The Lady from Shanghai

19471947
Not RatedNot Rated
1h 27min

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

7.6/10

29K

Director
- Orson Welles(uncredited)
Writers
- Sherwood King(story based on a novel by)
- Orson Welles(screenplay)
- William Castle(uncredited)
Stars

Top credits

See production, box office & company info

Awards
- 1 win

Orson Welles in The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles in The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

"Lady From Shanghai, The" Rita Hayworth with Harry Cohn on the set 1948 Columbia / **I.V.

"The Lady form Shanghai" Rita Hayworth 1947 Columbia

"Lady From Shanghai, The" Rita Hayworth during filming 1948 Columbia / **I.V.

Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, and Everett Sloane in The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Director
- Orson Welles(uncredited)
Writers
- Sherwood King(story based on a novel by)
- Orson Welles(screenplay)
- William Castle(uncredited)
All cast & crew

See production, box office, & company info

Michael O'Hara, against his better judgement, hires on as a crew member of Arthur Bannister's yacht, sailing to San Francisco. They pick up Grisby, Bannister's law partner, en route. Bannister has a wife, Elsa, who seems to like Michael much better than she likes her husband. After they dock in Sausalito, Michael goes along with Grisby's weird plan to fake his (Grisby's) murder so he can disappear untailed. He wants the $5000 Grisby has offered, so he can run off with Elsa. But Grisby turns up actually murdered, and Michael gets blamed for it. Somebody set him up, but it is not clear who or how. Bannister (the actual murderer?) defends Michael in court. —John Oswalt <jao@jao.com>

hall of mirrors shanghai china national film registry taxi blonde woman 212 more

Taglines
- One who keeps his nature keeps his original nature in the end.
Genres
Certificate
- Not Rated
Parents guide

Trivia
According to Orson Welles, this film grew out of an act of pure desperation. Welles, whose Mercury Theatre company produced a musical version of "Around the World in 80 Days," was in desperate need of money just before the Boston preview. Mere hours before the show was due to open, the costumes had been impounded and unless Welles could come up with $55,000 to pay outstanding debts, the performance would have to be canceled. Stumbling upon a copy of "If I Die Before I Wake," the novel upon which this film is based, Welles phoned Harry Cohn, instructing him to buy the rights to the novel and offering to write, direct and star in the film so long as Cohn would send $55,000 to Boston within two hours. The money arrived, and the production went on as planned.

Goofs
The narrator mentions they arrive back in San Francisco in early October, but in the document (prepared by Grisby) that Michael signs verifying his killing of Grisby, it is dated August 9th, supposedly the next day.

Quotes
Michael O'Hara: Maybe I'll live so long that I'll forget her. Maybe I'll die trying.

Crazy credits
There is no director credit. Welles' main credit reads "Screen Play and Production Orson Welles."

Connections
Edited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: Une histoire seule (1989)

Soundtracks
Please Don't Kiss Me
by Allan Roberts and Doris Fisher
Performed by Rita Hayworth (dubbed by Anita Ellis) (uncredited)

Top review

8/10

Welles' camera seemed almost to caress Rita Hayworth...

After all, you do not go to an Orson Welles movie to see a nice simple little plot and a burnishing of the image of a happy-ever-after star

You go to see theatrically heightened characters locked in conflict against colorful and unusual settings, lighted and scored imaginatively, photographed bravely, and the whole thing peppered with unexpected details of surprise that a wiser and duller director would either avoid or not think of in the first place

As usual, as well as directing, Welles wrote the script and he also played the hero a young Irish seaman who had knocked about the world and seen its evil, but still retained his clear-eyed trust in the goodness of others Unfortunately for him, he reposed this trust in Rita Hayworth, whose cool good looks concealed a gloomy past and murderous inclinations for the future She was married without love, to an impotent, crippled advocate, acted like a malevolent lizard by the brilliant Everett Sloane

There is a youthful romanticism underlying it all, and this quality came into exuberant play in "The Lady from Shanghai." Before the inevitable happened, Welles escaped to a final triangular showdown in a hall of mirrors, which has become one of the classic scenes of the post-war cinema

Welles did not miss a chance throughout the whole film to counterpoint the words and actions with visual detail which enriched the texture and heightened the atmosphere His camera seemed almost to caress Rita Hayworth as the sun played with her hair and her long limbs while she playfully teased the young seaman into her web

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