I've always found it very... sanitary to be broke.
New York is not as big a city as it pretends to be.
When I start out to make a fool of myself, there's very little can stop me. If I'd known where it would end, I'd never let anything start, if I'd been in my right mind, that is. But once I'd seen her, once I'd seen her, I was not in my right mind for quite some time...me, with plenty of time and nothing to do but get myself in trouble. Some people can smell danger, not me.
That's how I found her, and from that moment on, I did not use my head very much, except to be thinking of her.
Personally, I don't like a girlfriend to have a husband. If she'll fool her husband, I figure she'll fool me.
Talk of money and murder. I must be insane, or else all these people are lunatics.
I never make up my mind about anything at all until it's over and done with.
[describing Acapulco] There's a fair face to the land, surely, but you can't hide the hunger and guilt. It's a bright, guilty world.
[voiceover] It was early October when we made San Francisco, and dropped anchor across the bay from the city in Sausalito. It had been a most interesting cruise, all very rich and rare and strange. But I had had no stomach for it. To begin with, living on a hook takes away your appetite. You have no taste for any pleasure at all but the one that's burnin' in you. But even without an appetite, I had heard it's quite amazing how much a fool like me can swallow.
The Lady from Shanghai is a
film noirFilm noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
directed by
Orson WellesGeorge Orson Welles was an American film director, writer, actor and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television, and radio. Welles was also an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety spectacles in the war years...
and starring Welles, his then-estranged wife
Rita HayworthRita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s not only as one of the era's top stars, but also as the era's greatest sex symbol, most notably in Gilda...
, and
Everett SloaneEverett Sloane was an American stage, film and television actor, songwriter, and theatre director.- Early life :...
. It is based on the novel
If I Die Before I Wake by Sherwood King.
Plot
The story begins with Michael O'Hara (Welles) meeting the beautiful blonde Elsa (Hayworth) as she rides a horse-drawn coach in
Central ParkCentral Park is a large public, urban park that occupies over a square mile in the heart of Manhattan in New York City. It is host to approximately twenty-five million visitors each year...
. Shortly thereafter, three hooligans waylay the coach. Michael is able to rescue her, after which he escorts her home. Michael reveals he is a seaman, and learns Elsa and her husband, the famous, handicapped criminal defense attorney Arthur Bannister (Sloane), are newly arrived in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
from Shanghai. They are on their way to
San FranciscoSan Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976. It is the eighth most densely populated city in the U.S. and is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San...
via the
Panama CanalThe Panama Canal is a ship canal which joins the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific ocean. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, it had an enormous impact on shipping between the two oceans, replacing the long and treacherous route via the Drake Passage and Cape Horn...
. Michael, who is attracted to Elsa, despite misgivings, is persuaded to sign on as an able seaman aboard Bannister's yacht.
After setting sail, they are joined on the boat by Bannister's law partner, George Grisby (Anders), who proposes that Michael "murder" him in a plot to fake his own death and collect the insurance money for himself. He promises Michael $5,000 and explains that since he wouldn't really be dead and thus there would be no corpse, Michael couldn't be convicted of murder. Michael agrees to this, intending to use the money to run away with Elsa, with whom he's begun a relationship. Grisby has Michael sign a pre-typed confession.
On the eve that the crime is to be carried out, Sydney Broome, a private investigator who has been following Elsa on her husband's orders, confronts Grisby. Broome has learned of Grisby's plan and that he is actually intending to murder Bannister, frame Michael for the crime, and escape suspicion 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, a severely injured Broome goes to Elsa for help and warns her that Grisby is intending to kill her husband.
Thinking the plan is done with, Michael calls to inform Elsa, but is surprised to find Broome on the other end of the line. Broome's dying words are to warn Michael that Grisby was setting him up. Concerned, Michael rushes to Bannister's office just in time to see Bannister is quite alive but that the police are removing Grisby's body from the premises. The police instantly find evidence that Michael was the killer, including his signed confession, and take him away.
At trial, Bannister has offered to act as Michael's attorney and feels the case is more likely to be won if he pleads justifiable homicide, due to all the evidence against his client. However, as the trial progresses, Bannister learns of the extent of his wife's relationship with Michael and ultimately takes pleasure in his suspicion that they will lose the case. Michael reveals to Bannister that he knows who the real killer was. Without Elsa's knowledge, Michael is able to escape from the courtroom by feigning a suicide attempt before the verdict is to be announced. Elsa follows, and she and Michael hide out in a theater in Chinatown. Elsa calls some Chinese friends to meet her. As they wait and pretend to watch the show, Michael discovers that she was in fact the one who killed Grisby. Elsa's Chinese friends arrive, and take Michael (unconscious) to an abandoned 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 obliged Elsa to kill Grisby for her own protection.
The film features a
surrealSurrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
climactic shootout in a hall of mirrors, the Magic Mirror Maze, in which Elsa is mortally wounded and Bannister is killed. Heartbroken, Michael leaves, presuming the events that have transpired since the trial will clear him of any crimes.
Cast
- Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s not only as one of the era's top stars, but also as the era's greatest sex symbol, most notably in Gilda...
as Elsa 'Rosalie' Bannister
- Orson Welles
George Orson Welles was an American film director, writer, actor and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television, and radio. Welles was also an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety spectacles in the war years...
as Michael O'Hara
- Everett Sloane
Everett Sloane was an American stage, film and television actor, songwriter, and theatre director.- Early life :...
as Arthur Bannister
- Glenn Anders
Glenn Anders was an American actor most notable for his work on the stage, notably on Broadway. He only made a handful of film and TV appearances, most famously as a scheming lawyer in Orson Welles' The Lady from Shanghai . Other film roles included M , a remake of Fritz Lang's classic German...
as George Grisby
- Ted de Corsia
Ted de Corsia was a radio and movie actor. He is probably best remembered for his role as a gangster turned state's evidence in The Enforcer . In radio, he voiced roles on many radio shows including The March of Time, The Shadow and Mike Hammer...
as Sidney Broome
- Erskine Sanford
Erskine Sanford was an American actor in films from the late 1930s. A member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre company, he also appeared in several of Welles' films, most notably as the bumbling, perspiring newspaper editor Herbert Carter in Citizen Kane.Erskine Sanford lived the last decades of...
as Judge
- Gus Schilling
Gus Schilling was an American actor in films from the 1940s. A former burlesque comedian, the New York-born Schilling usually played nervous comic roles, often unbilled. He played roles on several occasions by celebrated film directors Orson Welles and Nicholas Ray...
as 'Goldie' Goldfish
- Carl Frank as District Attorney Galloway
- Louis Merrill as Jake
- Evelyn Ellis as Bessie
- Harry Shannon as Cab Driver
Production
In the summer of 1946, Welles was directing a musical stage version of
Around the World in Eighty Days, with a comedic and ironic rewriting of the
Jules VerneJules Gabriel Verne was a French author who helped pioneer the science-fiction genre. He is best known for his novels A Journey to the Center of the Earth , From the Earth to the Moon , Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea , Around the World in Eighty Days and The Mysterious Island...
novel by Welles, incidental music and songs by
Cole PorterCole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. His works include the musical comedies Kiss Me, Kate, Fifty Million Frenchmen, DuBarry Was a Lady and Anything Goes, as well as songs like "Night and Day", "I Get a Kick out of You", "Well, Did You Evah!" and "I've Got You Under My Skin"...
, and production by
Mike ToddMichael Todd was an American theatre and film producer, best known for his 1956 production of Around the World in Eighty Days, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture...
, who would later produce the successful
film versionAround the World in 80 Days is a 1956 adventure film produced by the Michael Todd Company and released by United Artists. It was directed by Michael Anderson. John Farrow, the original director, was replaced by Anderson after a few days of shooting. Produced by Michael Todd with Kevin McClory and...
with
David NivenJames David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was an English actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Litton, a.k.a. "the Phantom," in The Pink Panther.-Early life:David Niven was born in London, England...
.
When Todd pulled out from the lavish and expensive production, Welles supported the finances himself. When he ran out of money at one point and urgently needed $55,000 to release costumes which were being held, he convinced
Columbia PicturesColumbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
president
Harry CohnHarry Cohn was the American president and production director of Columbia Pictures.-Career:Cohn was born to a working-class German-Jewish family in New York City. In later years, he appears to have disparaged his heritage...
to send him the money to continue the show, and in exchange Welles promised to write, produce, direct and star in a film for Cohn for no further fee. As Welles tells it, on the spur of the moment, he suggested the film be based on the book a girl in the theatre box office happened to be reading at the time he was calling Cohn, which Welles had never read.
The Lady from Shanghai was filmed in late 1946, finished in early 1947, and released in the U.S. on June 9, 1948. Release was delayed due to heavy editing by Cohn's assistants at Columbia, who insisted on cutting about an hour from Welles's final cut. The film was purported to have links to the
Black DahliaElizabeth Short was an American woman who was the victim of a gruesome and much-publicized murder. She acquired the nickname Black Dahlia after moving to California. Short was found mutilated, her body severed, on January 15, 1947 in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California...
murder at the time as the scenes cut from the film made significant references to the murder, months before it happened. The studio was also located near two areas (one a restaurant) the victim often frequented before she was murdered.
Welles cast his then-wife
Rita HayworthRita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s not only as one of the era's top stars, but also as the era's greatest sex symbol, most notably in Gilda...
as Elsa, and caused controversy when he made her cut her famous long red hair and bleach it blonde for the role.
Filming locations
In addition to the
Columbia PicturesColumbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
studios, the film was partly shot on location in San Francisco. It features the Sausalito waterfront and a waterfront bar and cafe reported to be the
Sally StanfordSally Stanford was a madam, restaurateur, and the mayor of Sausalito, California.Born Mabel Busby in Baker, Oregon in 1903, she came to San Francisco in 1924...
's Valhalla, the front, interior, and a courtroom scene of the old Kearny Street
Hall of JusticeA Hall of Justice is an occasional term for a city's police headquarters, and exists in cities across the United States. In some cases, the facility may also house courts as well as jails...
, and shots of Welles running across
Portsmouth SquarePortsmouth Square is a one-block park in Chinatown, San Francisco, California, that is bounded by Kearny Street on the east, Washington Street on the north, Clay Street on the south, and Walter Lum Place on the west.-History:...
, escaping to a long scene in a theater in
ChinatownA Chinatown is a section of an urban area with a large number of Chinese residents, usually outside of Greater China. Chinatowns are present throughout the world, including those in East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe....
, then the Steinhart Aquarium in
Golden Gate ParkGolden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20% larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared...
, and Whitney's
PlaylandPlayland was a seaside amusement park located next to Ocean Beach at the western edge of San Francisco, California along the Great Highway where Cabrillo and Balboa streets are now....
amusement park at the beach for the famous hall of mirrors scene (shot on a soundstage).
Other scenes were filmed in
AcapulcoAcapulco is a city, and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay. It is a port of call for shipping and cruising lines running between Panama and San Francisco, California, United States...
. The yacht
ZacaThe second USS Zaca was a wooden-hulled, schooner-rigged yacht with an auxiliary engine. She was designed by Garland Rotch and completed in 1930 at Sausalito, California by Nunes Brothers....
, where many scenes take place, was owned by actor
Errol FlynnErrol Leslie Flynn was an Australian film actor, known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Background and early life:...
, who skippered the yacht in between takes, and can also be seen in the background in one scene outside a cantina.
Critical reaction
When he saw the rushes, Cohn detested the picture; he couldn't figure out what it was about and offered $1000 to anyone who could explain it to him. Even Welles himself could not explain the plot to him.
Reviews of the film were mixed when released in the late 1940s.
VarietyVariety is a weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the Daily...
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."
A more recent
Time OutTime Out is a publishing company based in London, England. The company's best known product is the Time Out weekly listings magazine.The Time Out Group Limited conducts most of its business from London, New York and Paris.-Publications:...
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."
External links