FresherPie

Re reading minds: perhaps. I think that was one of his abilities, but it was one that could be resisted by those of strong wills. Re Kent Allard: I think that is right. With your reminder I seem to recall that Lamont was a character he played as sort of a playboy ladykiller to draw suspicion away from him being the Shadow. Before he left for Asia, he was Kent, and came back to play the character Lamont, sort of leaving who he really was behind altogether.

So, I'm going to open with the admission that this movie came out when I was 14 and I thought it was awesome. I was also a huge nerd, so I read the novelization that came out along with the movie. And, more basically, I dug the character of the Shadow, at least as an idea a ton. So... I may have some more insight than the average viewer of the movie. The novelization in particular added detail to the back story that I (vaguely) recall as making much more sense... So, let's get to it. 1. Lamont's Powers - he is a psychic, his only real power is to inject images into people's minds. These images take many forms. One, he clouds minds so people can't see him or only see him as a "shadow" because the bright lights make this very difficult. He can inject his own thoughts (words to Penelope, the crazy laughing in people's heads) too, but that's about it. So, he doesn't turn into a shadow or disappear at all. Instead, he clouds men's minds so that they cannot see him, or perceive him differently or as moving very quickly. In reality, this is his only power and he may, for example, still just be standing near them in the middle of a room. Bright lights counter his power by making reality harder to cloud in a victim's mind. 2. How he ended up in Mongolia - he was an opium kingpin in Tibet/Mongolia following his time there in world war 1. He never came home. He did many things, some of them ordered, some of them of his own free will, to decimate villages and kill women and children during ww1 that he was very much not proud of. But it earned him a reputation as "Ging Ko" whom the general populace had no idea was not Chinese or Mongolian. He never came home because of the shame. He basically conquered villages during the war that ended up paying him tribute in opium (their only thing of value) which made him wealthy. He was wealthy already, this made him more-so. This is when his master found him. 2. The Training - Lamont was trained to hone those powers by his guru guy in Tibet/Mongolia (unclear). The same guy trained Shirwan Khan at the same time(?) or soon after Lamont left. Lamont was picked because (1) he was psychic and had this innate power he didn't know how to control and (2) because he "knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men." Basically, he understood true evil because he WAS evil for so many years. His evil taught him how best to cloud evil men's minds and to make them fear - he could inject fear into their minds too (at least per the lore) because at least a part of Lamont was always "Ging Ko", the opium warlord. One of the things his master taught him was to control this evil alter ego within him. 3. The Phurba (the knife) - Lamont was supposed to learn how to master the knife psychically as a part of his training. Basically, the stronger your psychic ability, the Phurba would respond to you and take your orders. It was sentient, but only to the extent that it would follow the control of the most powerful psychic so was working to control it. Hence, Shirwan points out that he killed their mutual master with the Phurba. It's essentially a threat that "I am more powerful than our master!" And, when The Shadow is able to win a mental war against Shirwan, this is a big deal. He is the more powerful man. But, Lamont left his training to come to the US before he was able to master the Phurba. If you are weak, and try to control it, it may, on its own, try and kill you because you can't control it. 4. The Hotel - it was purchased 6 years ago, after it was completed. But, it was immediately "torn down" in everyone's mind by Shirwan's mass hypnotism/mind control. So, it was as if it was not there, to everyone. Shirwan was doing this mind control while still in Asia (impressive). Agreed with Cameron H re kids and vagrants wandering into the lot from time to time. Perhaps it was guarded and they were killed? 5. The "Mask" - Lamont had no prosthetic mask. He clouded men's minds with his mental ability. He had a scarf, I think. However, to tap into this ability, he had to, at least in part, tap into the inner evil "Ging Ko". So, for visual purposes in the movie, his face showed up as visually distinct in the movie. Also, nicely, it happened to look a good bit more like "the Shadow" from 30's era imagery. But, for purposes of the movie, think of it as psychically tiring and a physical or near-physical transformation. He may have worn dark colors to make it easier to move about without constantly keeping other's minds clouded, since it would be tiring to do so. 6. The Warriors - were Mongolian, not Chinese. They were warriors, I think, who guarded the place where Lamont trained. They were basically intended to be classic Mongolian warriors trained just as they would have been in Gengis Khan's time. 7. The Sarcophagus - this was just a bit of show. I think Shirwan actually arrived in the US in the casket, but it was just for dramatic effect. He kind of wanted the Shadow (of which he knew) to be his adversary, so, he made an appearance that would raise his attention. What did he eat? Maybe the sarcophagus came with him on a normal boat, but he had it delivered one evening to the museum? 8. Shirwan Khan - was a descendent of Gengis, but didn't Gengis have like a zillion kids as he conquered? So, I think the idea was he was his direct lineal decendent, heir to his throne, if there were one. Anyway, he had the same powers as Lamont. 9. Margot Lane - also psychic, but untrained. He was not afraid of her as smart or beautiful, he was afraid of her because she could, with effort, basically read his mind. So, she would learn who he really was. He eventually embraced this, as you saw. So, I feel like large chunks of that info was not in the movies, but I remember reading it (or something like that) in the novelization. Hopefully, that makes things more-clear? Sorry, typing on an iPhone at a bar... So, please excuse weird typos... Danke.

I wanted to write because I thought that the crew missed some things in the "seduction" scene in the barber chair. Paul said this was only written in 4 weeks, so, maybe I'm giving the writers too much credit, but I think this scene was played completely wrong by both actors. Perhaps because the director hated Ms. Perrine and was not present? In any case, I think the dialogue below was intended to be sort of frisky wordplay, but was played basically as straight exposition dialogue by both Mr./Ms. Jenner and Ms. Perrine. Try to imagine the dialogue below with some sexual energy behind it instead of direct as it was delivered. I think its there. This is from that scene: *spills wine* Her: "Oh, excuse me, let me help get it off." (she clearly makes it about the wine, could have been at least a bit of a joke?) *dress caught, she's straddling him in a chair, associated lines, she moves around on top of him* Her: "Wait a minute, does this help?" Him: "Yeah." (some excitement, but could have been better) *she feels ring, are you married? dialogue* Him: [abruptly] "It's coming through." (He's pantsless, remember with her on top of him. Is this an erection reference?) Her: "What?!" Him: "My divorce." Her: "Oh. That's a tired line." (could have been playful playing off the "coming through" line, but wasn't). *unzipping, unhitching the dress* Him: "That's why I moved from St. Louis; to have some fun." *she peels of his dress, head near his lap, he's excited* Her: "Well are you? [having some fun?]" (her delivery makes it unclear what she's even talking about) *weird this-little-piggy foot stuff, he's ticklish, stands up* Her: "You sure get up quick." (another pantsless erection joke?) Him: "...quickly" Her: "You sure know your body English." Him: "You're not so bad yourself." *kissing, he picks her up* Him: "Which way do we go?" Her: "To the right, and don't stop til sunup." [a reference to Peter Pan, ". . . and straight on til morning"?] Maybe that's not much, and I barely noticed in the moment, but the line delivery nearly completely straight makes this scene even more awkward and weird as Jason pointed out during the show. If they'd at least sort of felt more like they were playfully seducing one another, most of the lines and actions in, on, around the barber chair would have made a bit more sense, I think.