The Lady From Shanghai

 

                                          Well, it is March the day to get ready and celebrate St. Patty's Day and I am not sure this could qualify for an Irish themed movie, though I doubt it. But hey, Orson Wells dons an Irish accent? for this a movie I am not quite sure what in terms of story wise this movie is though in at least it has the ever-beautiful Rita Hayworth doing what she does best, if you know what I mean. The Lady from Shanghai was another one of those Film Noirs that I had to check out and watch after watching The Third Man, so at first I never quite understood the story aspect of the movie now having watched it again I still don't understand the story aspect but will get to that later, bottom line is that this movie does have some creative camera work along with Rita Hayworth again doing what she does best, and Orson Wells doing an over the top Irish accent although I can't really tell if its authentic or not.

                                           A seaman (Orson Wells) becomes involved in a complex murder plot when he is hired to work on a yacht. He soon finds himself implicated in a murder, despite his innocence.

                                            At first when I saw this intriguing well-crafted movie at first I didn't quite understand what the story was going, then watching it for about the third time I still feel a little on the baffled side mainly because some of the structure and scenes don't make a lot of sense great example of that is the actor Glenn Anders who plays a shady lawyer that wants Orson Wells to kill him but I'm not sure if the guy is chewing up the scenery or playing crazy for which in fair sense it's more of the bewildering state I was in, the other plot hole in the movie is both D.A. and Husband lawyer who have this bizarre argument in terms of representing the case of Orson Wells innocence, furthermore the D.A. ask the defense to take the stand and then the defense asks himself questions, for which what was the point of this I honestly can't say mainly because well Orson's dead and there really no way to ask him on that specific purpose, and really some of these plot points I just don't understand the real purpose behind the story, mainly just doesn't make sense. A side from the confusing story with much plot holes that hurts my brain at times, what really makes this film memorable is pretty much the climax of the film where we have a standoff scene where it takes place in a hall of mirror's like an old carnival which in all honesty is really amazing when it comes to figuring out where Wells placed the camera especially when the camera were extremely huge in the mid-forties. Now deep down I can't say that the entire story makes scenes because there some moments in the movie that keeps you thinking until the final frame moreover keeps you surprised in terms of who was really responsible, also Rita Hayworth was excellent in this movie even though she had her hair cut and bleached, but she was still beautiful as ever on screen, though it's weird because this movie and Gilda are the only films I know of Hayworth and nothing else, kind of like Judy Garland from the Wizard of Oz and Meet me in St. Louis. As far as Orson Wells films go, I have seen Citizen Kane, The Third Man, The Stranger and The Lady from Shanghai, so of course I love the film for its directing style and cinematography I really do not put this up in the top five of Orson Well's best films more like in the top ten which in all fairness is not bad, hell every movie star has that one bad movie on their belt or two. So, if you are wanting to have a classic movie night, I would highly recommend watching The Lady from Shanghai.