February 06, 2004
The Lady From Shanghai
The Lady From Shanghai is a long neglected Orson
Welles classic, where this time he is a pioneer in film noir.
Starring his then wife Rita Hayworth, nearly unrecognizable in short,
blonde hair (much to film studio head Harry
Cohn's chagrin!) and himself, it is a complicated story of greed,
lust and murder, set in a rarified social strata. It ends with one of
the most famous scenes in all of film noir, maybe even moviedom
itself, the fun house mirror scene. A typically outrageously
entertaining film from Welles.
Orson Welles plays the down on his luck Irish sailor, Michael O'Hara, who comes across The Lady From Shanghai while walking in Central Park. O'Hara is immediately smitten by Hayworh's Elsa 'Rosalie' Bannister, and manages to "rescue" her from some park thugs, under some murky circumstances. In typical noir fashion, he is led on by this femme fatale, who is always one step ahead of him.
She wants him to skipper her and her powerful, rich, and crippled lawyer husband's yacht (Errol Flynn's in real life), on their passage from New York, through Panama, to San Franciso. While on board, he becomes enmeshed in a seemingly messy triangle between Hayworth, her husbad, Arthur Bannister (played with real panache by Welles regular Everett Sloan) and Bannister's law partner, George Grisby (Glenn Anders in a role of a lifetime). It gets even more complicated when Elsa aggressively pursues O'Hara, who tries to hold back but of course just can't resist.
When they get to San Francisco, there's some complicated murder plot that O'Hara ends up getting entangled in and charged with the crime. Ironically enough, Arthur Bannister agrees to defend him and there is a wildly chaotic courtroom scene, that is just amazing to watch unfold. See especially Everett Sloan cross-examining himself!
O'Hara escapes when he feels like he has no chance, but is recaptured by Elsa, and the fun begins in the funhouse. It's all wrapped up neatly in a shootout and a typically wonderfully filmed, written and acted film by Welles comes to a close.
Wow, what a film! I'm not entirely sure what O'Hara was charged with or exactly how he got enmeshed in the actual murders. Perhaps it will become more obvious with another viewing. But you just love the ride nonetheless, as Welles gets some incredible acting by all concerned, including, as usual, himself. There is also the obligatory great camera shots, even if some of them end up feeling stilted, like he was trying for something cool. The aquarium scene is just as notable as the fun house, as are the scenes on location in Acapulco.
Also worth noting are the extras on the DVD from the
actor/director/writer, Peter
Bogdanovich. He does the very interesting commentary track,
where he includes many snippets of a long interview he had with Welles
over the years, which he distilled into his book, 
This Is
Orson Wells. He talks alot about Welles' technique in general,
and about this film in specific. There is also a short documentary,
where they film Bogdanovich talking about very similiar things, for
those of you who don't want to do the entire commentary track.
The DVD print is pretty solid. There are little or no bad frames in this gorgeous black and white film. The blacks are nice and black, and the shadows really stand out. I was truly impressed by this film, as I have been by all of Welles' stuff. It is going right to the top of my "Must Buy" list!
Buy The Lady From Shanghai from DVDPlanet
Rita Hayworth, Everett Sloane, Glenn Anders, Erskine Sanford, Ted de Corsia, Orson Welles
Aboard a bizarre yachting cruise, a naive sailor becomes entangled with a beautiful blonde femme fatale and ends up trapped in a murderous web.
Posted by jdarnold at February 6, 2004 08:42 PM
