THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1948)
A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2002
CITIZEN KANE turned out to be the mixed blessing in the career of Orson Welles. On one hand, this masterpiece brought instant fame and respect. On the other hand, being created in such an early part of the filmmaker's career, it guaranteed that the rest of Welles' films are going to be judged as disappointments. Yet, as a consequence of Welles' near-divine reputation, even some of those disappointments later received status of cinema classics. THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, 1948 film noir, is one of such examples.
Plot of the film, based on 1938 novel by Sherwood King, deals with Michael O'Hara (played by Orson Welles), aspiring Irish novelist who earns for living as part-time sailor. One night in New York's Central Park he meets stunningly beautiful woman named Elsa "Rosalie" Bannister (played by Rita Hayworth) and immediately falls in love with her. To his surprise it turns out that she is married to Arthur Bannister (played by Everett Sloane), crippled and wealthy criminal lawyer from San Francisco who approaches the sailor and offers him job during yacht cruise between New York and San Francisco. Against his better judgement, O'Hara agrees and during the cruise he begins romantic relationship with Elsa who is obviously unhappy with the marriage to old, crippled, scruples and increasingly obnoxious man. Yet Bannister seems almost normal compared to his near-psychopathic partner Gary Grisby (played by Glenn Anders) who approaches O'Hara with a bizarre and complicated scheme - in exchange for 5000 US$ O'Hara would fake Grisby's murder. Thinking that this money would allow him to start new life with Elsa, O'Hara agrees and finds himself in big trouble when the scheme doesn't work as it was supposed to.
THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI owes its reputation to the fact that it was made while Welles was relatively young man, still willing to experiment and try to put something original on the screen. Compared with most of other film noirs of the period, this film looks somewhat odd. Welles employs authentic locations of San Francisco and Acapulco and uses large amount of close-ups and bizarre camera angles to make certain characters look depraved and dangerous. Some elements of the script are unusual for the film of this particular genre - in an attempt to add some autobiographical elements, Welles portrays his character as leftist, both by making references to his support for Republican side during Spanish Civil War and by using every opportunity to make stinging remarks about corruption and evil which is inherent to wealthy and privileged classes. The film is also among the first that reminds people about possibility of humanity's nuclear self- annihilation and the farcical portrayal of courts and criminal system point to Welles as an anti-establishment author. Welles' ability to experiment is most evident in the final scene that takes place in the fun house - the surreal setting with multiple mirrors would later give inspiration for the similar ending of ENTER THE DRAGON.
All his style and willingness to experiment weren't enough for Welles to hide weaknesses in the script. The plot is not exactly original, and its resolution is most unsatisfying - series of quick and often preposterous plot twists is followed by melodramatic "deus ex machine" ending. Welles isn't exclusively responsible for this - his original version of the film was two and half hours long and was probably able to connect the dots between the various segments of film and to avoid some major plot holes. But the studio has taken almost entire hour from the film, thus leaving only a skeleton of a classic. Welles wasn't exactly fortunate with the casting, either. Rita Hayworth looks stunningly beautiful even with short blonde hair, but the lack of chemistry between her and her soon-to-be-ex husband Welles is more than evident. Lack of passion among protagonist is, on the other hand, compensated with truly great performances by Everett Sloane and Glenn Anders, the only actors who actually benefited from Welles' direction, despite at times atrocious dialogue. Yet, despite their efforts, THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI remains disappointment. Disappointment from the hands of great master and very interesting film by itself, but disappointment nevertheless.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
Review written on October 7th 2002
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://www.purger.com/users/drax/reviews.htm - Movie Reviews in English http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society
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