Trivia for
Shadows (1959) More at IMDbPro »

• John Cassavetes screened the movie in 1957 and 1958, but because of poor response he went back and re-shot about half of the film in 1959. The first version of the film was believed to be lost for almost 50 years. In the mid-1980s Prof. Ray Carney began his search for the film after talking to Cassavetes about the first version. Carney searched almost everywhere but was led to dead ends for 20 years. Finally, in 2002, he was contacted by a woman who said her father, a junk dealer, had a cardboard box with a film called "Shadows". It turned out to be the first version and not the second one. The print was in pristine condition.
  
  
• John Cassavetes' directorial debut
  
  
• Iconoclastic radio personality Jean Shepherd helped John Cassavetes raise money to make the movie by having Cassavetes on his show as one of his rare guests in February 1957. Shepherd loaned Cassavetes his assistant Ellen Paulos to help with the film. The thankful Cassavetes expressed his thanks in the opening credits of the movie. A title reads: "Presented by Jean Shepherd's Night People." (The Night People were members of what the New York Times in the late 1950s called the "cult" of Shepherd listeners.) Shepherd also appears in a crowd sequence in the film, smoking a cigarette. Paulos also appears in the film.
  
  
• Debut of Tom Reese (billed under his real name of Tom Allen).
  
  
• John Cassavetes was the guest on a Manhattan radio show, promoting "Johnny Staccato" (1959). Somehow the conversation moved into making a feature film, and Cassavetes told listeners that if he were to make a feature film, they should donate a dollar or two by sending it to the station. A few days later, a surprised Cassavetes had received a couple of thousand dollars from listeners sending money to the station, which he put toward the making of this film.
  
  
• Cassavetes' estate which is managed by his widow Gena Rowlands, has categorically denied that the alternate version discovered by Professor Carney is real, despite Carney posting several clips on his website.
  
  
• Film critic Leonard Maltin describes "Shadows" as being "a watershed in the birth of American independent cinema".
  
  
• Shot with a 16mm handheld camera on the streets of New York. Most of the dialog was improvised, while all the crew were fellow class members of Cassavetes' or volunteers.
  
  
• Selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1993.
  
  
• Walkouts were quite high during the film's initial run as many audience members were unused to its improvisatory nature.
  
  
• During one of his regular acting workshop sessions, John Cassavetes recognized in one particular improvised skit the premise for a potentially good film. Over several years he developed the plot in his workshops, employing many of his young students in his film.
  
  
• Made for only $40,000.
  
  
• Cassavetes has a cameo as a pedestrian who saves Lelia from a potential molester, while Gena Rowlands appears briefly in a nightclub scene.
  
  
• This caused a stir as it fairly explicitly showed an unmarried couple in a post-coital position and its suggestion that a young woman would actively seek out sex.
  
  
• After winning the Critic's Award at the Venice Film Festival, it was picked up for distribution by British Lion and exhibited in the United States.
  
  
• When the first version of the film was shown at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2004, it was the first time that particular version had been screened in 45 years.
  
  
• The love scene was shot in Katharine Hepburn's brother's apartment.
  
  

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