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The Lady from Shanghai (1948)

The Lady from Shanghai (1948)
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The Lady From Shanghai, a complex, involving puzzle-within-a-puzzle mystery story, is a showcase for Orson Welles, showing his singular talents and sensibilities as few other films have. The story is superficially simple: a seaman Michael O'Hara (Welles) is hired as a crew member on the yacht of the wealthy Banister (Everett Sloane). His beautiful but mysterious wife Elsa (Rita Hayworth) has met O'Hara earlier, when he saved her from a mugging. What ensues is a complicated and bizarre pattern of deception, fraud and murder, with O'Hara finding himself implicated in a murder, despite his innocence. The film is best remembered for its final sequence when the plot comes to a literally smashing climax in the famous "hall of mirrors" sequence, with Elsa and Banister shooting it out amidst shards of shattering glass. Orson Welles, who produced, directed, wrote and starred in the film, is sometimes self-indulgent in his use of visual tricks and techniques, which at times sacrifice plot for visual brilliance, but he pulls it together in the end to produce a stunning, difficult film. Rita Hayworth gives one of her best performances as the deceptive, seductive temptress, hard-edged and cynical. The film confounds, unsettles and disorients the viewer, very much as Welles intended to do. While not an easy film, it is well worth the attention required to follow it, and Welles offers no easy solutions or any false happy endings to his tour-de-force mystery. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

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Starring:
Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, (more)
Director(s):
Orson Welles
Theatrical MPAA Rating:
NR
Format(s):
DVD
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Synopsis of The Lady from Shanghai

The Lady From Shanghai, a complex, involving puzzle-within-a-puzzle mystery story, is a showcase for Orson Welles, showing his singular talents and sensibilities as few other films have. The story is superficially simple: a seaman Michael O'Hara (Welles) is hired as a crew member on the yacht of the wealthy Banister (Everett Sloane). His beautiful but mysterious wife Elsa (Rita Hayworth) has met O'Hara earlier, when he saved her from a mugging. What ensues is a complicated and bizarre pattern of deception, fraud and murder, with O'Hara finding himself implicated in a murder, despite his innocence. The film is best remembered for its final sequence when the plot comes to a literally smashing climax in the famous "hall of mirrors" sequence, with Elsa and Banister shooting it out amidst shards of shattering glass. Orson Welles, who produced, directed, wrote and starred in the film, is sometimes self-indulgent in his use of visual tricks and techniques, which at times sacrifice plot for visual brilliance, but he pulls it together in the end to produce a stunning, difficult film. Rita Hayworth gives one of her best performances as the deceptive, seductive temptress, hard-edged and cynical. The film confounds, unsettles and disorients the viewer, very much as Welles intended to do. While not an easy film, it is well worth the attention required to follow it, and Welles offers no easy solutions or any false happy endings to his tour-de-force mystery. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time:
87 mins

Complete Cast of The Lady from Shanghai


Director(s):
Orson Welles
Writer(s):
Orson Welles
Producer(s):
Orson Welles, Harry Cohn
Theatrical MPAA Rating:
NR(Questionable for Children, Adult Situations, Mild Violence)
Categories:
Mystery & Suspense
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    Greg W.

    Legend has it, Welles picked this story by chance (and possibly desperation) while trying to seal a filmmaking deal with Columbia - he didn't even know what the story was about, he just knew the book title. Too bad, because the story is loaded with film noir clichés. The story is both convoluted and boring, a fatal combination. However, it's still visually interesting - the famous, climactic scene in the room full of mirrors is one of the best things ever done by Welles. Regardless, his usual bag of tricks - shuffling dialogue like a deck of cards, the deep focus photography, the expressionist lighting - are still at the service of second-rate material.

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    Melanie T.

    I like this film. It's filled with Welles' signiture unusual camera angles and lighting, while the interesting charactures and the fast dialog keep the story moving. I would like to see the director's cut.

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    Pryor L.

    Orson Welles's original version of "The Lady from Shanghai" was over two and a half hours long. The studio cut almost an hour for the theatrical release, and the part of the film that was cut no longer exists--a crying shame. What's left is a an occasionally confusing race through a yachting trip to Acapulco (glimpse it in its 1940's isolated glory), a mad, farcical trial scene, and the famous fun house sequence (note: it's not a cliche if you're the first one who did it) that reportedly suffered some of the worst of the studio cuts. All with Orson and Rita smoldering at each other, of course, with lust and divorce in their hearts. An Orson Welles film is always worth a look for film buffs--for the rest, who knows?

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