The Lady from Shanghai
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- For the upcoming 2008 film of the same title, see The Lady from Shanghai (2008 film).
| The Lady from Shanghai | |
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| Directed by | Orson Welles |
| Produced by | Orson Welles |
| Written by | Orson Welles William Castle (uncredited) Charles Lederer (uncredited) Fletcher Markle (uncredited) |
| Starring | Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane |
| Music by | Heinz Roemheld |
| Cinematography | Charles Lawton Jr. Rudolph Maté (uncredited) Joseph Walker (uncredited) |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  December 24, 1947 June 9, 1948 |
| Running time | 87 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
"The Lady from Shanghai" is a 1948 black-and-white film noir directed by and starring Orson Welles. It is based on the novel "If I Die Before I Wake" by Sherwood King.
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[edit] Synopsis
The Lady from Shanghai tells the story of Michael O'Hara, who agrees to help an acquaintance, Grisby, fake his own death. Michael is attracted to Elsa, the wife of his friend Arthur Bannister and plans to run away with her once Grisby pays him. But then Grisby is found really dead, and Michael is accused of his murder. The film features a surreal climactic shootout in a hall of mirrors.
[edit] Production
The Lady from Shanghai was filmed in late 1946, finished in early 1947, and released late in 1948. The delay in releasing it was due to heavy editing by Columbia Pictures, who insisted on cutting about an hour from Welles's final cut. The film was purported to have links to the Black Dahlia murder at the time as the scenes cut from the film made significant references to the murder, months before it happened [1]. The studio was also located near two areas (one a restaurant) where the victim often frequented before she was murdered.
Welles cast his then wife Rita Hayworth as Rosalie, and caused controversy when he made her cut her famous long red hair and bleach it blonde.
[edit] Filming locations
In addition to the Columbia Pictures studios, the film was partly shot on location in San Francisco. It features the Sausalito waterfront and the Valhalla Bar and Cafe, Chinatown, the Steinhart Aquarium in Golden Gate Park, and Whitney's Playland amusement park at the beach for the famous hall of mirrors scene. Other scenes wre filmed in Acapulco. The yacht Zaca, where most of the movie takes place, was owned by actor Errol Flynn, who skippered the yacht in between takes, and can also be seen in the background in one scene outside a cantina.[citation needed]
[edit] Critical reaction
Reviews of the film were mixed when released in the late 1940s. Variety magazine found the script wordy and noted that the "rambling style used by Orson Welles has occasional flashes of imagination, particularly in the tricky backgrounds he uses to unfold the yarn, but effects, while good on their own, are distracting to the murder plot."[citation needed]
A more recent Time Out Film Guide review states that Welles simply didn't care enough to make the narrative seamless: "the principal pleasure of The Lady from Shanghai is its tongue-in-cheek approach to story-telling."[citation needed]
[edit] Main cast
- Rita Hayworth as Elsa 'Rosalie' Bannister
- Orson Welles as Michael O'Hara
- Everett Sloane as Arthur Bannister
- Glenn Anders as George Grisby
[edit] External links
[edit] References
| Orson Welles |
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Citizen Kane (1941) • The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) • The Stranger (1946) • The Lady from Shanghai (1947) • Macbeth (1948) • Othello (1952) • Mr. Arkadin (1955) • Touch of Evil (1958) • The Trial (1962) • Chimes at Midnight (1965) • The Immortal Story (1968) • F for Fake (1974) |
