The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Release date: 1948-04-14
Country: USA
Language: English|Cantonese
Director: Orson Welles (uncredited)
Production Co: Mercury Productions
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Crime, Mystery
Rating: 7.6/10
Length: 1h 27min

Storyline

Michael O'Hara, against his better judgement, hires on as a crew member of Arthur Bannister's yacht, sailing to San Francisco. They pick up Grisby, Bannister's law partner, en route. Bannister has a wife, Elsa, who seems to like Michael much better than she likes her husband. After they dock in Sausalito, Michael goes along with Grisby's weird plan to fake his (Grisby's) murder so he can disappear untailed. He wants the $5000 Grisby has offered, so he can run off with Elsa. But Grisby turns up actually murdered, and Michael gets blamed for it. Somebody set him up, but it is not clear who or how. Bannister (the actual murderer?) defends Michael in court.

Plot Keywords

hall of mirrors, chinatown san francisco, crooked lawyer, cross examination, crutch, double cross, drug overdose, false accusation, hammock, chase, caribbean sea, brooklyn bridge, kiss, overhead shot, parrot, snake, shooting a woman, cigarette smoking, attempted suicide, bailiff

Short Review

The film is as tangled and ingenious as any of Welles's conjuring tricks. The shoot-out in the hall of mirrors is the most famous sequence, but there are other moments just as memorable.