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The Lady from Shanghai
- Starring: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane
- Director: Orson Welles
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Description
The Lady From Shanghai, a complex, involving puzzle-within-a-puzzle mystery story, is a showcase for Orson Welles, showing his singular talents and sensibilities as few other films have. The story is superficially simple: a seaman Michael O'Hara (Welles) is hired as a crew member on the yacht of the wealthy Banister (Everett Sloane). His beautiful but mysterious wife Elsa (Rita Hayworth) has met O'Hara earlier, when he saved her from a mugging. What ensues is a complicated and bizarre pattern of deception, fraud and murder, with O'Hara finding himself implicated in a murder, despite his innocence. The film is best remembered for its final sequence when the plot comes to a literally smashing climax in the famous "hall of mirrors" sequence, with Elsa and Banister shooting it out amidst shards of shattering glass. Orson Welles, who produced, directed, wrote and starred in the film, is sometimes self-indulgent in his use of visual tricks and techniques, which at times sacrifice plot for visual brilliance, but he pulls it together in the end to produce a stunning, difficult film. Rita Hayworth gives one of her best performances as the deceptive, seductive temptress, hard-edged and cynical. The film confounds, unsettles and disorients the viewer, very much as Welles intended to do. While not an easy film, it is well worth the attention required to follow it, and Welles offers no easy solutions or any false happy endings to his tour-de-force mystery. Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
Features
- Genre: Suspense & Thriller
- Category: Film Noir, Romantic Mystery
- Theme: Cons and Scams, Dangerous Attraction, Femmes Fatales, Miscarriage of Justice, Treacherous Spouses
- Release Date: October 03, 2000
- Rating: NR (Not Rated)Rating Opens in New Window - Adult Situations, Mild Violence, Questionable for Children
- Studio: Columbia TriStar
- Lead Actors: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane, Ted de Corsia, Glenn Anders
- Supporting Actors: Tiny Jones, Vernon Cansino, Artarne Wong, Billy Louie, Philip Van Zandt, Peter Cusanelli, Maynard Holmes, Mary Newton, John Elliott, Jessie Arnold, Harry Strang, Norman Thomson, Eddie Coke, Alvin Hammer, Wong Show Chong, Philip Morris, Edward Peil Sr., Jack Baxley, Al Eben, Edythe Elliott
- Director: Orson Welles
- Run Time: 1 hr 27 min
- Language: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
- Subtitle Language: English, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish
- Format: DVD
Additional Information
- DPCI: 246-00-1827
- ASIN: B002HWFTIM
- Catalog #: 11327608
- Item can not be gift wrapped.
Shipping & Policies
- You may return this item to any Target store.Opens in New Window
- Shipping & Delivery InformationOpens in New Window
- Estimated Ship Dimensions : 7.64 inches length x 5.62 inches width x 0.58 inches height
- Estimated Ship Weight: 0.24 pound.
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Expert Reviews
This story about murder and betrayal becomes murky long before its conclusion, but Orson Welles's quintessential film noir is about moral chaos, and Welles's stunning visuals speak for themselves. Shot in sharp black-and white, the story of innocent narrator Michael O'Hara's twisted journey into the netherworld is told through deep shadows, skewed compositions, and unsettling close-ups. Enchancing the surreally ominous atmosphere is the choice of settings, such as the San Francisco Aquarium love scene, in which the convoluted tale reaches its appropriate climax in an abandoned fun house that embodies O'Hara's nightmarish confusion. Finding the perfect image for shattered relationships and fractured personalities, Welles's famous final shootout takes place in the fun house's hall of mirrors, as O'Hara learns the truth in a place that trades on deception. Judging the narrative too Byzantine for his taste, Columbia chief Harry Cohn demanded that Lady from Shanghai be reedited, redubbed, and rescored before it was released. It still failed at the box office, rendering Welles a Hollywood outcast for almost a decade. Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
