Post by petrolino on Feb 17, 2018 23:38:42 GMT
The exotic film noir 'The Lady From Shanghai' is based on the novel 'If I Die Before I Wake' (1938) by Sherwood King. The plot follows lyrical Irish sailor Michael O'Hara (Orson Welles) who accepts a job offer from Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth) after rescuing her from a scrape. On board Elsa's luxury yacht, Mickey meets an array of shifty schemers and soon becomes embroiled in a complex murder plot.
The convoluted mystery 'The Lady From Shanghai' was originally set to be directed by sinister cinema trickster William Castle who did stay on as an assistant but always regretted being unable to take the reigns. Castle would have been a perfect choice to craft a delicious crime puzzle from this material but the project was handed to flailing movie wunderkid Orson Welles who was looking to trend again in the right direction. Welles comes off like a cross between Chris O'Dowd and Vincent Price as poetic Irish seaman O'Hara who exhibits a tendency to overthink everything. He deploys Rita Hayworth as an aquatic blonde Venus with the intent of driving himself crazy, their illicit encounters provoking flared nostrils and looks of longing in a haze of overheated melodrama.
Orson Welles gets to play action hero in 'The Lady From Shanghai' when he duffs up a trio of toughs during a rough and tumble opening. O'Hara spins a good yarn like a good sailor should, but his senses begin to fail him when Elsa enters his vicinity. Artistic blocking brings a sense of theatre to O'Hara's complicated interactions as he fends off advances from Elsa's strange male entourage, all of whom are acknowledged shady players. The arresting use of scattershot dutch angles seems especially random when faces are being enlarged and at times the staccato pacing feels decidedly off; I've read that Welles' vision was completely sabotaged by the studio, editors hacking huge pieces off the climax which takes place in a hall of mirrors. But I like 'The Lady From Shanghai', regardless, because there's nothing quite like it, and you might like it too!
"Aw, big boob that I am, I thought I could escape her."
Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles & Marlene Dietrich
Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles & Marlene Dietrich
The convoluted mystery 'The Lady From Shanghai' was originally set to be directed by sinister cinema trickster William Castle who did stay on as an assistant but always regretted being unable to take the reigns. Castle would have been a perfect choice to craft a delicious crime puzzle from this material but the project was handed to flailing movie wunderkid Orson Welles who was looking to trend again in the right direction. Welles comes off like a cross between Chris O'Dowd and Vincent Price as poetic Irish seaman O'Hara who exhibits a tendency to overthink everything. He deploys Rita Hayworth as an aquatic blonde Venus with the intent of driving himself crazy, their illicit encounters provoking flared nostrils and looks of longing in a haze of overheated melodrama.
"There's such outrageous brilliance in Orson Welles's brash and sexy noir melodrama from 1947, now on re-release. There are some opaque plot tangles, perhaps due to 60 minutes being cut from Welles's original version by the studio, but the sheer brio and style make it a thing of wonder, whisking the audience from the streets of New York City, to the open seas, to a tense courtroom and then to a bizarre house of mirrors. This is arguably Welles's best acting performance: theatrically romantic, with warmth, wit and a gust of pure charisma. He plays O'Hara, an Irish merchant seaman induced to sign on as part of the crew of a luxury yacht belonging to wealthy lawyer Bannister (Everett Sloane), having fallen in love with his young wife Elsa (Rita Hayworth) – a beautiful woman with a shady past in the far east whom Bannister evidently blackmailed into marrying him."
- Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
"The Lady from Shanghai is one of the most visually impressive movies to come out of the 1940's. Orson Welles direction is outstanding, he has created so many memorable scenes in this film. He gives a fine performance as well. Rita Hayworth has seldom been better, she is such an breathtaking beauty. In a supporting role, Everett Sloane steals every scene he is in. Superb cinematography and the score is exciting and very effective. It is suspenseful and stylish throughout. The art direction is exceptional. Welles paid a lot of attention to detail. The scene with the mirrors is one the most intense and memorable scenes ever filmed. An unforgettable movie."
- James Higgins, Turner Classic Movies
"Rita Hayworth was, in mid-1946, one of the biggest stars in the world, just months removed from her turn as the femme fatale in Charles Vidor’s sultry noir melodrama Gilda. How famous was she? That summer, a military crew conducting nuclear tests in the Bikini Atoll put her picture on the fourth atomic bomb ever detonated. (She was outraged; still, that’s iconicity.) Onscreen, she was a still, blue flame, the opposite of Welles’s puffed-up baritone swagger; off it, her insecurity and loneliness were a dark mirror image of his Olympian confidence. Of course they fell for each other. You can guess how it worked out. She longed for a conventional life, he rolled through the world in a slow-moving avalanche of personal chaos. He had affairs. He owed her money. It was a disaster, except that they loved each other. When Welles phoned Harry Cohn, the Columbia Pictures boss, to save his play, he and Hayworth were in the middle of splitting up. They found it hard. In the end, it took them as long to get divorced as they’d previously spent being married."
- Brian Phillips, 'Through A Glass, Darkly : ‘The Lady From Shanghai’ And The Legend Of Orson Welles'
- Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
"The Lady from Shanghai is one of the most visually impressive movies to come out of the 1940's. Orson Welles direction is outstanding, he has created so many memorable scenes in this film. He gives a fine performance as well. Rita Hayworth has seldom been better, she is such an breathtaking beauty. In a supporting role, Everett Sloane steals every scene he is in. Superb cinematography and the score is exciting and very effective. It is suspenseful and stylish throughout. The art direction is exceptional. Welles paid a lot of attention to detail. The scene with the mirrors is one the most intense and memorable scenes ever filmed. An unforgettable movie."
- James Higgins, Turner Classic Movies
"Rita Hayworth was, in mid-1946, one of the biggest stars in the world, just months removed from her turn as the femme fatale in Charles Vidor’s sultry noir melodrama Gilda. How famous was she? That summer, a military crew conducting nuclear tests in the Bikini Atoll put her picture on the fourth atomic bomb ever detonated. (She was outraged; still, that’s iconicity.) Onscreen, she was a still, blue flame, the opposite of Welles’s puffed-up baritone swagger; off it, her insecurity and loneliness were a dark mirror image of his Olympian confidence. Of course they fell for each other. You can guess how it worked out. She longed for a conventional life, he rolled through the world in a slow-moving avalanche of personal chaos. He had affairs. He owed her money. It was a disaster, except that they loved each other. When Welles phoned Harry Cohn, the Columbia Pictures boss, to save his play, he and Hayworth were in the middle of splitting up. They found it hard. In the end, it took them as long to get divorced as they’d previously spent being married."
- Brian Phillips, 'Through A Glass, Darkly : ‘The Lady From Shanghai’ And The Legend Of Orson Welles'
"Orson Welles screened The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) for his cast and crew prior to shooting The Lady from Shanghai. The madness pervading this expressionist silent classic is reflected in his delirious film noir, which one critic dubbed "the weirdest great movie ever made". The Lady from Shanghai is as fascinating for what happened during its making as for what appeared on screen. The then president of Columbia Pictures, Harry Cohn, saved a financially troubled Welles from bankruptcy by paying him handsomely to be screenwriter, producer and director for the film. Cohn also insisted that Welles's estranged wife, Rita Hayworth, play the scheming femme fatale of the title. An added emotional resonance comes from the knowledge that the director and Hayworth – who reputedly said the only happiness she had known was with Welles – briefly lived together again during filming. Welles proceeded to shock the studio executives. With the approval of Hayworth, who wanted to break from the character she had become so identified with thanks to the huge hit Gilda (1946), he had his wife's locks shorn and her trademark red hair dyed blonde."
- Tony Paley, The Guardian
- Tony Paley, The Guardian
Orson Welles & Rita Hayworth
Interview with Rita Hayworth
Interview with Rita Hayworth
Orson Welles gets to play action hero in 'The Lady From Shanghai' when he duffs up a trio of toughs during a rough and tumble opening. O'Hara spins a good yarn like a good sailor should, but his senses begin to fail him when Elsa enters his vicinity. Artistic blocking brings a sense of theatre to O'Hara's complicated interactions as he fends off advances from Elsa's strange male entourage, all of whom are acknowledged shady players. The arresting use of scattershot dutch angles seems especially random when faces are being enlarged and at times the staccato pacing feels decidedly off; I've read that Welles' vision was completely sabotaged by the studio, editors hacking huge pieces off the climax which takes place in a hall of mirrors. But I like 'The Lady From Shanghai', regardless, because there's nothing quite like it, and you might like it too!
Chinese New Year - The Dog
'Celebrate Chinese New Year in Chinatown' - The Guardian
"He who raises himself on tiptoe to feel taller cannot stand firm.
He who strains his strides cannot go far.
He who is complacent is not enlightened.
He who is conceited cannot tell wrong from right.
He who is self-important is not supreme.
He who is pompous cannot be whole.
To the man of Tao, such inflating of the ego can be likened to having too much food and clothing. They are more of a hindrance than a help."
-- Laozi
"Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men."
-- Confucius
"He who raises himself on tiptoe to feel taller cannot stand firm.
He who strains his strides cannot go far.
He who is complacent is not enlightened.
He who is conceited cannot tell wrong from right.
He who is self-important is not supreme.
He who is pompous cannot be whole.
To the man of Tao, such inflating of the ego can be likened to having too much food and clothing. They are more of a hindrance than a help."
-- Laozi
"Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men."
-- Confucius
