The Lady from Shanghai movie review
All picture4s and clips used in this review are legal under the terms of the fair use agreement of 1976.
Welcome to the final review in the retro movie review series. This one will focus on a noir film starring Orson Wells and Rita Hayworth. That movie is The Lady from Shanghai. During the latter half of the 1940’s and into the 50’s the noir genre was quite popular. But even by those standards this film was quite unique.
The film debuted in 1947, two years after the end of World War II. The protagonist of the story is an Irish sailor named Michael O’Hara. Orson Welles took on the role of the main character.
On a walk one night in Central Park O’Hara comes across a woman name of Elsa. She is driving a hansom cab, which is a horse-drawn cab. At first it seems a harmless meeting, that is until he finds her being waylaid by a group of hooligans. Being a man of honor he comes to her rescue. Seems like the typical case of rescuing a damsel in distress.
But considering this is a noir film nothing is what it seems.
And it seems the hooligans after the woman went down too easy.
O’Hara escorts the lady home. On the way he reveals that he’s a sailor who’s seen some of the world. As it turns up Elsa, played by Rita Hayworth, isn’t any ordinary woman. She is the wife of criminal defense lawyer Arthur Bannister. Bannister got played by actor Everett Sloane.
They’ve arrived in New York from Shanghai. And it’s obvious there’s an attraction between Elsa and O'Hara. But the Irishman has some misgivings about the woman and rejects an offer from her. The next day her husband arrives at the hiring yard for able-bodied sailors. After a few drinks at the local port saloon O’Hara despite his misgivings becomes a sailor on Bannister’s yacht.
But it’s clear there’s more going on behind the scenes than meets the eye. Along with some fellows from the hiring yard they set out on a cruise. Said cruise will take them through the Panama Canal and up to San Francisco. Along the way the attraction between Elsa and O’Hara strengthens. But on the course of the trip a new factor comes up.
Bannister’s partner, lawyer George Grisby, played by Glenn Anders joins. And it becomes evident that the two lawyers are in their own ways not quite in their right frame of mind. Hiring on for a cruise with a femme fatale who’s more than she seems and two half crazed lawyers. And O’Hara makes it clear as soon as he gets the chance he’s quitting when they make San Francisco.
It becomes clear O’Hara shouldn't have taken the job to begin with because he can’t trust anyone around him. That’s not a healthy work environment.
In the course of the trip Grisby takes O’Hara aside for a private conversation. He explains he wants O’Hara to ‘murder’ him. He promises the Irish sailor $5,000 and explains something. According to the laws of the time since there would be no corpse Michael couldn’t get convicted of murder. This had to do with the corpus delicti laws of that time.
Michael after some convincing agrees to it when they reach San Francisco.
y with her. It seems he's realized he's got feelings for her. Yet there’s still a sense of unease, there’s something about Elsa that feels off, that is not quite trustworthy. Nonetheless O’Hara agrees to the plan.
Poor lovesick sap he’s so caught up in his infatuation he can’t see something about this whole thing feels like a set up. Despite that he signs the paper of confession. Yet there’s the sense that this is not going to go as planned, is it?
Before the crime O’Hara and Elsa meet at a local aquarium. And he proceeds to tell her what’s happening. Poor lovesick fool you have no idea what’s about to occur do you!
Then comes the night of the crime. This is where things start to go sideways for Michael. First a man named Sidney Broome, played by Ted de Cosia shows up. He’s a private investigator who’s been following Elsa at her husband’s orders for some time. He knows all about Grisby’s plan to murder Bannister, frame Michael for it, and then escape by faking his own death.
In a fit of rage Grisby shoots Broome and leaves him for dead. As stated, things are going sideways, and nothing is what it seems. That’s the nature of noir films.
Unaware of recent events Michael continues with the night’s arrangement. Again, Michael O’Hara is a poor lovesick sap. O’Hara hands over his hat before sending Grisby off on a motorboat. O’Hara then shoots the gun given to him into the ground to attract attention to himself. But things are about to take another surprise turn.
Broome has a severe wound but he's still alive, though he's clinging to life. He asks Elsa for help and explains Grisby is trying to kill her husband. Typical noir film nothing is what it seems. Michael tries to call Elsa, but he gets Broome instead. He warns that Grisby is going to kill Bannister and set him up to take the fall.
Michael rushes over to Bannister’s office. There he finds the handicapped lawyer is still very much alive. But Grisby’s dead body gets taken away. The police then find the note on Michael implicating him in the crime. And they proceed to take the Irishman into custody.
Well, what do we have here for all to see? Why it’s the old classic set-up a standard feature in noir films with a patsy protagonist. It's true O’Hara may have seen the world and knows how nasty it can be. But he seems to have not quite learned it’s unwise to underestimate the dark side of human nature, poor guy. And he’s about to go through quite a bit of hell.
What follows is a circus of a trial in which Bannister ends up defending O’Hara. His intention is to have Michael plea justifiable homicide. The already incompetent judge soon loses control of the trial. Bannister learns of Michael’s relationship with Elsa. And he intends to take pleasure in seeing Michael go down hard.
He also makes it clear he knows who the real killer is. This story has more twists to it than a pretzel factory! Thus, proving why Orson Welles who wrote the story for the movie was a master of his craft. But wait there’s more surprise twists ahead!
The jury comes back with a verdict. O’Hara feigns suicide by swallowing some of Bannister’s pain relief pills for his disability. In the commotion that follows Michael manages to slip out hiding among another jury. Not a bad way to escape by pretending to fit in. But this movie isn’t quite done yet.
Elsa follows O’Hara out of the courtroom and calls up some people she knows in San Francisco. Then it's a countdown to the final confrontation with the real mastermind behind this. Can Michael O’Hara clear his name? And what will come of his relationship with Elsa?
Now for this movie it’s a good idea to watch it twice to gain a better understanding of things. Noir movies can get confusing if one does not pay attention to all the details. But the film is still a very well told story from Welles. The camera angles were very unique for their time. But back in the 40’s and 50’s Hollywood was starting to experiment and innovate ways to improve film making.
Orson Welles for one enjoyed experimenting with cinema. So, he was able to come up with new ways to bring new perspectives to his stories. And the Lady from Shanghai is Welles in classic form.
Rita Hayworth is great as Elsa “Rosalie’ Bannister. Though of note her singing voice got done by Anna Kent Ellis. Hayworth showed her acting chops playing a woman with a mysterious past and is more than she appears.
Everett Sloane and Glenn Anders are great as Bannister and Grisby. Two lawyers who're half-insane and have some serious skeletons in their closet. But to be fair most people in noir films have skeletons in their closet. Noir has a reputation for having a lot of gray area.
To be fair the movie started out kind of slow, interesting but slow. But over time the story picks up and comes to a grim but satisfying conclusion.
The classic 1947 film gets a recommendation for anyone who is a classic movie buff. Check out The Lady from Shanghai. Get it on DVD, Blu-Ray, 4K, or streaming.
Thanks for checking out this last of the retro movie reviews. I hope you found this one insightful. Do you have any modern or classic movies you’d like me to review? Let me know in the comments section. Let me know if you’d like it to be a regular movie review or part of the series “Was it really that bad’, or Underrated Gems.
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