2freensel I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

begob A poetic drifter saves a beautiful woman from a random mugging, then accepts her husband's offer of work on a yachting holiday, only to find himself ensnared in a murder plot ...Highly contrived story that never gets into a groove, although it does develop a chaotic energy. Right from the start you sense the writer/director struggled to get things rolling, with hopelessly implausible plot points and lots of dead-end dialogue. But just as I was losing the will to continue, a courtroom scene pulled me back in with some truly engaging charm and idiosyncrasy, followed by an interesting hall-of-mirrors climax.So lots of weaknesses, but ... there is one outstanding element that makes this movie great: Rita Hayworth's close-ups. The most beautiful, fascinating face ever seen on a movie screen. Ever.The music is fine, not overly dramatic. The photography has some brilliant touches, with good use of angles and lighting.Overall: an oddly laboured effort, elevated by a unique actress.

elvircorhodzic I wonder, if necessary with a clear story to make a complex movie. Welles is probably knew what he was doing. I think that some segments are superfluous. While looking at the totality of the movie I really like. I must admit that at times I had the impression that director is bored. Scenery is at the level. Expressionist style is commendable. The atmosphere answer noir, particularly in instances where the narrator sounds dazed. The story of an ordinary guy (sailor), the mysterious femme fatale, murder, love, hate, greed, jealousy, and of course money. Nothing special.The tension in the shadow of confusion of the main character. He initially acts like he does not feel selfishness, crime or pathetic. The vicious young man, charming blond beauty, a criminal lawyer and frantic enthusiast correspond with noir themes.Rita Hayworth as Elsa "Rosalie" Bannister is a balm for the human eye. Redhead, blonde ... who cares. A victim of its own deception in hazardous locations. Performance is solid. Its role is perhaps a little vague.Two lunatics. Sloane as a successful, self-centered lawyer and sick husband. Anders as annoying, vague and delighted enthusiast. Both actors are the right choice.Orson Welles as Michael O'Hara is playful in its own particular incident. I've used a couple of times a sweet laugh, when the main protagonist tries to be serious. Romance is not passed the exam. The culprit is solely Welles. The best is in the narrative. It was discovered absolutely everything about this movie.THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI is very exciting movie, in which a little more experimentation. Anthology scene a final settlement in the house of mirrors will certainly be remembered. I will remember the final monologue.

jc-osms Reading the chequered history of the making of this movie, one will always wonder how close the finished result matched Welles' original vision. Was it just a knock-off version of a cheap pulp-fiction novel Welles just happened upon or was there a deeper artistic intent at work? I personally think that while it maybe started off as a quickie stop-gap thriller for Welles, he unquestionably picked it up and ran with it as only he could and even if Harry Cohn and his cohorts did hijack the finished article in the interests of commerciality, Welles' talent and verve transcend even the skewered and compromised cut we see here.Sure there are lots of strange, even occasionally surreal aspects to the film, Welles' "Oirish" accent, that he's almost always in three-quarter profile facing the left, the massive close-ups and occasional crazy-cutting, the talking in Chinese to name but a few, but it also contains memorable, bravura scenes which only Orson could devise, like his deconstruction of the clichéd courtroom scene, his and Rita Hayworth's rendezvous at the aquarium with massive shape-shifting marine life glowing and glowering behind them, the upshot in the Chinese Theatre and of course the terrific climax in the hall of mirrors.The motives of the characters and consistencies of the plot are at times seemingly thrown to the wind but somehow you're swept along, rather like Welles Black Irish Michael O'Hara, like a cork on the sea and left at the end deposited on the shore, breathless, confused but exhilarated. I know there are those who think it's a terrible movie and who blame the money-men saboteurs, but I loved it, warts and all. Although you never get used to that brogue, Welles is great in the lead role, Hayworth too in a misunderstood role. Then characters like the greasy, grisly Grisby and the lame, sardonic husband (the way he drawls the word "lover") really get under your skin as they're meant to. And there's more, those close-ups showing the sweat, dread bewilderment and blankness of his characters' faces, the great dialogue, especially the analogy of humans with sharks, the little dots of humour with the various reactions of the public in the gallery of the court scene ("You're kidding, right?") and the chase scenes so reminiscent of "The Third Man", to name but a few.Someday I'd love to see the film Welles had in his head, but then you could say that about almost all his projects going right back to "Citizen Kane". I'm a fan and in the end have to be grateful for the small mercies of just whatever he was able to get released through the studio system, flaws, tampering and all. And I love film noir, so this was great for me to watch and I think it is a great watch too.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . as he's the miscast "man in the background outside the Cantina" guy, when he SHOULD be playing the part of the foolish sailor, "Michael O'Hara." Unfortunately, THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI suffers from the same flaw that would later hamper the picture ROCKY: Writer's Blockhead. Sylvester Stallone thought just because he wrote the ROCKY story, that somehow entitled him to portray the title boxer character himself. If he could have worked through this hubris, his idea could have become a more successful film starring an accomplished actor as ROCKY, such as Robert De Niro or Bruce Dern. Similarly, Aussie Flynn's Irish brogue surely would have been more convincingly foreign than that of Orson Welles. And since Mr. Welles just has Michael standing by idly during the Shoot-out at the O.K. Funhouse, Errol clearly would have ad-libbed some bit of Swashbucklery to enliven the proceedings. Furthermore, Errol was too much of a gentleman to allow Rita Hayworth's character to die alone (wife or no wife in Real Life). But what else could you expect, knowing how these two blokes met their historical ends? Errol became the actual ROBIN HOOD, leading Castro's boys to Victory in Cuba (and getting bumped off by the CIA Black Ops guys for his success). Welles occasionally waddled on set to make TV ads for some of the products he favored during his fatal case of gluttony. Elvis may have died in his john with a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich at hand, but at least The King wasn't whimpering about some old sled!