Shadows and Fog
Encyclopedia
Shadows and Fog is a black-and-white film directed by Woody Allen
and based on his one-act play Death
. It stars Allen, Mia Farrow
, John Malkovich
, John Cusack
, Madonna
, and Kenneth Mars
. It was filmed on a 26000 square feet (2,415.5 m²) set at Kaufman Astoria Studios
, which holds the distinction of being the biggest set ever built in New York. It was also his last film for Orion Pictures
.
Shadows and Fog is an homage to German Expressionist
filmmakers Fritz Lang
, G.W. Pabst and F.W. Murnau, and to the writer Franz Kafka
.
mob. They claim to be looking for "the strangler", a serial killer
who strangles his victims. They tell him to get dressed and meet them downstairs in five minutes. In a flurry, he gets dressed. Before he goes down, his landlady who wants to marry him gives him a small paper bag with pepper in it. "If The Strangler attacks you, blow some of this in his eyes!"
Meanwhile, in a circus on the outskirts of town, Irmy (Farrow) and her boyfriend Paul (Malkovich) are having a dispute. They both are performers at a circus: Irmy swallows swords and Paul is a clown. Irmy wants a baby, but Paul says that "a family is death to an artist." He then goes out and over to another tent where Marie, a tightrope artist
(Madonna) waits for him. They begin to have sex, but Irmy catches them. She then packs a suitcase and runs away to the city where Kleinman is living. In the foreboding streets she meets a prostitute (Lily Tomlin
) who brings her to a house of ill repute, where she is comforted by other prostitutes (Jodie Foster
and Kathy Bates
). Then, a student named Jack (John Cusack
) comes into the whorehouse and is immediately bewitched by Irmy; he assumes she is employed there, and insists on having sex with her, paying $700. They go into the back room.
On the street, Kleinman walks aimlessly around the city, not knowing what to do. He stops at a coroner's house, where the doctor (Donald Pleasence
) explains that his role in the hunt is purely scientific. He goes into detail about how he will enjoy opening the killer's chest and head, and being able to understand how his mind works. Kleinman drinks a glass of sherry
to calm himself down and leaves. Soon after, the doctor realizes the Strangler has entered the house. They calmly speak, then he murders the doctor.
Kleinman seeing a local famiily being evicted as 'undesirables' goes to the police station to try to persuade the Chief of Police to stop the eviction. Whilst there a police officer arrives with news of the coroner's death and saying that there is a clue - a glass with fingerprints on it. Kleinman panics realising that his fingerprints are on the glass. Irmy is there as well, because she has been taken to the police station when the police raided the whorehouse. Insisting she is a whore and needs a license, they fine her $50 of the $700 she has, and they allow her to leave. Irmy protests her innocence and the confusion Kleinman is able to steal the glass which has his fingerprints on it. Kleinman leaves and startled by Irmy engages her in conversation and they walk into the night together.A vigilante shows Kleinman an alley where they think the killer might be. He is told to trap the person. Irmy and Kleinman enter the alley warily, and they jump the person. It turns out to be Kleinman's boss Mr. Paulsen, peeping in a window at a lady. Mr. Paulsen was considering promoting him, but now his mind is changed. Kleinman is accused of incompetence by him and by the vigilante. Ashamed, Kleinman and Irmy move on into the night.
Paul arrives in the city, looking for Irmy. He goes into a bar, where Jack, the student who had sex with Irmy, is having a drink. The student reflects on the wonderful experience he had with "a sword-swallower". Paul is shocked, although Jack does not know why.
Back on the street, Irmy tells Kleinman that she doesn't want the money and asks him to give the $650 to charity in a church. He does, finding two men compiling a list of names. When he gives them the money, they gratefully erase his name from the list. Outside, at the steps of the church, they see a starving mother with a child, and the two run away from parent and child. After some thought, Irmy decides she wants to give half of the money to the woman and asks Kleinman to go back to the church to get it back. Reluctantly, he returns and asks for half the money, the two men not only reinstate his name to the list, but they circle it for good measure! Kleinman exits the church, and they both leave in haste.
Kleinman tries to get Irmy a place to stay by asking his fiancée, but she doesn't let them in. At a pier, they look out at the night, and the feeling is very romantic, until the vigilante mob ambushes them. It turns out that everyone has a "plan". Then, Spiro the Clairvoyant, a man who smells people like a psychic
bloodhound
, starts to sniff Kleinman. He says that Kleinman "has something in his pocket," and the sherry glass is revealed. Angry, and believing he is the killer, the mob prepares to lynch
him. Kleinman blows pepper in their faces and escapes. He tries to find a safe haven in the house of his first ex-fiancée, Alma (Julie Kavner
), whom he left standing at the altar while he had a dalliance with her sister. He apologizes, but she throws him out, saying, "Get out and die!"
Meanwhile, Irmy and Paul meet and at first Paul is ready to kill Irmy for sleeping with another man, but they are interrupted when they find a baby on the ground, the same one that she and Kleinman had seen earlier with the starving woman. They decide to keep the child, and leave the city, back to the circus.
Ahead of the mob, Kleinman arrives at the whorehouse where he meets and has an existential conversation with Jack. When he is unable to express his views, a whore (Foster) coaxes him into a back room where he fails to perform, blaming existential angst. The mob arrives, asking after Kleinman. He escapes via the roof where he meets and is taunted by his rival for promotion at work who reveals Irmy has gone back to the circus. Kleinman follows her there.
At the circus Kleinman meets the magician Armstead (Kenneth Mars
), whom he greatly admires. Then, the Strangler arrives, and is about to kill both of them when the magician mesmerizes him with a mirror trick, and chains him up, but while they are congratulating each other, somehow the Strangler escapes. The angry mob arrives on the scene, and, thwarted, gives up for the night. The movie ends with Kleinman accepting Armstead's invitation to become his assistant, and Irmy and Paul continuing their careers as circus performers, while raising their newfound child. As Armstead and Kleinman prepare to leave, the magician sums it all up by saying, "They need illusions like they need the air." And with a gesture, the two disappear in a mirror and a puff of smoke.
Its production budget has been estimated at $14 million.
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
and based on his one-act play Death
Death (play)
Death is a play by Woody Allen. It was first published in 1975, along with God, and other short stories in Woody Allen's book Without Feathers. It is a comedic version of Eugene Ionesco's 1959 play "The Killer." His 1992 film Shadows and Fog was based on this play....
. It stars Allen, Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra...
, John Malkovich
John Malkovich
John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
, John Cusack
John Cusack
John Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Point Blank, The Thin Red Line, Stand by Me, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, Serendipity, Runaway Jury, The Ice Harvest,...
, Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, and Kenneth Mars
Kenneth Mars
Kenneth Mars was an American television, movie, and voice actor. He may be best-remembered for his roles in several Mel Brooks films: the insane Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in 1968's The Producers, and the relentless Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Fredrich Kemp in 1974's Young Frankenstein...
. It was filmed on a 26000 square feet (2,415.5 m²) set at Kaufman Astoria Studios
Kaufman Astoria Studios
The Kaufman Astoria Studios is an historic movie studio located in the Astoria section of the New York City borough of Queens.-History:It was originally built by Famous Players-Lasky in 1920 to provide the company with a facility close to the Broadway theater district. Many features and short...
, which holds the distinction of being the biggest set ever built in New York. It was also his last film for Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures Corporation was an American independent production company that produced movies from 1978 until 1998. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion...
.
Shadows and Fog is an homage to German Expressionist
German Expressionism
German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s...
filmmakers Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
, G.W. Pabst and F.W. Murnau, and to the writer Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
.
Plot
The movie begins with Kleinman (Allen) being awakened from a deep sleep by a vigilanteVigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
mob. They claim to be looking for "the strangler", a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
who strangles his victims. They tell him to get dressed and meet them downstairs in five minutes. In a flurry, he gets dressed. Before he goes down, his landlady who wants to marry him gives him a small paper bag with pepper in it. "If The Strangler attacks you, blow some of this in his eyes!"
Meanwhile, in a circus on the outskirts of town, Irmy (Farrow) and her boyfriend Paul (Malkovich) are having a dispute. They both are performers at a circus: Irmy swallows swords and Paul is a clown. Irmy wants a baby, but Paul says that "a family is death to an artist." He then goes out and over to another tent where Marie, a tightrope artist
Tightrope walking
Tightrope walking is the art of walking along a thin wire or rope, usually at a great height. One or more artists performs in front of an audience or as a publicity stunt...
(Madonna) waits for him. They begin to have sex, but Irmy catches them. She then packs a suitcase and runs away to the city where Kleinman is living. In the foreboding streets she meets a prostitute (Lily Tomlin
Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...
) who brings her to a house of ill repute, where she is comforted by other prostitutes (Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
and Kathy Bates
Kathy Bates
Kathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates is an American actress and director.After several small roles in film and television, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery , for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe...
). Then, a student named Jack (John Cusack
John Cusack
John Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Point Blank, The Thin Red Line, Stand by Me, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, Serendipity, Runaway Jury, The Ice Harvest,...
) comes into the whorehouse and is immediately bewitched by Irmy; he assumes she is employed there, and insists on having sex with her, paying $700. They go into the back room.
On the street, Kleinman walks aimlessly around the city, not knowing what to do. He stops at a coroner's house, where the doctor (Donald Pleasence
Donald Pleasence
Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
) explains that his role in the hunt is purely scientific. He goes into detail about how he will enjoy opening the killer's chest and head, and being able to understand how his mind works. Kleinman drinks a glass of sherry
Sherry
Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the town of Jerez , Spain. In Spanish, it is called vino de Jerez....
to calm himself down and leaves. Soon after, the doctor realizes the Strangler has entered the house. They calmly speak, then he murders the doctor.
Kleinman seeing a local famiily being evicted as 'undesirables' goes to the police station to try to persuade the Chief of Police to stop the eviction. Whilst there a police officer arrives with news of the coroner's death and saying that there is a clue - a glass with fingerprints on it. Kleinman panics realising that his fingerprints are on the glass. Irmy is there as well, because she has been taken to the police station when the police raided the whorehouse. Insisting she is a whore and needs a license, they fine her $50 of the $700 she has, and they allow her to leave. Irmy protests her innocence and the confusion Kleinman is able to steal the glass which has his fingerprints on it. Kleinman leaves and startled by Irmy engages her in conversation and they walk into the night together.A vigilante shows Kleinman an alley where they think the killer might be. He is told to trap the person. Irmy and Kleinman enter the alley warily, and they jump the person. It turns out to be Kleinman's boss Mr. Paulsen, peeping in a window at a lady. Mr. Paulsen was considering promoting him, but now his mind is changed. Kleinman is accused of incompetence by him and by the vigilante. Ashamed, Kleinman and Irmy move on into the night.
Paul arrives in the city, looking for Irmy. He goes into a bar, where Jack, the student who had sex with Irmy, is having a drink. The student reflects on the wonderful experience he had with "a sword-swallower". Paul is shocked, although Jack does not know why.
Back on the street, Irmy tells Kleinman that she doesn't want the money and asks him to give the $650 to charity in a church. He does, finding two men compiling a list of names. When he gives them the money, they gratefully erase his name from the list. Outside, at the steps of the church, they see a starving mother with a child, and the two run away from parent and child. After some thought, Irmy decides she wants to give half of the money to the woman and asks Kleinman to go back to the church to get it back. Reluctantly, he returns and asks for half the money, the two men not only reinstate his name to the list, but they circle it for good measure! Kleinman exits the church, and they both leave in haste.
Kleinman tries to get Irmy a place to stay by asking his fiancée, but she doesn't let them in. At a pier, they look out at the night, and the feeling is very romantic, until the vigilante mob ambushes them. It turns out that everyone has a "plan". Then, Spiro the Clairvoyant, a man who smells people like a psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
bloodhound
Bloodhound
The Bloodhound is a large breed of dog which, while originally bred to hunt deer and wild boar, was later bred specifically to track human beings. It is a scenthound, tracking by smell, as opposed to a sighthound, which tracks using vision. It is famed for its ability to discern human odors even...
, starts to sniff Kleinman. He says that Kleinman "has something in his pocket," and the sherry glass is revealed. Angry, and believing he is the killer, the mob prepares to lynch
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
him. Kleinman blows pepper in their faces and escapes. He tries to find a safe haven in the house of his first ex-fiancée, Alma (Julie Kavner
Julie Kavner
Julie Deborah Kavner is an American film and television actress, comedian and voice artist. Noted for her role as Marge Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, she also voices other characters for the show, including Jacqueline Bouvier, and Patty and Selma Bouvier.Born in Los...
), whom he left standing at the altar while he had a dalliance with her sister. He apologizes, but she throws him out, saying, "Get out and die!"
Meanwhile, Irmy and Paul meet and at first Paul is ready to kill Irmy for sleeping with another man, but they are interrupted when they find a baby on the ground, the same one that she and Kleinman had seen earlier with the starving woman. They decide to keep the child, and leave the city, back to the circus.
Ahead of the mob, Kleinman arrives at the whorehouse where he meets and has an existential conversation with Jack. When he is unable to express his views, a whore (Foster) coaxes him into a back room where he fails to perform, blaming existential angst. The mob arrives, asking after Kleinman. He escapes via the roof where he meets and is taunted by his rival for promotion at work who reveals Irmy has gone back to the circus. Kleinman follows her there.
At the circus Kleinman meets the magician Armstead (Kenneth Mars
Kenneth Mars
Kenneth Mars was an American television, movie, and voice actor. He may be best-remembered for his roles in several Mel Brooks films: the insane Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in 1968's The Producers, and the relentless Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Fredrich Kemp in 1974's Young Frankenstein...
), whom he greatly admires. Then, the Strangler arrives, and is about to kill both of them when the magician mesmerizes him with a mirror trick, and chains him up, but while they are congratulating each other, somehow the Strangler escapes. The angry mob arrives on the scene, and, thwarted, gives up for the night. The movie ends with Kleinman accepting Armstead's invitation to become his assistant, and Irmy and Paul continuing their careers as circus performers, while raising their newfound child. As Armstead and Kleinman prepare to leave, the magician sums it all up by saying, "They need illusions like they need the air." And with a gesture, the two disappear in a mirror and a puff of smoke.
Cast
- Woody AllenWoody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
— Kleinman - Kathy BatesKathy BatesKathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates is an American actress and director.After several small roles in film and television, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery , for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe...
— Prostitute - Philip BoscoPhilip Bosco-Personal life:Bosco was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Margaret Raymond , a policewoman, and Philip Lupo Bosco, a carnival worker. Bosco went to high school at St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City. He attended the Catholic University of Washington, D.C. Bosco married Nancy...
— Mr. Paulsen - Charles Cragin — Spiro
- John CusackJohn CusackJohn Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Point Blank, The Thin Red Line, Stand by Me, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, Serendipity, Runaway Jury, The Ice Harvest,...
— Student Jack - Mia FarrowMia FarrowMia Farrow is an American actress, singer, humanitarian, and fashion model.Farrow first gained wide acclaim for her role as Allison Mackenzie in the soap opera Peyton Place, and for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra...
— Irmy - Jodie FosterJodie FosterAlicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
— Prostitute - Fred GwynneFred GwynneFrederick Hubbard "Fred" Gwynne was an American actor. Gwynne was best known for his roles in the 1960s sitcoms Car 54, Where Are You? and The Munsters, as well as his later roles: Pet Sematary and My Cousin Vinny...
— Hacker's Follower - Robert JoyRobert JoyRobert Joy is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his role as Dr. Sid Hammerback in CSI: NY and playing Charlie in Land of the Dead.-Early life:...
— Spiro's Follower - Julie KavnerJulie KavnerJulie Deborah Kavner is an American film and television actress, comedian and voice artist. Noted for her role as Marge Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, she also voices other characters for the show, including Jacqueline Bouvier, and Patty and Selma Bouvier.Born in Los...
— Alma - William H. MacyWilliam H. MacyWilliam Hall Macy, Jr. is an American actor and writer. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo. He is also a teacher and director in theater, film and television. His film career has been built mostly on his appearances in small, independent films, though...
— Cop with Spiro
- MadonnaMadonna (entertainer)Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
— Marie - John MalkovichJohn MalkovichJohn Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
— Clown - Kenneth MarsKenneth MarsKenneth Mars was an American television, movie, and voice actor. He may be best-remembered for his roles in several Mel Brooks films: the insane Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in 1968's The Producers, and the relentless Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Fredrich Kemp in 1974's Young Frankenstein...
— Magician - Kate NelliganKate NelliganPatricia Colleen "Kate" Nelligan is a Canadian BAFTA award winning stage, film and television actress.-Early life:Nelligan, the fourth of six children, was born in London, Ontario, the daughter of Josephine Alice , a schoolteacher, and Patrick Joseph Nelligan, a factory repairman and municipal...
— Eve - Donald PleasenceDonald PleasenceSir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
— Doctor - Wallace ShawnWallace ShawnWallace Michael Shawn , sometimes credited as Wally Shawn, is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, author, voice artist, and intellectual. His best-known film roles include Wally Shawn in My Dinner with Andre , Vizzini in The Princess Bride , and debate teacher Mr...
— Simon Carr - Kurtwood SmithKurtwood SmithKurtwood Larson Smith is an American television and film actor. He is best known for playing Clarence Boddicker in RoboCop and stern parental characters , and for his appearances in the genre of science fiction...
— Vogel's Follower - Josef SommerJosef SommerJosef Sommer is an American film actor.He was born Maximilian Josef Sommer in Greifswald, Germany and was raised in North Carolina, the son of Elisabeth and Clemons Sommer, a professor of art history at the University of North Carolina. He studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology...
— Priest - David Ogden StiersDavid Ogden StiersDavid Ogden Stiers is an American actor, director, vocal actor, and musician, noted for his roles in Disney movies, as well as his performances in the television series M*A*S*H as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III and the science fiction drama The Dead Zone as Reverend Gene Purdy...
— Hacker - Lily TomlinLily TomlinMary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...
— Prostitute
Box office
After its premiere in 1991, Shadows and Fog opened to wide release on March 20, 1992 in 288 North American cinemas. In its first three days, it grossed $1,111,314 ($3,858 per screen). It finished its run with $2,735,731.Its production budget has been estimated at $14 million.