In 1946, Orson Welles was directing a stage treatment of Around the World in Eighty Days. Largely financing the production himself, Welles quickly ran out of money and desperately needed $55,000 for costumes. Welles convinced Columbia Pictures head, Harry Cohn, to send him the money based on a promise that he would write, direct and star in a movie for Cohn at no additional charge. The pitch was for a movie based on a book Welles had presumably never read. It would become The Lady of Shanghai (1947). It helped Cohn's approval that, at the time, Welles was married to Columbia's biggest Star, Rita Hayworth. When casting began, Welles had envisioned an unknown actress as the female lead, but Rita Hayworth suggested herself for the part, hoping it would bring her and her husband closer together and save their failing marriage. It didn't, and they divorced the following year. What came out of all of this, though, The Lady of Shanghai, is a top-notch thriller very much in the Film Noir vein. It is an under appreciated film, born out of desperation, completed with love in mind.
When Mike OHara (Orson Welles) meets Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth), he is immediately smitten. After rescuing her from muggers, O'Hara is offered a job on board her husband, hot-shot defense lawyer Arthur Bannister's yacht, bound for San Francisco... |
| The Lady from Shanghai. 1947: Rita Hayworth |
The attraction between Mike and Elsa grows...
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| The Lady from Shanghai. 1947: Rita Hayworth |
amplified by Elsa's beauty, sensuality, flirtation and compulsion to strut around in a bathing suit...
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| The Lady from Shanghai. 1947: Rita Hayworth |
Who can blame him for wanting her?
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| The Lady from Shanghai. 1947: Rita Hayworth |
O'Hara lacks the funds to spirit a lady like her away, though. He gets the opportunity to get $5,000, however, by way of a strange request. Mr. Bannister's law partner, Mr. Grisby asks Mike to help him stage his own death and accept the blame for his "murder." In exchange he can keep the money and escape jail time because no body will ever be found...
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| The Lady from Shanghai. 1947: Rita Hayworth |
This creates some interesting complications...
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| The Lady from Shanghai. 1947: Rita Hayworth |
and the tension grows to a Classic climax...
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| The Lady from Shanghai. 1947: Rita Hayworth |
