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Shadows

Actor(s): Lon Chaney, Marguerite de la Motte, Harrison Ford, John St. Polis, Walter Long
Director(s): Tom Forman

Movie Details

MPAA Rating: NR
Content Advisory: Suitable for Children
Movie Release: 1922
DVD Release: 01/21/2003
Format: DVD - Black and White
Edition: Special Collection
Subtitles: English
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Number of Discs: 1
Run Time: 1 hrs 10 mins
Studio: Alpha Video
Total Copies: 5
Genres: Drama, Romantic Drama, Melodrama

DVD Synopsis

When it reviewed this simple little drama, the trade paper The Film Daily remarked (rather awkwardly), "Ben Schulberg has never achieved a reputation previously for desiring a place among the artistic producers, but...Shadows is one of the most artistically made pictures." Art was definitely not one of B.P. Schulberg's fortes but every now and again he'd produce something with true creative merit. Lon Chaney's fine performance as the Chinaman Yen Sin certainly enhanced this picture. Yen Sin is washed up onto the shore of a fishing village inhabited by God-fearing white people. He runs a laundry out of a houseboat, but because of his race and religion he suffers a lot of prejudice from the townsfolk. Then John Malden, a young minister (Harrison Ford, also turning in a stunning performance), comes to town and converts Yen Sin to Christianity. Malden wins Sympathy Gibbs (Marguerite de la Motte), a young widow whose cruel husband has been lost at sea. but after they marry he receives a mysterious note that is ostensibly from Sympathy's lost husband. The man blackmails Malden, who loses his church and home. Yen Sin, however, knows that the man who is tormenting Malden is actually deacon Nate Snow (John Sainpolis), who is bitter because he wanted Sympathy. Yen Sin waits until the appropriate moment, then exposes Snow to the whole village. Afterwards the Chinaman cuts the ropes tying his houseboat to the pier and sails off to his death. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Actors

Lon Chaney - Yen Sin, "The Heathen"
Marguerite de la Motte - Sympathy Gibbs,
Harrison Ford - John Maiden
John St. Polis - Note Snow
Walter Long - Daniel Gibbs

Member Movie Reviews

Marilyn F. from SKOKIE, IL wrote on 2/21/2009...

2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

One of the first independent producers in the film business was B. P. Schulberg. A liberal at a time when studio moguls were conservative, his Preferred Pictures company showed his independent approach to story content not unlike that of indie producers and directors today. In 1922, Schulberg greenlighted a picture with the not-very-liberal-sounding working title of “Ching Ching Chinaman." Eventually, it became Shadows, a more fitting title for a work that allowed The Man of a Thousand Faces, Lon Chaney, to work his humanizing magic on the “heathen" Yen Sin. Overall, this is an interesting movie that deals with race relations in a fairly realistic way for the time.

Read the whole review here: http://ferdyonfilms.com/2006/02/shadows-1922-director-tom.php