The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Writers:

Sherwood King (novel)
Orson Welles (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

9 June 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

One who keeps his nature keeps his original nature in the end.

Plot:

Fascinated by gorgeous Mrs. Bannister, seaman Michael O'Hara joins a bizarre yachting cruise, and ends up mired in a complex murder plot.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Cruise | Court | Yacht | Partner

Cast

Rita Hayworth	...	Elsa Bannister
Orson Welles	...	Michael O'Hara
Everett Sloane	...	Arthur Bannister
Glenn Anders	...	George Grisby
Ted de Corsia	...	Sidney Broome (as Ted De Corsia)
Erskine Sanford	...	Judge
Gus Schilling	...	Goldie
Carl Frank	...	District Attorney Galloway
Louis Merrill	...	Jake
Evelyn Ellis	...	Bessie
Harry Shannon	...	Cab Driver
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
William Alland	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Jessie Arnold	...	Schoolteacher at Aquarium / Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
Wong Artarne	...	Ticket Taker (uncredited)
Jack Baxley	...	Guard (uncredited)
Steve Benton	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Vernon Cansino	...	Man (uncredited)
Doris Chan	...	Chinese Girl (uncredited)
George Chirello	...	Man (uncredited)
Wong Chung	...	Li (uncredited)
Eddie Coke	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Tom Coleman	...	Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
Peter Cusanelli	...	Bartender (uncredited)
Al Eben	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Edythe Elliott	...	Old Lady (uncredited)
Heenan Elliott	...	Guard (uncredited)
John Elliott	...	Court Clerk (uncredited)
Errol Flynn	...	Man in Background Outside of Cantina (uncredited)
Joseph Granby	...	Police Lieutenant (uncredited)
Robert Gray	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Alvin Hammer	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Maynard Holmes	...	Truck Driver (uncredited)
Tiny Jones	...	Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
Byron Kane	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Milton Kibbee	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Preston Lee	...	Chinese Man (uncredited)
Grace Lem	...	Chinese Woman (uncredited)
Billy Louie	...	Chinese Girl (uncredited)
Charles Meakin	...	Jury Foreman (uncredited)
Philip Morris	...	Port Steward / Officer Peters (uncredited)
Sam Nelson	...	Captain of Yacht Circe (uncredited)
Mary Newton	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Joe Palma	...	Cab Driver (uncredited)
Edward Peil Sr.	...	Guard (uncredited)
Gerald Pierce	...	Waiter (uncredited)
Joe Recht	...	Garage Attendant (uncredited)
Mabel Smaney	...	Woman (uncredited)
Harry Strang	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Norman Thomson	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Arthur Tovey	...	Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
Philip Van Zandt	...	Policeman / Thug (uncredited)
Dorothy Vaughan	...	Old Woman (uncredited)
Blackie Whiteford	...	Big Coke Drinker with Vest (uncredited)
Richard Wilson	...	Assistant District Attorney (uncredited)
Jean Wong	...	Ticket Seller (uncredited)

Directed by
Orson Welles		(uncredited)

Writing credits
Sherwood King		(novel "If I Die Before I Wake")
Orson Welles		(screenplay)
William Castle		uncredited
Charles Lederer		uncredited
Fletcher Markle		uncredited

Produced by
William Castle	....	associate producer
Orson Welles	....	producer
Richard Wilson	....	associate producer
Harry Cohn	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Heinz Roemheld

Cinematography by
Charles Lawton Jr.
Rudolph Maté		(uncredited)
Joseph Walker		(uncredited)

Film Editing by
Viola Lawrence

Art Direction by
Sturges Carne
Stephen Goosson		(as Stephen Goossón)

Set Decoration by
Wilbur Menefee
Herman N. Schoenbrun		(as Herman Schoenbrun)

Costume Design by
Jean Louis		(gowns)

Makeup Department
Clay Campbell	....	makeup artist (uncredited)
Helen Hunt	....	hair stylist (uncredited)
Robert J. Schiffer	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Sam Nelson	....	assistant director
William Castle	....	second unit director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Lodge Cunningham	....	sound recordist

Special Effects by
Lawrence W. Butler	....	special effects (uncredited)

Stunts
Paul Baxley	....	stunts (uncredited)
John Daheim	....	stunts (uncredited)
Terry Wilson	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Donald Ray Cory	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Edward Cronenweth	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Irving Klein	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Richard H. Kline	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Don Murphy	....	grip (uncredited)
Ned Scott	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Music Department
Morris Stoloff	....	musical director (as M.W. Stoloff)
Herschel Burke Gilbert	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Arthur Morton	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Dorothy B. Cormack	....	script supervisor (uncredited)
Errol Flynn	....	technical advisor: yacht scenes (uncredited)
Virginia Van Upp	....	story continuity (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation (presents)
• Mercury Productions (uncredited)

Distributors

• Columbia Films (1947) (France) (theatrical) (35 and 16 mm/as Columbia Films S.A.)
• Columbia Film (1948) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Columbia Pictures (1948) (USA) (theatrical)
• Filmes Castello Lopes (1949) (Portugal) (theatrical)
• Union Film Wien (1950) (Austria) (theatrical)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (1985) (USA) (VHS)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1994) (USA) (VHS)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1998) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2000) (USA) (DVD) (special edition)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2001) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2003) (UK) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2003) (Italy) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar (????) (Brazil) (DVD)
• LK-TEL Vídeo (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (19??) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

87 min | UK:92 min (original release) | West Germany:81 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Cantonese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:12 (f: fr,16) | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:Approved (certificate #12111) | UK:A (original rating) (1948) | USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Acapulco Bay, Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The yacht on which much of the action takes place belonged in real life as the "Zaca" to Errol Flynn. Flynn skippered the Zaca between takes, and he can be spotted in the background in a scene outside a cantina.

Goofs:

Continuity: At the beach picnic, while O'Hara is talking to Bannister, recounting the shark story, we see Bannister continually swinging back in forth in a hammock. But in a couple of shots from different angles, the hammock is suddenly completely stationary, then suddenly back to swinging motion.

Quotes:

Michael O'Hara:[First lines] 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, I was not in my right mind for some time.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)

Soundtrack:

Amado Mio

"It's A Bright, Guilty World"

Michael O'Hara is a charming Irish sailor, a drifter who encounters a beautiful woman in Central Park, saves her from attackers, and finds himself drawn inexorably into her eerie world.

Orson Welles wrote this screenplay, and adaptation of of a Sherwood King novel. He had great difficulty getting it past Joseph Breen, the overseer of the Motion Picture Production Code, and in the end had to drop the ending in which O'Hara persuades Elsa to kill herself. Welles also directed the film and played the key role of O'Hara, a character with strong Wellesian resonances. As Higham, Welles' biographer, puts it, "Like Welles, O'Hara rejoices in being eccentric and poor ... and sees through and condemns all corruption."

The great Rita Hayworth was estranged from her husband Welles in mid-1946, and agreed to take the role of Elsa Bannister as part of a final bid to save the marriage. Elsa is the Lady From Shanghai, the temptress whose sexual allure ensnares O'Hara. Arthur Bannister, the complaisant cuckold, is played by Everett Sloane, stalwart of the Mercury Theatre and long-time Welles collaborator. The disturbing role of the deranged George Grisby is taken by Glenn Anders, his face distorted by wide-angle lenses to suggest the psychotic menace of the law partner with the bizarre death-wish. It has been claimed that Welles based Grisby's character on the real-life Nelson Rockefeller.

As one would expect from Welles, there are some stunning visuals in this film, and some hauntingly memorable screen moments. Hayworth sings the love song beautifully, and the Acapulco interlude is visually delightful. The cast works brilliantly as an ensemble, delivering the Wellesian dialogue with purring efficiency. The Central Park sequence involves the longest continuous dolly-shot ever filmed. Later, we see the arches of the Calle del Mercadero slip by moodily as the camera tracks down the street, and then the angle is reversed and we see the colonnade from inside. Only Welles could come up with the aquarium idea, with shots of a different, better, aquarium matted in to give the exact effect that he wanted - a silent commentary on predators. The rounded tops of the fish tanks link the aquarium thematically with the Calle del Mercadero. The famous final sequence in the fun fair was butchered by the studio, reduced to a mere sherd of Welles' original scheme, but still terrific. Our spatial perceptions are toyed with, much as O'Hara's moral bearings have been skewed by Elsa.

One part of the film which fails badly is the trial scene. Absurdities proliferate. A defence attorney finds himself called to the stand as a prosecution witness, and if that is not silly enough, he then proceeds to cross-examine himself. The surprise subpoena is nonsense.

Verdict - A relatively lightweight offering from Welles contains good things, but is marred by the risible courtroom scene.