Shadows and Fog

Kleinman is awakened from his sleep by a vigilante mob, which claims to be looking for a serial killer and therefore to be needing his help. Kleinman's landlady gives him a bag containing pepper. Irmy and her boyfriend Paul, a pair of circus performers, quarrel about getting married and having a baby. Paul leaves and goes to another tent where he has sex with Marie, another artist. Seeing this, Irmy runs to the city and enters a brothel. A student named Jack, besotted by Irmy, offers her increasingly large sums to have sex with him. She finally succumbs when the sum reaches $700.

Kleinman visits a coroner's house and has a glass of sherry with him. But after he leaves, the coroner is murdered by the killer. Kleinman comes to the police station to protest a local family's eviction. There, the police talk about the coroner's murder, saying that they have a clue about the killer in the fingerprints on the sherry glass. A panicked Kleinman meets Irmy in the police station, who had been arrested at the brothel for prostitution. She protests against the police calling her "whore,” and in the confusion Kleinman confiscates the evidence. Irmy is allowed to leave the police station after a $50 fine, and she meets Kleinman outside. Together they start exploring the city, seeing its different scenes — a man peeping into a woman's room, a starving mother and child, a church — and decide to go back.

Paul arrives in the city looking for Irmy. He goes into a bar where Jack is having a drink. The student reflects on the wonderful experience he had with "a sword-swallower,” shocking Paul. Kleinman and Irmy return to his place to stay but are refused entry by his fiancée. They go to the pier but are ambushed by the vigilante mob who find the sherry glass in Kleinman's pocket. Thinking him to be the killer, they decide to lynch Irmy and Kleinman, but the latter uses the pepper spray and they escape.

Meanwhile, Irmy and Paul meet, and at first Paul is ready to kill Irmy for sleeping with another man. They break off their fight when they find the starving woman murdered, and the baby lying on the ground. They decide to keep the child and return to the circus. Kleinman comes to the brothel searching for Irmy but is unable to find her. From his rival at work, he learns about the circus leaving the town and decides to follow it. At the circus, Kleinman meets the magician Armstead, whom he greatly admires. The murderer arrives and tries to kill them but is thwarted by Armstead. Kleinman becomes Armstead's assistant on the circus and Irmy and Paul continue their careers as circus performers, while raising their newfound child.

{{Cast listing|

• Woody Allen as Kleinman
• Victor Argo as Hacker's Vigilante #2
• Kathy Bates as Prostitute
• Philip Bosco as Mr. Paulsen
• Charles Cragin as Spiro
• John Cusack as Student Jack
• Mia Farrow as Irmy
• Jodie Foster as Dorrie
• Fred Gwynne as Hacker's Follower
• Robert Joy as Spiro's Follower
• Julie Kavner as Alma
• Steven Keats as Hacker's Vigilante #3 (uncredited)
• Michael Kirby as Killer
• William H. Macy as Cop With Spiro
• Madonna as Marie
• John Malkovich as Paul, The Clown
• Kenneth Mars as Magician
• Kate Nelligan as Eve
• Donald Pleasence as Doctor
• James Rebhorn as Hacker's Vigilante #1
• John C. Reilly as Cop At Police Station
• Wallace Shawn as Simon Carr
• Kurtwood Smith as Vogel's Follower
• Josef Sommer as Priest
• Lily Tomlin as Jenny
• David Ogden Stiers as Hacker
• Daniel von Bargen as Hacker's Vigilante #4

}}

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• The Cannon Song from Little Threepenny Music (1928) - By Kurt Weill - Performed by Canadian Chamber Ensemble
• The Cannon Song from Little Threepenny Music (1928) - By Kurt Weill - Performed by London Sinfonietta
• When Day Is Done (1926) - Written by Robert Katscher & Buddy G. DeSylva - Performed by Jack Hylton and His Orchestra
• Ja, Ja die Frau'n sind meine schwache Seite - Written by Kurt Schwabach & Augustin Egen - Performed by Jack Hylton and His Orchestra
• Prologue from the Seven Deadly Sins (1934) - Music by Kurt Weill - Text by Bertolt Brecht
• Alabama Song(1930) - By Kurt Weill (1927) & Bertolt Brecht - Performed by Marek Weber
• Moritat from the Three Penny Opera (1928) - By Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht - Performed by Berlin Staatsoper
• When the White Lilacs Bloom Again (1928) - Music by Franz Doelle - Poem by Fritz Rotter - Performed by The Jack Hylton Orchestra{{cite book |last= Harvey |first= Adam|date= 2007|title= The Soundtracks of Woody Allen|location= US |publisher= Macfarland & Company,Inc |page=123 |isbn=9780786429684}}

{{div col end}}

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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=shadowsandfog.htm |title=Shadows and Fog |access-date=2007-07-31 |archive-date=2014-04-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140401053938/http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=shadowsandfog.htm |url-status=live }} It did not turn up in the United Kingdom until February 1993, where it attained a total gross of only £87,622.

Its production budget has been estimated at $14 million.

Shadows and Fog received a mixed response from critics and holds an approval rating of 54% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes from 28 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The critical consensus reads: "Shadows and Fog recreates the chiaroscuro aesthetic of German Expressionism, but Woody Allen's rambling screenplay retreads the director's neurotic obsessions with derivative results."{{cite web |title=Shadows and Fog (1992) |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shadows_and_fog/ |access-date=September 18, 2015 |archive-date=September 4, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904055752/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shadows_and_fog/ |url-status=live }}

Vincent Canby of The New York Times gave the film modest praise, writing,"Like 'Zelig,' 'Shadows and Fog' is a pastiche of references to the works of others, but it's a brazen, irrepressible original in the way it uses those references." He added, "A note of caution: 'Shadows and Fog' operates on its own wavelength. It is different. It should not be anticipated in the manner of other Allen films. It's unpredictable, with its own tone and rhythm, even though, like all of the director's work, it's a mixture of the sincere, the sardonic and the classically sappy."{{cite web|last=Canby|first=Vincent|author-link=Vincent Canby|title=Review/Film; Woody Allen on the Loose in Kafka Country|work=The New York Times|date=March 20, 1992|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E0CE5DC123FF933A15750C0A964958260|access-date=September 18, 2015|archive-date=March 25, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160325015318/http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E0CE5DC123FF933A15750C0A964958260|url-status=live}} Variety similarly wrote, "Exquisitely shot in black & white, Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog is a sweet homage to German expressionist filmmaking and a nod to the content of socially responsible tales since narrative film began. Allen's fans will regard this as a nice try that falls short."{{cite web |title=Review: 'Shadows and Fog' |work=Variety |date=December 31, 1991 |url=https://variety.com/1991/film/reviews/shadows-and-fog-1200429257/ |access-date=September 18, 2015 |archive-date=March 5, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305062033/http://variety.com/1991/film/reviews/shadows-and-fog-1200429257/ |url-status=live }}

Desson Thomson of The Washington Post wrote:{{blockquote|There's nothing particularly objectionable about Woody Allen's "Shadows and Fog." That's part of the problem. This black-and-white seriocomedy, set in the 1920s, is an amiable ramble through some of Allen's favorite themes and European film movements. It has a small army of guest stars and a fair offering of Allen jokes. But it's also flat and peakless. It doesn't conclude so much as stop. There's nothing to take home but your feet.{{cite news |last=Howe |first=Desson |author-link=Desson Thomson |title='Shadows and Fog' (PG-13) |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=March 20, 1992 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/shadowsandfogpg13howe_a0aeb1.htm |access-date=September 18, 2015 |archive-date=March 5, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305062335/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/shadowsandfogpg13howe_a0aeb1.htm |url-status=live }}}}

In 2016 film critics Robbie Collin and Tim Robey ranked Shadows and Fog as one of the worst movies by Woody Allen.{{cite news|title=All 47 Woody Allen movies - ranked from worst to best|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/woody-allens-best-and-worst-movies/|access-date=February 12, 2017|work=The Telegraph|date=October 12, 2016|archive-date=January 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118143535/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/woody-allens-best-and-worst-movies/|url-status=live}}

Recalling the film’s critical and commercial failure in his 2020 memoir, Apropos of Nothing, Allen joked that “the filming of Shadows and Fog went off without a hitch except for the movie.”{{cite news|title=Apropos of Nothing by Woody Allen review - a life and an accusation|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/09/apropos-of-nothing-by-woody-allen-review-a-life-and-an-accusation|access-date=April 14, 2020|work=The Guardian|date=April 9, 2020|archive-date=April 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200413173915/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/09/apropos-of-nothing-by-woody-allen-review-a-life-and-an-accusation|url-status=live}} Allen also states in his memoir that he "knew the film was destined for commercial doom," but made the movie regardless, disdaining artistic fear he says would yield "safe middle-of-the-road projects," and, summarizing the finished product, added: "It’s not a bad idea but you have to be in the mood for it, and marketing tests showed it did not appeal to homo sapiens."{{ cite book|title=Apropos of Nothing by Woody Allen|date=March 23, 2020}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|0105378}}
• {{AFI film|id=59386|title=Shadows and Fog}}

{{Woody Allen}}

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Category:1990s vigilante films

Category:1991 films

Category:1991 comedy films

Category:American films based on plays

Category:American mystery films

Category:American black-and-white films

Category:Circus films

Category:American comedy thriller films

Category:Films directed by Woody Allen

Category:Films shot in New York City

Category:American neo-noir films

Category:Orion Pictures films

Category:Films with screenplays by Woody Allen

Category:American vigilante films

Category:Films produced by Robert Greenhut

Category:1990s English-language films

Category:1990s American films