''The Lady from Shanghai'' is a 1947 American
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
directed by
Orson Welles (uncredited) and starring Welles, his estranged wife
Rita Hayworth, and
Everett Sloane
Everett H. Sloane (October 1, 1909 – August 6, 1965) was an American character actor who worked in radio, theatre, films, and television.
Early life
Sloane was born in Manhattan on October 1, 1909, to Nathaniel I. Sloane and Rose (Gers ...
.
It is based on the novel ''If I Die Before I Wake'' by Sherwood King.
Although it initially received mixed reviews, it has grown in stature over the years, and many critics have praised its set designs and camerawork. In 2018, the film was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry by the
Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Plot
Irish sailor Michael O'Hara meets the beautiful blonde Elsa as she rides a horse-drawn coach in
Central Park. Three hooligans waylay the coach. Michael rescues Elsa and escorts her home. Michael reveals he is a seaman and learns Elsa and her husband, disabled criminal defense attorney Arthur Bannister, are newly arrived in New York City from Shanghai. They are on their way to
San Francisco via the
Panama Canal. Michael, attracted to Elsa despite misgivings, agrees to sign on as an able seaman aboard Bannister's yacht.
They are joined on the boat by Bannister's partner, George Grisby, who proposes that Michael "murder" him in a plot to fake his own death. He promises Michael $5,000 and explains that since he would not really be dead and since there would be no corpse, Michael could not be convicted of murder (reflecting ''
corpus delicti'' laws at the time). Michael agrees, intending to use the money to run away with Elsa. Grisby has Michael sign a confession.
![Lady from Shanghai trailer welles](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Lady_from_Shanghai_trailer_welles.JPG)
On the night of the crime, Sydney Broome, a private investigator who has been following Elsa on her husband's orders, confronts Grisby. Broome has learned of Grisby's plan to murder Bannister, frame Michael, and escape by pretending to have also been murdered. Grisby shoots Broome and leaves him for dead. Unaware of what has happened, Michael proceeds with the night's arrangement and sees Grisby off on a motorboat before shooting a gun into the air to draw attention to himself. Meanwhile, Broome, mortally wounded but still alive, asks Elsa for help. He warns her that Grisby intends to kill her husband.
Michael makes a phone call to Elsa, but finds Broome on the other end of the line. Broome warns Michael that Grisby was setting him up. Michael rushes to Bannister's office in time to see Bannister is alive, but that the police are removing Grisby's body from the premises. The police find evidence implicating Michael, including his confession, and take him away.
At trial, Bannister acts as Michael's attorney. He feels he can win the case if Michael pleads justifiable homicide. During the trial, the incompetent judge quickly loses control of the proceedings. Bannister learns of his wife's relationship with Michael. He ultimately takes pleasure in his suspicion that they will lose the case. Bannister also indicates that he knows the real killer's identity. Before the verdict, Michael escapes by feigning a suicide attempt (swallowing pain relief pills Bannister takes for his disability), causing a commotion in which he slips out of the building with the jury for another case. Elsa follows. Michael and she hide in a
Chinatown
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...
theater. Elsa calls some Chinese friends to meet her. As Michael and Elsa wait and pretend to watch the show, Michael realizes that she killed Grisby. Michael passes out from the pills he took just as Elsa's Chinese friends arrive; they carry the unconscious Michael to an empty
fun house. When he wakes, he realizes that Grisby and Elsa had been planning to murder Bannister and frame him for the crime, but that Broome's involvement ruined the scheme and that Elsa had to kill Grisby for her own protection.
The film features a unique climactic shootout in a
hall of mirrors involving a multitude of false and real mirrored images in the Magic Mirror Maze, in which Elsa is mortally wounded and Bannister is killed. Heartbroken, and ignoring Elsa's pleas to save her life, Michael leaves presuming that events which have unfolded since the trial will clear him of any crimes. "Maybe I would live so long I'd forget her. Maybe I'd die trying".
Cast
Production
In the summer of 1946, Welles was directing ''
Around the World'', a musical stage adaptation of the
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
novel ''
Around the World in Eighty Days
''Around the World in Eighty Days'' (french: link=no, Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours) is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in French in 1872. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employe ...
'', with a comedic and ironic book by Welles, incidental music and songs by
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film.
Born to ...
, and production by
Mike Todd, who would later produce the successful
film version with
David Niven. When Todd pulled out from the lavish and expensive production, Welles financed it. When he ran out of money and urgently needed $55,000 to release costumes that were being held, he convinced
Columbia Pictures president
Harry Cohn
Harry Cohn (July 23, 1891 – February 27, 1958) was a co-founder, president, and production director of Columbia Pictures Corporation.
Life and career
Cohn was born to a working-class Jewish family in New York City. His father, Joseph Cohn, wa ...
to send him the money to continue the show and in exchange Welles promised to write, produce and direct a film for Cohn for no further fee.
As Welles told it, on the spur of the moment, he suggested the film be based on a book that he happened to see in front of him during his call with Cohn, one a girl in the theatre box office was reading at the time. Welles had never read it. However, according to the daughter of
William Castle, it was her father who had purchased the film adaptation rights for the novel and who then asked Welles to pitch it to Cohn, with Castle hoping to receive the directoral assignment himself. She described her father as greatly respecting Welles' talents, but feeling nonetheless disappointed at being relegated to serve merely as Welles' assistant director on the film.
![Welles-Hayworth-1946-Cut](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Welles-Hayworth-1946-Cut.jpg)
''The Lady from Shanghai'' began filming on 2 October 1946, and originally finished filming on 27 February 1947, with studio-ordered retakes continuing through March 1947—but it was not released in the U.S. until 9 June 1948. Cohn strongly disliked Welles' rough cut, particularly what he considered to be a confusing plot and lack of close-ups (Welles had deliberately avoided these, as a stylistic device), and was not in sympathy with Welles'
Brechtian
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...
use of irony and black comedy, especially in a farcical courtroom scene. He also objected to the appearance of the film. Welles had aimed for documentary-style authenticity by shooting the film almost entirely on location (making it one of the first major Hollywood pictures to be shot in this way) in
Acapulco
Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...
,
Pie de la Cuesta,
Sausalito and
San Francisco), and by using primarily long takes, while Cohn preferred the more tightly controlled look of footage lit and shot in a studio. The release of the film was delayed due to Cohn's order for extensive editing and reshoots. Whereas Welles had delivered his cut of the film on time and under budget, the reshoots Welles was ordered to do meant that the film ended up over budget by a third, contributing to the director's reputation for going over budget. Once the reshoots were over, the heavy editing ordered by Cohn took over a year to complete; editor
Viola Lawrence cut about an hour from Welles' rough cut.
Welles was appalled at the musical score, and he was particularly aggrieved by the cuts in the climactic confrontation scene in an amusement park funhouse at the end of the film. Intended as a climactic tour-de-force of editing and production design, the scene was cut to less than three minutes out of an intended running time of twenty minutes. As with many of the films over which Welles did not have control over the final cut, the missing footage has not been found and is presumed to have been destroyed. Surviving production stills show elaborate and expensive sets that were built for the sequence and which were entirely cut from the film.
Welles cast his wife
Rita Hayworth as Elsa and caused a good deal of controversy when he instructed her to cut her long red hair and bleach it blonde for the role. "Orson was trying something new with me, but Harry Cohn wanted The Image—The Image he was gonna make me 'til I was 90," Rita Hayworth recalled. "''The Lady from Shanghai'' was a very good picture. So what does Harry Cohn say when he sees it? 'He's ''ruined'' you—he cut your hair off!'"
The film was considered a disaster in the U.S. at the time of its release, although the closing shootout in a hall of mirrors has since become one of the touchstones of film noir. Not long after the film's release, Welles and Hayworth finalized their divorce. A remake of the film came close to production at the turn of the century from a screenplay written by
Jeff Vintar, based both on Welles's script and the original pulp novel, produced by
John Woo and
Terence Chang, and starring
Brendan Fraser, who wanted
Michael Douglas and
Catherine Zeta-Jones to co-star. Although the screenplay was considered highly successful, and Fraser was coming off the highly praised ''
Gods and Monsters'', the project was abandoned when the head of Sony Pictures,
Amy Pascal, decided to concentrate on teen films.
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
Sally Stanford's Valhalla waterfront bar and cafe, the front, interior, and a courtroom scene of the old Kearny Street
Hall of Justice, and shots of Welles running across
Portsmouth Square, escaping to a long scene in a theater in
Chinatown
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...
, then the
Steinhart Aquarium in
Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, United States, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. It is administered by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, which began in 1871 to oversee the development ...
, and Whitney's
Playland-at-the-Beach amusement park at
Ocean Beach for the hall of mirrors scene, for which interiors were shot on a soundstage.
Other scenes were filmed in
Acapulco
Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...
. The yacht , on which many scenes take 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 at a cantina in Acapulco.
Critical reaction
William Brogdon of ''
Variety'' found the script to be "wordy and full of holes" while also noting 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."
Bosley Crowther of ''
The New York Times'' similarly found the murder plot to be a "thoroughly confused and baffling thing. Tension is recklessly permitted to drain off in a sieve of tangled plot and in a lengthy court-room argument which has little save a few visual stunts. As producer of the picture, Mr. Welles might better have fired himself—as author, that is—and hired somebody to give Mr. Welles, director, a better script." Alternatively, ''
Time'' wrote that the "big trick in this picture was to divert a head-on collision of at least six plots, and make of it a smooth-flowing, six-lane whodunit. Orson brings the trick off." ''
Harrison's Reports
''Harrison's Reports'' was a New York City-based motion picture trade journal published weekly from 1919 to 1962. The typical issue was four letter-size pages sent to subscribers under a second-class mail permit. Its founder, editor and publisher ...
'' felt "the action, at times, is confusing, but it seems as if the confusion was purposeful. Some of the photographic effects with their lights and shadows are highly ingenious; they enhance the effect of the action, whether dramatic or melodramatic."
Among retrospective reviews, ''
Time Out
Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to:
Time
* Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team
* Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken
* Timeout (computing), an enginee ...
Film Guide'' 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." One recent book on film noir praises the film for its pervasive atmosphere of malaise and its impressive, extraordinary technical mastery.
David Kehr has subsequently declared the film as a masterpiece, with him calling it "the weirdest great movie ever made."
In the
British Film Institute's 2012 ''
Sight & Sound'' poll, six critics each ranked it one of the 10 greatest films of all time. Review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes reports the film has an 84% approval rating based on 49 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Energetic and inventive, ''The Lady from Shanghai'' overcomes its script deficiencies with some of Orson Welles' brilliantly conceived set pieces."
Preservation
''The Lady from Shanghai'' was preserved by the
Academy Film Archive, in conjunction with
Sony Pictures
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio Conglomerate (company), conglom ...
, in 2000.
In popular culture
* In the 1984
Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone (; 3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter credited as the pioneer of the Spaghetti Western genre and widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cin ...
film ''
Once Upon a Time in America'',
Robert DeNiro's character Noodles hides out in a Chinese theatre, a front for an opium den, alluding to a scene in which
Orson Welles' character hides out in a Chinese theatre to evade the law.
* In the 1989 movie ''
Ghostbusters II
''GhostbustersII'' is a 1989 American Supernatural fiction, supernatural comedy film directed and produced by Ivan Reitman, and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Ramis, Rick Moranis ...
'' (1989),
Rick Moranis,
Annie Potts, and
Sigourney Weaver's characters are watching ''The Lady from Shanghai'' on the TV in
Bill Murray's character's apartment. Moranis and Potts were discussing the relationship between
Welles and
Hayworth.
* The
Woody Allen film ''
Manhattan Murder Mystery'' (1993), a comedy ''film noir'', features a tribute to the film, with its climactic gun battle being set in a cinema behind the screen while it is projecting the shoot-out from ''The Lady from Shanghai''.
* In the 1998
Farrelly brothers comedy, ''
There's Something About Mary'', the character of Tucker appears to be based on Arthur Bannister, played by
Everett Sloane
Everett H. Sloane (October 1, 1909 – August 6, 1965) was an American character actor who worked in radio, theatre, films, and television.
Early life
Sloane was born in Manhattan on October 1, 1909, to Nathaniel I. Sloane and Rose (Gers ...
.
* In the
Jim Jarmusch
James Robert Jarmusch (; born January 22, 1953) is an American film director and screenwriter. He has been a major proponent of independent cinema since the 1980s, directing films including '' Stranger Than Paradise'' (1984), '' Down by Law'' ( ...
film ''
The Limits of Control
''The Limits of Control'' is a 2009 American film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, starring Isaach de Bankolé as a solitary assassin, carrying out a job in Spain. Filming began in February 2008, and took place on location in Madrid, Seville a ...
'' (2009),
Tilda Swinton's character says that the movie makes no sense.
Hall of mirrors sequence
The climactic hall of mirrors sequence has entered the narrative of cinema as a
trope
Trope or tropes may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Trope (cinema), a cinematic convention for conveying a concept
* Trope (literature), a figure of speech or common literary device
* Trope (music), any of a variety of different things ...
, replicated countless times in both film and television. Examples include:
* The 1965 television episode of ''
The Avengers
Avenger, Avengers, The Avenger, or The Avengers may refer to:
Arts and entertainment In the Marvel Comics universe
* Avengers (comics), a team of superheroes
** Avengers (Marvel Cinematic Universe), a central team of protagonist superheroes o ...
'' entitled "Too Many Christmas Trees", and broadcast on Christmas Day in the UK, features Steed (
Patrick Macnee
Daniel Patrick Macnee (6 February 1922 – 25 June 2015) was a British film and television actor. After serving in the Royal Navy during World War II, he began his acting career in Canada. Despite having some small film roles, Macnee spent much ...
) and Mrs. Peel (
Diana Rigg) confronting their nemesis in a hall of mirrors shoot-out.
* In the 1970 television episode of ''
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'' entitled "
Vendetta for a Dead Man
"Vendetta for a Dead Man" is the twenty-fourth episode of the 1969 ITC British television series '' Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'' starring Mike Pratt, Kenneth Cope and Annette Andre. The episode was first broadcast on 27 February 1970 on I ...
", Eric Jansen (
George Sewell) menaces Jeannie Hopkirk (
Annette Andre
Annette Andre (born 24 June 1939) is an Australian actress best known for her work on British television throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
Early life and early career
The daughter of an upholsterer, Annette Andre was born in Drummoyne, Australia, ...
) in a hall of mirrors.
* In the 1973
Robert Clouse film ''
Enter the Dragon'',
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee (; born Lee Jun-fan, ; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Hong Kong and American martial artist and actor. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines that ...
's character fights the villain Mr. Han in a hall of mirrors.
* In the 1974 ''
James Bond'' film ''
The Man with the Golden Gun'', Bond and the villain,
Francisco Scaramanga, have a climactic shootout in a hall of mirrors.
* The 1989 ''
MacGyver'' episode "Brainwashed" has a scene involving
MacGyver's brainwashed friend, Jack Dalton, shooting at him in a hall of mirrors. Episode writer John Sheppard credited ''The Lady from Shanghai'' as an influence.
* In the ''
Batman: The Animated Series'' cartoon episode "Baby Doll" (1994), Mary Dahl shoots out all the Hall of Mirrors while hiding from
Batman
Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...
.
* In the
Chad Stahelski
Chad Stahelski (born September 20, 1968) is an American stuntman and film director. He is known for directing the 2014 film ''John Wick'' and directing its three sequels. Stahelski also doubled for Brandon Lee after the fatal accident involving L ...
film ''
John Wick: Chapter 2'' (2017),
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Charles Reeves ( ; born September 2, 1964) is a Canadian actor. Born in Beirut and raised in Toronto, Reeves began acting in theatre productions and in television films before making his feature film debut in '' Youngblood'' (1986). ...
's character fights the pre-final showdown in a museum's hall of mirrors.
Notes
External links
*
*
*
*
*
The Lady from Shanghai' a
aenigmaReview of filmat ''Variety''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lady from Shanghai
American drama films
1940s English-language films
1947 drama films
1947 films
Film noir
Films directed by Orson Welles
American black-and-white films
Films set in Acapulco
Films set in New York City
Films set in San Francisco
Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area
Films set on boats
Films shot in Mexico
Films shot in San Francisco
Films based on American novels
Films with screenplays by Orson Welles
Columbia Pictures films
Films with screenplays by Charles Lederer
Films scored by Heinz Roemheld
United States National Film Registry films
1940s American films