The Lady from Shanghai

The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Timing: 1:27 (87 min)

7.373/10
615

All about film

Video 2

Photo 29

Actors and characters

Release date

1947-12-24

Country

United States

Production

Columbia Pictures, Mercury Productions

Genre

Mystery, Crime, Drama, Thriller

Budget

$2 300 000

Revenue

$1 564 609

Website

Director

Orson Welles

Actors

Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane, Glenn Anders, Ted de Corsia, Erskine Sanford, Gus Schilling, Carl Frank, Lou Merrill, Evelyn Ellis
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Orson Welles, Virginia Van Upp, Harry Cohn

Operator

Charles Lawton Jr.

Composer

Heinz Roemheld

Artist

Audition

Editing

Viola Lawrence
All team (38)

• The film is based on a novel by Sherwood King.
• The leading roles were played by Welles himself and his wife, Rita Hayworth, who specifically went against her image for the film, allowing herself to be transformed into a short-haired platinum blonde.
• Due to re-editing, the film was released in the American distribution only in June 1948 and was not successful.
• Accounts differ regarding the circumstances that prompted Welles to make the film. Welles himself said that he became the director of this film almost by accident. He urgently needed money to complete work on the musical “Around the World in 80 Days,” and in exchange for the required amount, he agreed to film for Columbia Pictures, for free, any plot they chose. The result did not please the Hollywood moguls, and they insisted on cutting over an hour of screen time from the film. However, even in this form, the picture flopped at the box office.
• After the failure of "The Lady from Shanghai," the director was placed on the "blacklist" of Hollywood. The film's failure also hastened his divorce from Hayworth.
• It took twenty years for the film to be recognized as one of the pinnacles of film noir, and the surreal shootout in a room full of mirrors was called "one of the most spectacular scenes in world cinema."