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Cop Denny Colt (Sam J. Jones) sees his mentor Sevrin (Philip Baker
Hall) being killed, and he dies in his arms ... but not before giving
Denny the decisive clue, leading to museum curator Teasdale (Daniel Davis)
in Central City. But when he tries to investigate in that town,
Commissioner Dolan (Garry Walberg) blocks each and any of his moves, and
when he gets too close to Teasdale, he is murdered by Teasdale's
right-hand-man Bruno (John Allen) - but rather by mistake than design,
Denny doesn't die but is rescued by Eubie (Bumper Robinson), a bright
young boy he saved from a life of crime, and who now nurses him back to
health in the crypt of the local graveyard. Eubie also helps him keeping
the fact secret that he's till alive, and escablishing his new identity as
masked crimefighter The Spirit. Denny's death has had the
Commissioner having second thoughts about Teasdale, and that encourages
The Spirit to make himself known to the Commissioner, and they agree on
working together on the case which involves big scale art forgery. The
commissioner's daughter Ellen (Nana Visitor) also shows a vivid interest
in The Spirit, and despite the fact he feels drawn to her as well, he
feels she might get in the way. Thing is, despite the fact that he's
thought dead and that he wears a superhero-like mask, The Spirit is no
superhuman, and he's knocked out more than once during the proceedings to
collect evidence against Teasdale, and at one point Ellen has to save him
from taking an acid bath even. Eventually, during the grand opening of
Teasdale's museum, The Spirit and Ellen are captured by the baddie ...
who's not Teasdale at all but P'Gell Roxton (Laura Robinson), Teasdale's
assistant and Ellen's best friend ... who plans to blow up the museum with
everyone in it to cover the tracks of the forged artworks, and sell the
real stuff for phenomenal sums on the black market. But of course, The
Spirit manages to free himself and Ellen just in time, take care of all of
P'Gell's henchmen, defuse the bombs and save the day just in time. Only
P'Gell managed to escape - for the next episode (that never happened). Now
The Spirit the comic was one of the most innovative, intelligent
and trailblazing superhero comics there was back in the day, and even the
earliest stories still seem fresh to this day, even (or especially) when
compared to very recent stuff - and saying this TV-pilot (that never got
picked up) would do 100% justice to the comic would be a blatant lie. But
for what it is, a mere TV-pilot, it's actually pretty good, as it finds
the right balance between drama and comedy, is self-ironic throughout (as
was the comic from day 1), paints a (ironically) rather realistic portrait
of the superhero as such (as a matter of fact, I'd be pressed of
any hero - super or not - who's knocked out quite as often in one story as
The Spirit is), and it even features some unexpectedly hilarious setpieces
- like when The Spirit tries to throw Ellen out of a window to save her
despite the fact that she needs no saving, or Ellen drags the unconscious
(see!) Spirit out of a building by his feet and the cabdriver waiting for
her nonchalantly asks her if they're shooting a porn movie. And to help
the comicbook style of the movie along, the visual language of the movie
relies on primary colours mostly, while the cast all seem to be in on the
joke without playing it purely for laughs. Now I will admit I went into
this with low expectations ... and was pleasantly surprised!
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amazon.co.uk
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eThaiCD.com
find The Spirit at adultvideouniverse.com
