THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1947) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Orson Welles
Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, Everett Sloane,
Glenn Anders, Ted de Corsia, Erskine Sanford
An adventurer played by Orson Welles meets a siren played by Rita Hayworth on a late-night coach ride in the park and hires onto a yacht, sailing in the company of the woman, her crippled husband (Everett Sloane) and his obnoxious legal partner (Glenn Anders). The climax takes place in an amusement-park funhouse, a metaphor that really applies to the entire film. There's enough deception all around to doom everybody. True to film noir, Welles' protagonist is smart, but not smart enough to stay out of trouble. He's enough of a sailor to know when he's swimming with sharks, and he is. He's a sap and he knows it. It's his nature. It's his fate. Welles was working on some personal issues, too, back then, which helps explain the casting of his soon-to-be ex-wife as the femme fatale. Watch any scene featuring Sloane and Anders and see which one you'd be more willing to murder yourself.
