Le refugié de l'ombre

After viewing this movie I can honestly say it is THE worst movie I have ever seen. The plot is boring and dull, the music is awful and the acting (Tom Hulce) was bland and pathetic. Do not waste your time on this garbage. Out of 10 I give this movie 0.

The beauty of Shadowman lies in the brilliant portrayal of the title character by TOM HULCE*.

David (Shadowman) is a Polish refugee seeking the help of a Dutch man (Theo) who helps get these poor souls to safety ... for a price. When it's discovered that David has no money to buy his freedom, Theo tells him he can't stay and has to leave in the morning. But afraid for his life, David remains in the attic (where Theo has stashed him) and becomes a man in the shadows ... Shadowman.

==============> *The tenderness and vulnerability of Shadowman could only be accomplished by the superb acting talents of TOM HULCE. Speaking with an impeccable Polish accent, Hulce makes us care about David from the first moment we see him on screen. If we could, we would reach into the screen and rescue David ourselves. Hulce achieves what every actor strives for in a role ... to make the character so real that the audience wants to see him helped and wants to know all they can about him.

This is, without a doubt, an Oscar-worthy performance and one of TOM HULCE's best!

Tom Hulce turns in yet another stellar performance as "Shadowman"! From the moment he first appears on screen until the last second he has the viewer in his grip. You want to know all about "Shadowman" and you want him helped. Tom's Polish accent is perfect and his ability to take us into the world of abuse and neglect inflicted on him and other Jews during WWII is remarkable.

A film hard to locate (only released in Holland and Europe), it's well worth the trouble needed to find it.

The only thing I know about Director Piotr Andrejew is that he was born in Poland. On the strength of SHADOWMAN which, from a swift glance at his filmography, gets the highest rating of his entire output, I doubt I will bother to watch any of his other efforts.

For a start, his recreation of a WWII scenario in the Netherlands looks fake: trafficker Jeroen Krabbé drives a vehicle of the mid to late 1950s, clearly not yet in existence in WWII. The police vehicle that snarls in at the end to capture the "rat" in Mevrou Wisse's attic looks like a Renault pickup truck from the 1950s, too.

The way Andrejew wastes Tom Hulce's acting talent verges on criminal. Hulce, who - in my opinion - posted the definitive portrayal of Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart in AMADEUS (US 1985) by 1988, when SHADOWMAN came out, was delivering his swansong in the cinema (perhaps he fared better in the theater - I hope so).

In SHADOWMAN, Hulce has his face covered by dirty clothes and he looks filthy for about a third of his presence on screen. How that could prove attractive to a stunning beauty like Monique (played by buxom bomb Manouk van der Meulen), to the point that they engage in wild sex in a rat- and rat poison-filled attic leaves me speechless and raring to go hungry in any attic just to handle a pair of knockers like Manouk's!

Even more surprising, Manouk is contraband man Jeroen Krabbé's wife or lover but the moment she hears about the Jewish refugee in hiding she wants to see him in Mevrou Wisse's attic - not just see him, actually she has carnal designs.

As for the mevrou, she is busy opening Krabbé's zipper while poisoning potatoes to serve the "rat" in the attic who, before long, she suspects does not have a tail and sounds too noisy to rate rodent, but sounds human instead. To compound matters, she gets the worst news in a telegram: her son Hans died in combat (I readly admit that that piece of news caught me completely off guard, and I still do not grasp its point in the plot!)

The mevrou calls police to investigate the rumblings in the attic but, after hearing the orgastic goings on there, she probably wants a piece of the action from Hulce too!... Having already taken Krabbé from Manouk, she gets all crabby, rebels and resists when police burst in to collect the Jew in the attic... who is now in (unexplained) possession of a knife plus some wood, and black paint, all of which he chisels away at until he gets a fake black wooden pistol going. I sensed a mistake, but what do I know and what does anyone care anyhow?

No winners in this movie. Jeroen Krabbé probably steals the show with his unrepetant and even spontaneous opportunism and lack of concern for anything other than making money. The way he places an order for copper and then rejects it shows that he could not give a flying flip for anybody other than Number One. As noted, dishy Manouk has memorable melons and Mevrou Wisse ain't nuttin' to throw away, certainly ready and willing, and with a lovely black Labrador by the name of Vargas that whimpers when he hears noises in the attic but wisely wolfs down a steak when Mevrou Wisse isn't watching!

Smart dog, steaks were rare those days so he ate it while the going was good, coz the Germans already had Mevrou Wisse in the cross hairs for a trip to a camp for giving shelter to a Jew.

Substandard cinematography by Wit Dabal, confusing and unbelievable script by Andrejew. 4/10.