The Lady From Shanghai (1947)

The Lady From Shanghai / Orson Welles (1947). As per usual with Orson Welles, he needed cash to finance his own personal projects (in this case a lavish stage production). He made a deal with Columbia’s mogul Harry Cohn to make this movie as payback for a loan. Welles shot the film with himself starring and directing. He also cast his wife, Rita Hayworth, and his friend from his Mercury Theater days, Everett Sloane, in major roles. Although shot on location with many stylistic innovations, Cohn hit the ceiling because it was so unlike a typical crime film. After the movie had been turned over to Columbia, it was another year before release because Cohn ordered cuts (about an hour of footage eliminated and lost) and reshoots. Orson Welles was appalled at the result, yet today “The Lady From Shanghai” stands as one of the truly great films from classic Hollywood. There is, indeed, a basic mystery plot underneath all the clever talk and interesting, sometimes startling, camera set-ups. Michael O’Hara (Welles), a man with a checkered past, is hired by wealthy but disabled criminal defense lawyer Arthur Bannister (Sloane) as a hand on Bannister’s yacht for a voyage down the coast to South America. Also along is Bannister’s trophy wife, Elsa (Hayworth) and Bannister’s partner, the always sweaty George Grisby (Glenn Anders). O’Hara comes to suspect that someone or ones is plotting to murder someone else, all the while falling into an obsessive love affair with Elsa even though he calls himself a fool for doing so (“Maybe if I live long enough I will forget her or maybe I will die trying”). But who is plotting, who is the victim, and what is the motive? Some of the set-pieces seem designed to amuse rather than increase tension, witness the surreal murder trial in which Bannister gets to cross-examine himself. The resolution takes place in the fun house of a deserted carnival and is one of movie’s most celebrated and amazing moments. Seeing both “The Lady From Shanghai” and “The Letter” makes this one of my best movie watching weeks in a long time. I have them both on my list of Movies Seen but about 35 years ago for both and only had vague memories of a scene or two so they were like new to me and I marveled at them.

Welles and Hayworth