Another gem from the bygone era!

The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Yet another blockbuster movie produced by an oft-misunderstood under-appreciated blacklisted director who was way ahead of his time, his 1948 release film noir of 'The Lady from Shanghai'. This bigger than life flamboyant megalomaniac but empty in the pockets Orson Welles did this movie whilst his relationship with wife, the WWII pin-up poster queen, Rita Hayworth, was rock bottom and he was blacklisted in Hollywood after the grandeur disappointment of Citizen Kane at that time. Before the film was released, they finalised the divorce and  'The Lady' also received poor reception by the critics! That is until many many years later...again!

Rita Hayworth, the pin-up
with her signature locks

Viewers were disappointed with Hayworth's bob cut and could not understand Welles' weird camera angles, its convoluted story-line, sense of humour and tongue-in-cheek type of narration. Almost an hour of the movie was cut from the final release to pacify the audience!

Michael O'Hara is a seaman with a bad police record who meet a promiscuous mysterious married lady, Elsa, on a strange night in New York. He is harassed to partake in a yacht trip from NY via Panama Canal to San Francisco by her and her husband, a crippled attorney with a drinking problem, Arthur Bannister.

The journey becomes weird with suspicious characters aboard - Arthur's partner (George), a butler (a private detective who is hired by Arthur to keep an eye on his wife), maid and the flirty Elsa. The trip takes them to exotic locations including Acapulco. It gets weirder when George offers O'Hara a cool $5000 to sign a confession of killing George! George wanted to disappear and go incognito to claim his insurance money whilst O'Hara cannot be prosecuted without a body. The plot gets complicated and darker. A devious elaborate plan is laid out by George with alibi and witness. The only problem was that George and the PI are killed, and blood is in Michael's hands.

Arthur defends him in a court filled with mockery and pandemonium. It seems that Welles' had an inherent dislike for lawyers. That was his way of taking a swipe at them. For example, when Arthur is at the witness stand, he is asked whether he is admitted to the Bar to the laughing crowd, obliviously referring to his drinking habit and the bar with alcoholic spirits! The judge is playing chess in his chambers whilst the jury deliberate!

Aversion to smoking in slowly setting as seen in the signboards around courtrooms and prison rooms -but they are still smoking anyway. Maybe Welles is trying to convey the message that the lawyers themselves do not respect the law!

O'Hara escapes from the courtroom in a comedy of errors to clear his name. At the final scene, we discover that Elsa is femme fatale who masterminded the whole plot to have both George and Arthur killed for her to claim the insurance money and run.

As in all of Welles' movies, the dialogue is the powerful tool that never fails to fascinate me. When O'Hara is held in an amusement park as captive (it was a new concept in the 40s), he realises that he is the fall guy and falls into a roller coaster slide - this type of wordplay is indeed cheeky. 

There is an unusual creepy scene in a public aquarium with weird looking fishes in the background that accentuates the suspense is worth mentioning. The final confrontation scene before the curtain fall is revolutionary in a crazy Magic Mirror Maze.

An excellently gripping watch..... and let me ponder upon some of the lines...
At the start of the movie...introduction...

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.

Before the closing credits.....

I went to call the cops, but I knew she'd be dead before they got there and I'd be free. Bannister's note to the DA would fix it. I'd be innocent officially, but that's a big word - innocence. Stupid's more like it. Well, everybody is somebody's fool. The only way to stay out of trouble is to grow old, so I guess I'll concentrate on that. Maybe I'll live so long that I'll forget her. Maybe I'll die trying.