Synopsis for
The Shadow (1994) More at IMDbPro »

New York is rife with gangsters coercing the weaker classes for money and business, a situation Lamont Cranston (Alec Baldwin) is fighting as penance for his own evil past deeds as a murderous opium dealer with astounding mental powers who has been reformed and trained to harness his mental powers by a Tibetan mystic. Cranston uses his mental powers to manipulate the thoughts of others with suggestion and the ability to appear to others only as a shadow. Cranston masquerades as a rich lay-about playboy while working with a network of agents he has helped all of whom wear a green ring and respond when Cranston taps them for service. After stopping some evil doers Cranston goes to have dinner at the Cobalt Club with his inept uncle Police Captain Wainwright Barth (Jonathan Winters) from whom he obtains crime information about open cases. Cranston spies from across the room Margo Lane (Penelope Ann Miller) and upon talking to her realizes that she posses the same psychic abilities that he does, one of which is the power to read his mind and communicate with him across large spaces. As it happens Margos father Dr. Reinhardt Lane (Ian McKellen) is producing atomic weaponry under the guidance and funding of the United States Government. When Shiwan Khan (John Lone), the final descendant of Genghis Khan appears on the scene to make contact with Cranston and partner with him to take over New York and then the world, a challenge that Cranston has never encountered has appeared. Khan takes over Dr. Lane with mind control manipulating him into bringing his atomic bomb to a location where Khan can detonate it to destroy New York. Trained by the same Tibetan monk who trained Cranston, Khan battles with the crime fighter for his loyalty but Cranston is too reformed and plans to stop the evil murderous Khan. By tapping his undercover agents and with the positive loving power of Margo Cranston goes to battle against the evil Khan for the benefit of all mankind.

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Comments by Actor / Writer Roy C. Peterson

The story and acting are excellent, but what I like best about this movie is the general look of it. Lamont Cranston's chauffeur driven limousine. A souped up Cord disguised as a taxi cab with driver. Dr. Lane's laboratory. The lighting of it. I wanted it for my own and the imagined life that would go with it. The cigarette sign outside with a chap blowing smoke rings into the still night air. I've never seen any sign like it (closest is giant tea kettle in Boston that blows steam during cold weather).

But most especially I like the Cobalt Club. Magnificent cobalt blue and silver art deco supper club with high soaring ceiling. Dramatic open feeling, but somehow lighting makes the individual tables seem private and cozy. In the 1980s in Boston I knew a beautiful tall champagne redhead named Wilhelmina. She looked and dressed like Penelope Ann Miller in this film. Where else would I want to take such a girl for dinner than the Cobalt Club? But I can't! Oh, no! It's only a movie! But a very good movie.