‘The Lady from Shanghai‘ (filmed in 1946 and released in 1947) is considered by some movie critics and historians, and by many film art lovers as a masterpiece. Revisited today, we can find in it many exceptional moments of cinema and we can observe innovations and details that demonstrate the genius of the unique director who was Orson Welles. On the other hand, there are moments of conventional and banal cinema, even by the standards of the ’40s. A lot has been written about the history of the film. Orson Welles initially had control of the entire production but the result seemed incomprehensible and non-commercial to executive producer Harry Cohn, who imposed changes, eventually causing Welles not to take credit as a director. In the Hollywood of those times, the director was not yet the artistic master of the entire production and many of the decisions did not belong to him. We can only imagine what an extraordinary film ‘The Lady from Shanghai‘ would have been if it had been made during the period of auteur films that started only in the 60’s. But even so, we have a lot to admire and love in this special film.
The plot is inspired by a popular novel chosen according to the legend at random. The young sailor Michael O’Hara (Orson Welles) saves one night in Central Park in New York the beautiful and rich Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth with a short haircut and dyed blonde, which provokes discussions to this day). The next day, he embarks as a sailor on the yacht of Elsa’s husband, Arthur Bannister (Everett Sloane), a famous criminal lawyer, sailing with them on a trip around the Americas from New York to San Francisco, passing through Mexico and Panama. Soon the passion between Michael and Elsa inevitably ignites, and the young sailor will fall victim to a criminal-sentimental intrigue that will lead him to the accused bench, in danger of being sentenced to death for a crime that he had not committed.
The voyage by sea with its stops allows Orson Welles to shoot on location wherever the story takes place, this being one of the first films that used copiously this way of filming, gaining authenticity and local color. Fascinated by other cultures, Welles creates almost documentary sequences of Mexican carnival, Chinese theater and fairs, and walks in the Panama jungle infested with insects and crocodiles. Long frames are accentuated by props selected or especially designed to amplify the effects. Acting is mostly directed towards sarcasm. Welles was probably not happy with the dialogue offered by the screenplay or the book that inspired it, and added many grotesque lines, such as in the court scenes or in the discussion between the sailors and Bannister at the beginning of the film. Welles himself is young and luminous, and Rita Hayworth is fascinating as always despite her hairstyle. The two were married when the filming was made, but their marriage was falling apart. The interventions of the heads of production did not add anything good. The music is awful, with violins lamenting all the time except for one single scene that takes place in San Francisco on the shore of the bay, when a piano is allowed to play a very appropriate jazz piece. Off-screen voice does not add anything good. Close-ups filmed in the studio were added, contrary to Welles‘ conception, and the film was shortened by more than an hour from the original originally created by the director, including the cutting of most of the final scene that takes place in a hall of mirrors in a fair, a scene that is still anthological. Unfortunately, unlike other films that fell victim to the scissors of the editing imposed by the producers, the original version and the fragments left out have not been preserved. This leaves us, the spectators today, only with dreaming of how ‘The Lady of Shanghai‘ would have looked like if it had been under the complete control of Orson Welles.