The Spirit (1987 film)

The Spirit is a 1987 American made-for-television action-adventure film based on the comic book character The Spirit by Will Eisner.

Plot
In rural East Armfit, Oregon, police officer Denny Colt rushes to the aid of his friend and mentor William Sevrin who has been attacked and had his manuscript, The Roxton Connection: Art Crime of the Century, burned by an unknown assailant and upon arrival is told by a fatally wounded Sevrin that the only one who knew about his manuscript besides Denny was Simon Teasdale. Traveling to Central City, Denny seeks out Commissioner Dolan at a fundraising event and after meeting with Dolan's daughter Ellen and widowed wealthy philanthropist P'Gell Roxton during his chase of a purse snatcher, Denny approaches Commissioner Dolan about his questions regarding Teasdale. Commissioner Dolan dismisses Denny's inquiries due to Teasdale's standing in the community with Denny stating he intends to continue his investigation undeterred. Upon departure, he confronts a young street smart child named Eubie who is hocking stolen tape decks to crippled children at the event with Denny letting Eubie off with a stern warning.

Denny's investigation takes him to the Roxton Museum to confront Teasdale who is the curator of the museum. When Denny inquiries about the art crime Sevrin's manuscript referred to Teasdale denies any knowledge of and has museum security forcefully eject Denny from the museum. Outside the museum, Denny is approached by a teamster named Bruno who claims to have knowledge of Teasdale's illegal activities and arranges a rendezvous with Denny later that night at Pier 10. Denny comes to Pier 10 and upon Bruno's arrival Denny is shot by Bruno and left for dead falling in the ocean.

Denny's bloodstained badge is found by the city's police later that night with Commissioner Dolan confirming Denny's identity and lamenting his inaction during their meeting earlier that day. Later at Wildwood Cemetery, Eubie confronts his business partner Stevie over the tape decks that Eubie thought were factory second when they were in fact stolen. The two are startled by groaning sounds and a shambling figure which causes Stevie to flee but Eubie soon discovers it's Denny who is still alive despite his gunshot. As a storm gathers, Eubie takes Denny inside a mausoleum and administers first aid to Denny. Eubie tells Denny he needs a hospital, but Denny rejects the notion and tells Eubie to instead bring a doctor to him that he can trust to not let anyone know he's alive.

Sometime later, Denny and Eubie observe Denny's funeral service which is attended by Commissioner and Ellen Dolan. After the service breaks, Denny tells Eubie of his plan to use his presumed death to confront criminals when they least expect it and dons a domino mask to emphasize his point. Denny begins taking down criminals in his new guise as a masked crimefighter with the newspapers now referring to him as The Spirit. After establishing himself, Denny visits Commissioner Dolan in the guise of The Spirit and reveals his true identity to Commissioner Dolan's shock. Denny informs Commissioner Dolan he intends to continue his investigation into Teasdale. Commissioner Dolan tells Denny that he looked into Teasdale after Denny supposedly died and was unable to find any evidence of wrongdoing, but Denny suggests that if Teasdale hasn't been detected he may be involved in forgeries. The meeting is interrupted by the arrival of Ellen who startled by Denny's appearance as The Spirit briefly knocks him unconscious but is soon explained of the situation by the Commissioner and Denny before Denny departs with his secret intact from Ellen.

The next day as Ellen and P'Gell socialize while a radio report of The Spirit's latest escapade is recounted, Ellen lets slip details that lead P'Gell to believe she's met The Spirit. Later that night, The Spirit breaks into a plating firm to investigate and following a misunderstanding with Ellen in which The Spirit tells her to contact her father, The Spirit witnesses Teasdale's forgery operations and a fight ensues between The Spirit and the henchmen led by Bruno. The Spirit is knocked unconscious after the fight and is placed on platform that slowly descends into an acid vat as the henchmen depart. As Ellen prepares to leave she notices all the lights in the museum go dark and rushes back to investigate, rescuing The Spirit and enlisting the help of a sympathetic cabbie. The two regroup at Commissioner Dolan's residence to discuss what The Spirit witnessed including Denny Colt's murderer working at the firm. Ellen is disbelieving of The Spirit's accusations against Teasdale.

The following day, The Spirit disguises himself as an elderly scholar and meets with P'Gell and Teasdale and lets slip that he has a copy of Sevrin's Manuscript. Upon The Spirit's departure, P'Gell sees Teasdale out and it's revealed that P'Gell is actually the forger and is Bruno's Girlfriend. The Spirit returns to Wildwood Cemetery and sends Eubie to deliver a note to the commissioner at the museum party while he deals with Bruno and two of P'Gell's henchmen. The fight is interrupted with the arrival of P'Gell who reveals herself as the mastermind shoots The Spirit with a tranquilizer gun and takes him to the museum basement to have him interrogated over the manuscripts location. The interrogation renders The Spirit unconscious and P'Gell berates Bruno for killing Sevrin when he was only supposed to steal the Manuscript. The Spirit unconsciously lets the word "Ellen" slip prompting P'Gell to confront Ellen at the party.

P'Gell captures Ellen and places her in an iron maiden which prompts The Spirit to reveal the manuscript was a ruse. Self-assured, P'Gell directs her men to set up a bomb which will cover up her forgery efforts by destroying the entire museum and the duplicates within. The Spirit manages to escape his bonds and jam the iron maiden and sets out to stop P'Gell and her men's plan. The Spirit deactivates the first two bombs and subdues P'Gell's henchmen leading to a skirmish between The Spirit and Bruno to get to the final bomb with The Spirit ultimately prevailing. The police arrive at P'Gell's estate unaware that she has already fled with the help of her butler Ricardo. At The Spirit's cemetery hideout, Ellen and The Spirit enjoy a drink optimistically discussing how the joint efforts of Lloyd's of London and Interpol will see the stolen artifacts recovered, with The Spirit confident that he and P'Gell will cross paths again.

Cast

 * Sam J. Jones as Denny Colt/The Spirit
 * Nana Visitor as Ellen Dolan
 * Bumper Robinson as Eubie
 * Garry Walberg as Commissioner Dolan
 * Laura M. Robinson as P'Gell Roxton
 * Philip Baker Hall as William Sevrin

Production
Producer Paul Aratow, a professed fan of the character, first acquired an option on Will Eisner's The Spirit in 1975 and not long thereafter began development with NBC on a TV movie adaptation of the property with William Friedkin slated to produce and direct the film that would serve as a pilot for a proposed series. For Friedkin's incarnation of the project Burt Reynolds and Flip Wilson were in negotiations to play the characters of Denny Colt/The Spirit and Ebony White respectively. Friendkin and NBC's iteration of the project ultimately never came to fruition with Friedkin attempting to develop treatments with writers such as Pete Hamill, Jules Feiffer, Harlan Ellison (whose draft brought back Ebony White's minstrel-like persona), and Eisner himself with Friedkin unable to find a treatment he liked and eventually leaving the project while Aratow would release The Spirit rights to Columbia Pictures in 1980. According to Einser's publisher, Denis Kitchen of Kitchen Sink Press, Eisner never had any serious desire to see The Spirit adapted and was just content to collect checks for the options.

Aratow had become acquainted with Eisner while working on an adaptation of another Eisner creation, Sheena, and the two worked together in reviving the project in the 80s. In 1986, Aratow and Eisner's attorney met with Warner Bros. Television Studios to secure the rights for Aratow from producer Gary Kurtz after he'd failed to get backing for an animated adpatation of the character which would've been helmed by Jerry Rees and Brad Bird. The Spirit television film was then set up at ABC as a pilot for a potential series. Director Michael Schultz, producer Paul Aratow, and writer Steven E. de Souza had initially intended to play the material as a straight forward adaptation of the source material, but after Sam J. Jones was cast as the titular character as part of a non-negotiable mandate from ABC, the team collectively decided a serious performance wasn't working and opted to play the material in a manner similar to Flash Gordon or the 1960s Batman series. The creative team used Kitchen Sink Press reprints of The Spirit for visual and thematic references with de Souza incorporating Eisner's writing style into his own and Schultz staging the lighting and framing in a manner similar to the comics. Due to the problematic nature of the character of Ebony White, the team reworked the character in massively toned down fashion as Eubie played by Bumper Robinson. The production had wanted to set the film in the 1940s, but due to budget constraints this wasn't possible and instead it was decided to make the film a "no period" piece with the setting featuring a mixture of archaic and modern aesthetics, a stylistic choice the art department would bring to the 1989 Batman which included many who'd worked on The Spirit.

Release
While the film was shot as a pilot for a potential The Spirit TV series for ABC's 1986 Fall Schedule, during production ABC experienced a change in ownership with many of the executives who'd shepherded the project now gone from the company and new management found the pilot "too offbeat and morbid" and shelved the pilot without even setting up any test screenings. The creative team tried to rescue the pilot by holding a screening at the 1986 San Diego Comic-Con as well as circulating a "Save the Spirit" petition whose signatories included Paul Dini, Peter David, and Len Wein. ABC eventually aired the pilot on July 31, 1987, but did so with little fanfare and well past the point where series pickup was a possibility.

The Spirit was released on DVD on October 15, 2013 as part of the Warner Archive Collection.

Reception
In a review for The New York Times, John Corry wrote "The Spirit wants very much to be good-humored. Mostly, though, it's just sappy."

Will Eisner expressed dissatisfaction with the end result of The Spirit calling it "Awful" and "Cardboard" and saying the experience watching it "made my toes curl". Paul Aratow spoke of The Spirit with frustration having spent a decade trying to get the film made and complimented Steven E. de Souza's script, Michael Schultz' direction, and the film's production and costume design as high points while lamenting the fact ABC forced them to use Sam J. Jones as the lead and that had a different actor played The Spirit it would've resulted in a much stronger end result.