Review of The Lady from Shanghai (1947) by Michael T — 26 Apr 2015

One of the classics of the Film Noir genre. Orson Welles, with a convincing Irish accent, plays Michael O'Hara, a would-be novelist and sailor who fought against Franco in Spain and doesn't like cops because of some radical shipyard politics (HUAC would soon ensure heroes like this were left out of the narrative).

He comes to the aid of Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth) when she is mugged in Central Park and is soon rewarded with a job on the ladies' husband's yacht. Welles's character is drawn into a vicious web as Hayworth's character's crippled husband, a venomous and talented criminal defense attorney played by Everett Sloane and his ineffectual partner played by Glenn Anders.

They verbally spar with each other, play cruel manipulative games, and generally act like Grade-A jerks. Welles is certain that the games played on this trip from New York to San Francisco via the canal is no good for him and that Hayworth is intentionally or unintentionally leading him to his doom.

Sure enough, murder enters the picture. Like most great Noir protagonists, he doesn't care but at least he tells us in his narration that he was acting like a fool. Welles and Hayworth were married at the time and Columbia did not like it when star/director/screenwriter Welles convinced Hayworth to cut her hair short and dye it blonde.

The sequence set in a carnival Fun House hall of mirrors is a classic and inspired the setting for the climactic fight in the 1973 Martial Arts classic Enter the Dragon. The latest Mill Creek Blu-Ray is superb, Very crisp and clear but still in B&W as it was intended.

Welles would be pleased that they have kept Ted Turner and his crayons away from this film...