yet more pulsating, rhythmic action. Fans of the composer’s action style from previous 1990s efforts like Total Recall and Basic Instinct, as well as later works like First Knight and Star Trek: First Contact, will find this music to be of similar quality. The sweep of the love theme towards the end of “Frontal Lobotomy” is a welcome reminder of how good it is, especially considering that it is unfortunately overlooked for the most part, while the final statement of the main theme in the finale is satisfyingly heroic.

The original 1994 Arista album also included two original songs. “Original Sin,” written by Jim Steinman and performed by Taylor Dayne, is actually one of my favorite movie songs from that decade – I have always been a fan of Steinman’s work via his songwriting for artists like Meat Loaf, Cher, and even Celine Dion, and here his epic rock arrangements pair perfectly with Dayne’s raspy, throaty voice, while his lyrics directly reference elements of the story. Meanwhile, “Some Kind of Mystery” is an original piece of vintage jazz written for a nightclub scene by Diane Warren and performed with smoky-voiced seductiveness by Sinoa, who was member of the all-girl R&B group Seduction in the early 90s.

Unfortunately, that Arista album gave short shrift to Goldsmith’s score which – as good as it was – nevertheless omitted numerous action highlights and, as I mentioned, overlooked the love theme almost entirely. Thankfully in 2011 Intrada Records and producer Douglass Fake released an expanded special edition album containing the complete 85-minute score presentation, a couple of alternates and bonus tracks (including some source music by composer Dennis Dreith), and a reprise the original Arista album on a second disk. The sound quality of the Intrada album is outstanding, bringing out even more of the detail in Goldsmith’s writing and Alexander Courage and Arthur Morton’s orchestrations, and it is all presented in a handsome package designed by Joe Sikoryak and containing excellent liner notes by Jeff Bond.

The expanded album contains numerous highlights not found on the original album, including some outstanding kinetic action and chase cues (the elaborate “The Clouded Mind,” “A Mission,” “Nice Tie,” “Get Dr. Lane,” “Fight Like A Man”), several additional soaring statements of the main theme, and several excellent extended statements of the love theme (notably “Secrets”). Best of all is the magnificent conclusive action sequence, “The Mirrors,” which was inexplicably left off the original album entirely. Goldsmith actually had to re-write his original take on the scene after he had already recorded because the sequence was heavily re-edited after the fact; both versions are included here, and they are both terrific.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s a shame that Jerry Goldsmith was never asked to venture into the comic book world more often, because scores The Shadow suggest that he would have been outstanding at it. It’s also a shame that the film itself was such a comparative disappointment at the box office; it had to compete with popular juggernauts like The Lion King and Speed, both of which opened around the same time. As a result, the film never caught on in the imagination of the public, and this led to Goldsmith’s score never really catching on either. Thankfully, the film’s thirty year anniversary is a perfect opportunity for fans of Goldsmith’s exciting action style to give it a good re-evaluation. Jerry Goldsmith may not have known what evil lurks in the hearts of men, but he certainly knew how to write a fantastic film noir super hero score.

Buy the Shadow soundtrack from the Movie Music UK Store

Track Listing:

• ORIGINAL ALBUM
• The Shadow Knows… (1994) (dialogue by Alec Baldwin) (0:08)
• Original Sin (written by Jim Steinman, performed by Taylor Dayne) (6:27)
• The Poppy Fields (Main Title) (3:16)
• Some Kind of Mystery (written by Diane Warren, performed by Sinoa) (3:48)
• The Sanctum (3:33)
• Who Are You? (4:02)
• Chest Pains (3:26)
• The Knife (3:05)
• The Hotel (5:53)
• The Tank (4:08)
• Frontal Lobotomy (2:28)
• Original Sin (Film Mix) (written by Jim Steinman, performed by Taylor Dayne) (5:02)
• The Shadow Radio Show (1937): Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men? (dialogue by Orson Welles) (0:29)

• EXPANDED RELEASE
• The Poppy Fields (3:41)
• The Clouded Mind (6:43)
• I’ll Be There (3:55)
• No Shadow (0:33)
• Secrets (3:08)
• Don’t Open It! (4:15)
• Do You Believe? (2:24)
• The Sanctum (3:34)
• Who Are You? (4:00)
• The Code (0:59)
• The Call (2:36)
• No Thought (1:19)
• Chest Pains (3:27)
• A Mission (2:35)
• Nice Tie (2:49)
• The Knife (3:06)
• What I Know (4:48)
• The Jumper (1:21)
• The Tank (4:06)
• The Dream (1:59)
• Get Dr. Lane (1:05)
• The Hotel (5:55)
• Fight Like A Man (4:13)
• The Mirrors (4:58)
• The Mirrors (Alternate Version) (4:04)
• Frontal Lobotomy (2:30)
• Wild Drums (0:19) BONUS
• Dinner Source (written by Dennis Dreith) (1:06) BONUS
• Bart’s Bounce (written by Dennis Dreith) (2:06) BONUS

Arista Records 07822-18763-2 (1994) – Original Album
Intrada Special Collection Volume 204 (1994/2011) – Expanded Album

Running Time: 46 minutes 15 seconds – Original Album
Running Time: 133 minutes 19 seconds – Expanded Album

Music composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith. Orchestrations by Alexander Courage and Arthur Morton. Recorded and mixed by Bruce Botnick. Edited by Kenny Hall. Original album produced by Jerry Goldsmith. Expanded album produced by Douglass Fake.