The Lady from Shanghai (1947) on Netflix
NR19471h 27mCrimeDramaFilm-Noir
Irish seaman Michael O'Hara rescues Elsa from hooligans in Central Park. Attracted to her despite misgivings, he signs on as crew aboard the yacht of her husband, attorney Arthur Bannister.
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- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb7.5/1037,045 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes85%
Trailer
Plot summary
Out of work in New York City, Irish seaman Michael O'Hara comes to the aid of Elsa Bannister when hooligans attack her horse-drawn carriage in Central Park, and he escorts her to her car. She and her husband, the criminal defense attorney Arthur Bannister, have just arrived from Shanghai and are sailing home to San Francisco by way of the Panama Canal. Elsa talks her husband into taking Michael on as an able seaman aboard their yacht. Attracted to her despite his misgivings, he signs on. Bannister's law partner, George Grisby, joins the cruise, and Michael is caught between the husband and the wife.
Cast
- Carl Frankas District Attorney Galloway
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Orson Welles financed a stage production of Around the World after producer Mike Todd pulled out, and when he ran out of money and needed $55,000 to release costumes being held, he convinced Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn to send the money in exchange for Welles writing, producing, and directing a film for no fee.
- Welles cast his wife Rita Hayworth as Elsa and caused controversy by having her cut her long red hair and bleach it blonde for the role; Hayworth later recalled that Harry Cohn complained, 'He's ruined you, he cut your hair off!'
- The climactic hall of mirrors shootout was cut from an intended twenty minutes to less than three minutes, and the missing footage is presumed destroyed; surviving production stills show elaborate sets built for the sequence that were entirely cut.
- Welles shot the film almost entirely on location in Acapulco, Pie de la Cuesta, Sausalito, and San Francisco, making it one of the first major Hollywood pictures to be shot that way, and used primarily long takes.
- The yacht in many scenes belonged to actor Errol Flynn, who sailed it between takes and appears in the background in a cantina scene in Acapulco.
- The climactic hall of mirrors sequence in The Lady from Shanghai became a cinematic trope, often copied in film and television.
