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The Lady
From Shanghai (1948)
Writer/director Orson Welles' film noir classic
was an imaginative, complicated, unsettling film noir and
taut who-dun-it thriller - a tale of betrayal, lust, greed and
murder set within a deadly love triangle:
- the opening voice-over narration was delivered by
out-of-work, gullible, wandering Irish seaman Michael O'Hara (Orson
Welles): ("When I start out to make a fool of myself, there's
very little can stop me. If I'd known where it would end, I'd never
let anything start, if I'd been in my right mind, that is. But
once I'd seen her, once I'd seen her, I was not in my right mind
for quite some time...me, with plenty of time and nothing to do
but get myself in trouble. Some people can smell danger, not me")
- the sequence of O'Hara's first meeting when he was
lured to assist and rescue short-haired blonde femme fatale Elsa
Bannister (Rita Hayworth) from a hold-up; she was wearing a polka-dotted
white dress, and was seated under the black hood of a horse-drawn
carriage on its way to New York's Central Park; his fanciful name
for her was Princess Rosalie; he recollected her - in voice-over:
("...Once I'd seen her, I was not in my right mind for quite
some time...That's how I found her, and from that moment on, I did
not use my head very much, except to be thinking of her")
- after Michael rescued Elsa, she offered the between-jobs
sailor employment as a crew member on her sailing vessel to the West
Coast via Panama, owned by her crippled (physically-paralyzed), celebrated
but asexual and older San Francisco lawyer husband Arthur Bannister
(Everett Sloane)
- Elsa sang the haunting
torch song "Please Don't Kiss Me" ("Please don't love
me, but if you love me, then don't take your lips or your arms or
your love away"), while on the deck of the yacht one night,
while wearing a black two-piece swimsuit
- the lecherous, weirdly insane, paranoid and sweaty
George Grisby (Glenn Anders), Bannister's business partner, offered
Michael $5,000 in return for a diabolical murder scheme -- to sign
a phony murder confession for Grisby's own demise (or planned disappearance);
with the money, the foolish Michael fantasized about "running
off with you [Elsa] to a desert island to eat berries and goat's
milk"
- during a secret meeting at SF's Steinhart aquarium
between the two secret lovers - they were deliberately positioned
before predatory fish; she encouraged her "beloved fool" to
elope with her after the murder plot, and begged: ("Tell me
where we'll go, Michael. Will you carry me off with you into the
sunrise?...Just take me there. Take me quick. Take me")
- in the complicated plot, when the fabricated 'murder'
plot fell apart, Michael realized he was the fall guy for Grisby's
murder and that a vengeful Bannister was now representing him as
his defense lawyer! ("Either me or the rest of the whole world
is absolutely insane"); he also realized that the villainous
Elsa was Grisby's actual killer
- the visually-intriguing, climactic confrontation
and shoot-out in the Crazy House-Hall of Mirrors occurred in an abandoned,
off-season amusement park between blonde femme fatale Elsa
and her abusive, crippled, wealthy lawyer husband Arthur Bannister
as O'Hara watched; Bannister delivered an ominous speech to blonde femme
fatale wife Elsa before firing commenced: ("...I presume
you think that if you murder me here, your sailor friend will get
the blame and you'll be free to spend my money. Well, dear, you aren't
the only one who wants me to die. Our good friend, the District Attorney,
is just itching to open a letter that I left with him. The letter
tells all about you, lover. So you'd be foolish to fire that gun.
With these mirrors, it's difficult to tell. You are aiming at me,
aren't you? I'm aiming at you, lover. Of course, killing you is killing
myself. It's the same thing. But you know, I'm pretty tired of both
of us")
- the couple self-destructively drew their guns and
shot at multiple likenesses of each other, as the screen erupted
into a wild kaleidoscope of smashed glass, multiple distorted mirrors
that broke and shattered, as they both mortally-wounded each other;
their aim was confused by the contradictory mirror images that
broke into splinters during the wild shooting as one fake image
splintered and another replaced it; still in character, Bannister
uttered his last words: ("You
know, for a smart girl, you make a lot of mistakes. You should have
let me live. You're gonna need a good lawyer")
Deadly Shoot-Out in Hall of Mirrors
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Bannister's Speech to Elsa
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Elsa Reflected in Broken Mirrors
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Shattered Mirrors
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Bannister's Last Words
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- witnessing the double murders as he stepped back and
watched them destroy each other, Michael was horrified
by the shattering of glass as the deceptive facades of their evil
images were reflected and then blown away - and all that was left
in the violent shoot-out was their guilt, greedy hunger, pain and
misery
- Elsa stumbled with Michael into another room where
she engaged in her last exchange with Michael during a prolonged
death scene; it was filmed at ground level down next to her on the
floor, as she agonized over her death; he recalled their conversation
in the streets of Acapulco about the badness of the world, and
his fishing tale about blood-thirsty sharks; she admitted her
own "original nature" had delved into corruptness and evil,
and that she had surrendered to "badness", but her pleading
failed to gain his sympathy, even after an appeal to his sentimentality:
(Elsa: (gasping) "He and George,
and now me!" Michael: "Like the sharks, mad with
their own blood. Chewing away at their own selves." Elsa: "It's
true. I made a lot of mistakes." Michael: "You
said the world's bad and we can't run away from the badness. And
you're right there. But you said we can't fight it. We must deal
with the badness, make terms. And then the badness'll deal with you,
and make its own terms, in the end, surely." Elsa: "You
can fight, but what good is it? Goodbye." Michael: "You
mean we can't win?" Elsa: "No,
we can't win. (poetically) Give my love to the sunrise." Michael: "We
can't lose, either. Only if we quit." Elsa: "And you're
not going to?" Michael: "Not again!" Elsa: "Oh
Michael, I'm afraid. (He strolled away) Michael? Come back here.
Michael! Please! I don't want to die! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"); unhooked
from her charming and fatal attraction, Michael abandoned her
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the film's conclusion, as Michael left her to die alone, he walked
away to call the police; he predicted that he might become more ambivalent,
forget Elsa and put her corruptive influences behind him - if he
grew old enough: (voice-over: "I
went to call the cops, but I knew she'd be dead before they got
there and I'd be free. Bannister's note to the DA (would) fix it.
I'd be innocent officially, but that's a big word - innocence.
Stupid's more like it. Well, everybody is somebody's fool. The
only way to stay out of trouble is to grow old, so I guess I'll
concentrate on that. Maybe I'll live so long that I'll forget her.
Maybe I'll die tryin'")
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Elsa In Central Park Carriage - Rescued
Elsa Singing on Yacht: "Please Don't Kiss Me"
Elsa and Michael in Aquarium
Elsa with Michael in Hall of Mirrors
Elsa's Death: "I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"
Michael's Film-Concluding Departure
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