- Disorientation is a fundamental aspect of film noir, but rarely is it as dominent as in Orson Welles' The Lady from Shanghai. At no point in the film is it obvious that anybody involved can form a coherent picture of what's going on, and that statement may even extend to the filmmakers. The protagonist, Michael O'Hara (Welles), is certainly least in the know of any of them. One day, he rescues a beautiful woman named Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth) from being attacked in a park. The next, he's chatting with her husband Arthur (Everett Sloane), whose broken physique belies a tough and heartless interior. Next day, he's working on Arthur's boat and trying not to fall any further in love with Elsa.
- As the boat skirts along the coast headed for the Panama canal, a quirky fellow named Grisby (Glenn Anders) comes aboard. Maybe he witnesses Michael kissing Elsa on the deck. Maybe he's also Arthur's business partner. Maybe he even wants Michael to kill somebody for him, and maybe that person is Grisby himself. In the meantime, a creepy guy named Broome (Ted de Corsia) slinks around, obviously keeping tabs on someone. The rest of the passengers drink too much and exchange bitter insults at the beach. Michael is reminded of a "crazy pack" of sharks that fed on itself until none of them were left alive.
- There's eventually a murder, a trial, and a desperate last-minute escape, but the important thing is where this film ends up. After over an hour of Welles' deeply unsatisfying Irish brogue and the film's unfathomable machinations, The Lady from Shanghai abruptly shifts locations to an abandoned amusement park that has surely inspired generations of comic book writers. For ten glorious minutes, the audience witnesses a very memorable and phantasmagoric pursuit through an insane hall of mirrors that is as visually disorienting as the rest of the film is narratively disorienting. Given that Welles is the one at the helm, I'm inclined to wonder if he intentionally cluttered things up in some sort of meta-narrative. No, on second thought, this is just a forgettable and disappointing film with one good scene that isn't enough to redeem the rest.
- Based on a novel by Sherwood King.
- It was Errol Flynn's boat, and apparently he even appears briefly in a scene. It's also his dachshund.
