R0BTRAIN's Bad Ass Cinema: The Lady From Shanghai

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Probably in the history of cinema, no film maker suffered from being ahead of his time quite like Orson Welles did. In 1941, the man made his flawless triumph Citizen Kane. How good was this film? Think of it as the Citizen Kane of movies. Seriously though, this film was so good, so amazing, that it was met with a collective thud upon its release. First of all, the film was so controversial due to its subject matter attacking tycoon and media mogul William Randolph Hearst, that it had little chance of survival. Even after being nominated for several Academy Awards, politicking cost the film every award except for Best Screenplay. Does anyone even remember How Green is My Valley? That’s the film that was “better” than Citizen Kane that year.

The following years would be just as unkind to Orson. His next picture, The Magnificent Ambersons is an amazing film in its current form, but apparently the original cut even rivaled Kane in quality. Made shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, preview audiences hated to see a film that wasn’t funny and upbeat. One patron complained that the film was more “trash like Citizen Kane“. According to IMDB.com, a desperate RKO Pictures cut 50 minutes of the film and tacked on a happy ending while Welles was out of the country. They even destroyed the cut footage. The finding of any of that footage by film historian would probably be on par with archeologists finding the Holy Grail intact.

In 1947, Welles would make his third masterpiece and again it would be much maligned. There would again be controversy with a studio head and again there would be numerous cuts. Unfortunately, this film would even cost the Actor/Director his marriage to one of the most beautiful women in the world.

Before this film went into production, Welles had actually met with a little bit of success. To prove that he could make a commercial success, Welles had directed and starred in The Stranger. The film was about a Nazi war criminal posing as a school teacher in Connecticut, and was met with enthusiasm by audiences ready to relish our victory in World War II.

With a win under his belt, Welles was working on a production of Around the World in 80 Days when his producer ran out of money. They needed $50,000 fast to keep the play going. According to Welles’ friend and historian Peter Bogdanovich, the director’s first impulse was to go to a phone booth and contact Harry Cohn, production chief of Columbia Pictures. Welles stated that he had a screenplay that was marvelous and would sell the rights to it for $50,000. They apparently received the money an hour later.

The picture owed to Harry Cohn ended up being The Lady from Shanghai, a Film Noir magnum opus that would once again be seen as a failure, but later would be appreciated for the fantastic work that it is. Unfortunately, this film would be another stumbling block for one of cinema’s greatest (and at that time most unappreciated) geniuses.


The Lady from Shanghai Starring Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, Everett Sloane, and Glenn Anders. Directed by Orson Welles.

The most controversial element of Lady from Shanghai is evident from the moment you see Rita Hayworth’s Elsa ‘Rosalie’ Bannister on screen. Hayworth’s beautiful trademark red hair had helped make her a star in films such as Gilda and Blood and Sand, but suddenly audiences are shocked to see her on screen with her gorgeous locks cut short and died platinum blond. Of course Columbia was outraged, and the move hurt Orson’s reputation, but in reflection the look is perfect for this particular character.

Really, Hayworth never played such a complex character in her career before or after Elsa Bannister . This is one of the screen’s classic femme fatales. The role is not as outwardly evil as Barbara Stanwyck’s in Double Indemnity, but goes through many more layers. Here at first, she is very much a damsel in distress, but the real Rosalie is slowly exposed as the film goes on.


A great femme fatale is nothing without a patsy, and Shanghai’s is as good as any. Orson Welles plays Michael O’Hara, a seaman with a dark past. He’s been all over the world, and has killed many men before. Even through his ridiculous Irish accent, Welles makes the role work through pure charisma. This is long before the overweight Welles many remember showed up. This is the good looking, clean cut star that married one of Hollywood’s most beautiful bombshells.

O’Hara is headstrong and hot tempered, and unfortunately madly in love with Elsa Banister. He does try to fight off his feelings and put the girl behind him, but she is insistent and gets her husband, Everett Sloane’s Arthur Bannister, to hire him for a boat cruise to Central America and then back to San Francisco.


With the introduction of Everett Sloane’s Arthur Bannister, the world’s greatest criminal lawyer, the film takes a turn for the weird. Banister has a commanding presence at times, especially when speaking in a courtroom, until he has to walk, as he requires a crutch under both arms. This in and of itself is an interesting choice from Welles, as the crutches seem to make Banister just the slightest bit more pitiful than say, if he was in a wheelchair. The image of Banister hobbling along on crutches is also just so off putting because you don’t want to pity such a despicable character. This make the character that much more memorable. It helps immensely that Sloane, so endearing as Kane’s lawyer Mr. Bernstein in Citizen Kane, is able to pull off a character so off-putting. Watching his performance will have you calling your significant other “Lover” in no time.


The other really odd character in the film is George Grisby played by Glenn Anders. From body language to simply the way the actor speaks, George Grisby is one of the most unsettling characters ever put on screen. Just looking at the man makes you think he is up to something, and when he speaks you know it for sure. Nothing he says seems to be his actual intention within the film’s entire running time.

O’Hara is bewildered by all three of these characters as he observes them. To him, they seem to be playing some kind of game. Elsa tries over and over again to seduce Michael. Bannister seems to gloat over Michael and then visibly not trust him with his wife. Grisby is just so completely off the charts in his oddness that his intentions must be sinister.


The script by Welles is one of the greats of Film Noir. A good Noir has snappy dialogue that makes you remember it, a great one knows when to slow down and give you the right mood for when the one-liners come. When Welles’ O’Hara character tries all he can but can’t seem to stay away from his three scheming hosts, he ends up giving one of the best monologues of his career.

Once, off the hump of Brazil I saw the ocean so darkened with blood it was black and the sun fainting away over the lip of the sky. We’d put in at Fortaleza, and a few of us had lines out for a bit of idle fishing. It was me had the first strike. A shark it was. Then there was another, and another shark again, ’till all about, the sea was made of sharks and more sharks still, and no water at all. My shark had torn himself from the hook, and the scent, or maybe the stain it was, and him bleeding his life away drove the rest of them mad. Then the beasts took to eating each other. In their frenzy, they ate at themselves. You could feel the lust of murder like a wind stinging your eyes, and you could smell the death, reeking up out of the sea. I never saw anything worse… until this little picnic tonight. And you know, there wasn’t one of them sharks in the whole crazy pack that survived.

Bannister’s comeback to George Grisby is wonderful as he says” George, that’s the first time anyone ever thought enough of you to call you a shark. If you were a good lawyer, you’d be flattered.”


The last half of the film turns up the heat as Grisby finally reveals his plans to Michael, which is a trap of course, which is sprung on the wrong person, and so on until the picture climaxes on a shootout in a hall of mirrors. Welles used an amazing shot in Kane as the elder Charles, whose life is falling to pieces has thousands of reflections showing how broken he has become. Here he uses the mirrors as an entire motif. The sequence is an absolute showstopper.

Welles actually fills the film with several amazing shots, but was undercut by the studio brass at Columbia. Welles did get to film many locations in Mexico, but was called back to the studio and shot close-ups with a back projection screen. Welles hated the idea at first, but apparently changed his mind about it as he said the shots gave the film a dreamlike quality.


Columbia also ordered more close-ups on Hayworth, the insertion of a song, as well as numerous cuts to be made, but none of this saved the film’s box office. Unfortunately, Welles was the victim of another public not ready for his genius. The Lady from Shanghai also marked the beginning of the end for the actor’s very public marriage to Rita Hayworth as the couple divorced in 1948.

Looking back on it now, The Lady from Shanghai is a superbly entertaining Noir piece that plays as modern as any ever done in the genre. Orson Welles would take part in two more masterpieces before his death (The Third Man and Touch of Evil, three if you count Transformers: The Movie), but he would never have the clout he had earlier in his career. Those who push the limits of art often meet with resistance, but there is probably no bigger martyr to American cinema than Orson Welles.

Picture Credits: eskimo.com, dvdbeaver.com, allposters.com

Robert Sutton feels the most at home when he's watching some movie scumbag getting blown up, punched in the face, or kung fu'd to death, especially in that order. He's a founding writer for the movies section of Insidepulse.com, featured in his weekly column R0BTRAIN's Badass Cinema as well as a frequent reviewer of DVDs and Blu-rays. Also, he's a proud Sony fanboy, loves everything Star Wars and Superman related and hopes to someday be taken seriously by his friends and family.