Vintage film noir gloriously restored. Baroque plot complications engulf footloose Irish sailor Orson Welles on a Caribbean cruise with a crooked lawyer and his sultry wife Rita Hayworth (then Mrs Welles).
The cherry on top of this huge melting sundae is the dialogue at large, which is almost entirely composed of quotable only-in-the-movies luxury super-star bon mots.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2014
The Lady from Shanghai 1947
In this insanely lurid film noir, director Orson Welles – still lush and handsome – plays an Irish sailor ensnared by a siren-like Rita Hayworth when he signs up to navigate the yacht of her crippled husband, ‘the greatest criminal trial lawyer in the world’. Thanks to studio interference, the plot is borderline incomprehensible, but the film’s baroque visual style, its hard-boiled dialogue, and its coterie of sleazy ocean cruisers add up to something weirdly coherent. A fabulous new 4K restoration gives us the perfect excuse to clamber aboard and gape.
“A glittering film noir! Everett Sloane is an entertainingly outré villain – a two-legged tarantula on crutches – and there are several bold, flashy set pieces in San Francisco, including a chase through a Chinatown theater, a love scene at the aquarium in Golden Gate Park, and a fun-house shoot-out… In the title role, Rita Hayworth [the soon to be ex-Mrs Welles], her hair colored platinum, has both bathing-beauty allure and an exciting sadistic streak – there’s a stiletto hidden in the cheesecake.” — Michael Sragow, New Yorker
“Be warned: This is a film that collects obsessives.” — Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York