The Lady From Shanghai, film review: Welles brings a mix of charm, naiveté and fatalism

Your support helps us to tell the story

Support Now

Find out moreClose

My recent work focusing on Latino voters in Arizona has shown me how crucial independent journalism is in giving voice to underrepresented communities.

Your support is what allows us to tell these stories, bringing attention to the issues that are often overlooked. Without your contributions, these voices might not be heard.

Every dollar you give helps us continue to shine a light on these critical issues in the run up to the election and beyond

Eric Garcia

Washington Bureau Chief

Orson Welles's foray into film noir boasts one of the actor-director's most likeable and unusual performances.

We're accustomed to Welles as charismatic Harry Lime-like crooks or tragic heroes or Falstaffian grotesques. His character here, the mischievous adventurer Michael O'Hara, is as close as he comes to a conventional leading man.

Welles's Irish accent may leave a lot to be desired, but he brings a mix of charm, naiveté and fatalism to the role. Michael is utterly bewitched by the blonde femme fatale (played by Welles' wife Rita Hayworth, shortly before their marriage ended).

Welles enjoys being the Josef K-like dupe for a change. 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 – among them a razor sharp courtroom scene, a sequence in a Chinese theatre and a comic-erotic stolen kiss in an aquarium.

Hayworth's gorgeous siren is even more lethal than the one she played in Gilda a year or two before.