Now as I mentioned in my first post from nine (!) years ago, I am a big fan of Orson Welles and I do think that his first film, “Citizen Kane” is the most important film ever made. For his second film, he chose a literary adaptation of one of his favorite authors from boyhood, Booth Tarkington. An entirely different form and style from his first film, the first half of his second film, “The Magnificent Ambersons” is almost as brilliant a piece of film making as his debut. Unfortunately, at this point, the heads of RKO were so out of love with the ‘enfant terrible’ of the New York stage and the moment he was safely away in Brazil making a little harmless propaganda film called “It’s All True”, the studio set several people to work at completing the editing of ‘Ambersons’ with a legendary drastic result, cutting out about 45 minutes of footage and re-writing and re-shooting the ending to more closely resemble that of the novel (Welles’ ending , if other’s memories can be trusted, while totally departing from the author’s ending was a far more adult and realistic way to end the film, perfectly in keeping with the themes of the novel that Welles chose to emphasize in his adaptation: that of a proud Victorian family unwilling to change with the changing American culture, becomes ploughed under and obliterated by it.
That was the last time he tried to rise to the challenge of exploiting the medium. He had been defeated by the Hollywood machine. With the exception of the much later “Touch of Evil”, the rest of his Hollywood films were marred by his willingness to “play by the rules”, to try and prove that he could direct a film and keep it on time and on budget. From this point on, he was forever trying to earn enough money with acting in film and radio, directing from time to time, in order to fund the projects that he was really passionate about; stage productions and a handful of films that were shot in Europe on a shoestring budget and on weekends when he could get a cast and crew together.
And now to the SUBJECT of this post, “The Lady from Shanghai”. This film resulted in a trade to Columbia producer, Harry Cohen. If Cohen would help to fund Welles’ current stage production of “Around the World in 80 Days”, Welles would direct and act in a film for Columbia.
Tonight was probably the third or fourth time I have watched this film- no need to ever do so again! (In contrast- I feel like a part of me is missing if I go one year without watching ‘Kane’ or three years without watching the flawed but brilliant ‘Ambersons’). It is obvious to me that Welles’ only interest in making this film was to do the job he promised to. There is no attempt to tell ANY of this story visually- the film could have been made by any ‘B’ grade director of the day. Other than the much-ballyhooed funhouse sequence in the end (a total gimmick), there isn’t even any sort of visual style throughout the film. American critics did not take to it at the time. Europe was a little kinder to it (but when one looks at where European filmmaking was going- is there any surprise?). Now, of course, it is hailed as a masterpiece, one of the greatest film noirs of all time (to this we’ve come? I ask myself!).
The one pleasure this film gives me is the opportunity to see glimpses of The waterfront of Sausalito and parts of San Francisco the way I saw it as a child before things were ‘gussied up’ for the 1970’s and 80’s. As a native of Marin County, I have always been disappointed in how few great films take place in that great city, San Francisco. It’s a very important city culturally and historically and yet far more films are set in New York or Los Angeles. Watching “The Conversation” or “What’s Up Doc” makes me feel like a proud relative wanting someone to boast too (“Chu Chu and the Filly Flash” Inspires me to the shame of a poor relation).
I promise that some day I will get around to talking about “Citizen Kane”. I realize that I had very little to say about “Lady from Shanghai” but that is basically the point of this post; there is nothing worthwhile to say about this film!
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