seems like a fail brainstorming session by exec's as another means for the character to "hide his identity," unless that was actually in the original? Is it just a fake nose, or more?
I dont always post on IMDB.com, but when I do I make sure I'm hammered.
It was just a way to visually show The Shadow's power to cloud mens minds via mental illusions and such. They ran with the notion and thought it would be neat to have him actually make people see him as someone slightly different looking. He isn't literally transforming, but using the power of his mind to create an illusion of a different face. He is losing to Shiwan Khan at that point and his face changing shows us that he has lost focus and can't hold up the illusion. That's how I always saw it, anyhow. This was not something taken from the source material to my knowledge, but just a visual image to show his mind clouding power in action.
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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?
ah, thanks. thats weird. seems like its making things too complicated/over thinking it.
I dont always post on IMDB.com, but when I do I make sure I'm hammered.
I agree that it is a case of over-thinking it. The Shadow already wears the scarf and hat, so no need to have a different face. I think it was conceived by the writers less to hide his identity than to show the audience that the Shadow is losing the battle of wills with Shiwan Khan. Also worth noting is that the different face actually looks like the Shadow as he was drawn in the old pulp covers and such. Alec Baldwin really looks nothing like that.
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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?
I think another part of it is that the 'Shadow' visage is more intimidating. The shadowing, toughened face, and sharper, bolder nose. . .yeah. It's a good touch, in my opinion.
shareIMO the writers were suggesting that the "ugly" Cranston with the big nose and rough looks is actually what Lamont Cranston looks like, and that the handsome Alec Baldwin look is just the illusion he learned to project. It makes sense. Why wouldn't you cast such a "disguise" illusion, and look like Alec Baldwin in his prime?
shareBecause he looked like Alec Baldwin at the beginning of the film BEFORE he learned that power. Ergo, Alec Baldwin must be his real face.
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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?
Did he? I seem to recall in his flashbacks when he talked about what a horrible person he was prior to his studies, he had that long-nosed face.
shareI recall him looking like an unkempt Alec Baldwin.
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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?
You're right. I hadn't watched it in a long time, but he was looking like himself at the beginning.
But it still makes more sense my way:)
I suppose I've never liked the old idea of your dark and evil side necessarily looking ugly. Beautiful is "good", right? Ugly is bad.
I suppose I've never liked the old idea of your dark and evil side necessarily looking ugly. Beautiful is "good", right? Ugly is bad.
But wasn't Cranston shown handsome when "normal", and ugly when in "Shadow" mode, even from the beginning?
shareI wouldn't say it was "ugly" mode, just different. Like I said, the goal was to make him look like the pulp artwork.
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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?
Oh come on. That's like saying Brad Pitt and Ernest Borgnine are just "different-looking".
shareTaking an a list actor, or ANY actor really, and deciding to change their faces with prosthetics to look ever so slightly more like the artwork from source material is pretty damn stupid if you ask me. People are not cartoons, actors are never going to look exactly like a specific damn comic book sketch, its okay, get over it.
I dont always post on IMDB.com, but when I do I make sure I'm hammered.
They had an idea that they thought would be a nice wink wink to the fans of The Shadow. How well it worked can be debated all day long. I am just pointing out what was really going on with the face change. It isn't like Alec Baldwin didn't have plenty of time on screen with his real face, so I really don't see what the big deal is.
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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?
Just cause its dumb.
Alec was cast as the shadow, let him be the shadow. Producers debating whether his nose is perfectly pointy or not is pretty dumb, its about performance not the perfect nose length.
I dont always post on IMDB.com, but when I do I make sure I'm hammered.
I can not at all agree with your logic. You may as well expect then to never ever use makeup or anything if it alters the persons natural face. You got some answers and you are just ignoring it.
You don't hire actors just because they look like a character, sometimes the trick is to physically transform. They wanted Baldwins talent but also wanted to have the Shadow look like the comic character. They let him be the Shadow, that doesn't mean they can't alter his face.
You got some answers and you are just ignoring it.
The make-up was created so that Baldwin resembled The Shadow as he was portrayed on the covers of the original Shadow pulp covers.
The result was successful to me, but I'm a life-long Shadow fan, so I'm biased.
But some audiencs members, oblivious of the pulp covers, unfortunately laughed because the make-up made Alec look like his younger brother Stephen.
I thought he looked like William, not Stephen.
shareWell there are some people that can recognize a person just from certain facial features even if they are partially covered up. So if you have the ability to alter the image of your face to help hide your identity why not do it? I think I read somewhere Superman had a similar ability at one point which explained why people couldn't recognize him as Clark Kent with glasses on.
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It was both a demonstration of his illusionary powers and his character from the original pulp novels and comics, as well as a clever injoke.
The Shadow was always (ALWAYS) drawn with having a large, hooked, vulture-like nose. It was a trademark of his character, very much like Batman's pointed ears on his cowl. It was just somethnig iconic about the character which was always there.
Even to this day, with modern comics retelling the Shadow stories with new art and writing, he still has a large, hooked nose.
The other reason though, the demonstration of his powers, is that the Shadow as a character would create an illusion of his face being a different shape to throw off criminals and the police.
The third and final reason though is that Alec Baldwin's nose is clearly not as large as the Shadow's is, so they used a prosthetic. I think the idea behind it though was that they made it into something of a joke, having the Shadow have the nose and Cranston Lamont not have it, since as I've said, Baldwin didn't have a large nose.