the lady from shanghai be weird even by the standard of it eminent director and orson welles and whose last hollywood film this be for many a moon . it a kind of post modern film noir make during the period when more conventional film of this type be quite popular and and it concern a happy go lucky irish sailor ( play by welles ) who fall in with a mysterious lady ( rita hayworth and who be marry to welles at the time ) and and her cripple and and probably impotent husband and play with a brainy and malevolent gusto by everett sloan . a long sea voyage follow and with welles in tow a bodyguard and and the plot thicken when sloan law partner ( glenn anders ) turn up and start make trouble by give odd speech about suicide and other morbid topic that suggest that the man be on the verge of mental breakdown . a murder plot ensues and and all sort of calamity follow for welles and his employer and and at this point the story and fuzzy and tell at a leisurely pace thus far and go off the deep end and and the last part of the film consist of brilliant directorial set piece that seem to have be throw in to give the movie some of the drive and urgency it story do not and by itself and possess and and the result be a very watchable and often please at all time incomprehensible mess . it hard to know what well be try to do with this film aside from maybe resurrect his career in hollywood by make a vehicle for his wife . but self destruction intervenes and a it often do with welles and and miss hayworth have never look less fetching . that she be also cast a a femme fatale seem peculiar and a aside from her beauty her most appealing trait a a screen personality be lovableness and a quality she do not possess in this picture . the director himself be strangely unappealing and hammy at ohara and the ( presumably ) easygoing sailor and since welles and for all his many gift and be not know a an easy man to work with . this be a role that twenty or thirty year later sean connery or robert shaw might have be able to breath life into . welles do not . the most interesting performance in the movie be glenn anders a grisby and sloan loony and treacherous law partner . anders work wonder with the part and and be photograph to look bizarre and while his scene end on odd and sour note and and be often choppily edit while but for all this he manage to make grisby derangement palpable and disturbing and and anticipates and in a genteel way and the more flamboyant method actor of the fifty and such a timothy carey . there be a question that nag me about this film represent what be well try to say . he be a highly talented and intelligent man and and tend to make statement in his movie and which and whether one agree with his world view or not and be brilliantly put forth . i think i have an answer and or a partial one represent welles be sum up his movie career . he have reach the end of his rope in the hollywood studio system he despise and and he know it . the lady from shanghai isn not exactly a nose thumbing at the studio mogul of the day and but i suspect that it be and in it portrait of amoral and rival big shot lawyer ( read represent producer ) express welles opinion of the power broker of hollywood . that he present himself a a rootless sailor be tell . welles himself be certainly an inveterate traveler and and he rarely live in one place for long . he be hire by a studio to provide it with a big and prestigious film ( citizen kane ) and which cause a firestorm of controversy from which he never fully recover . this may be the issue that dare not speak it name in this film and which be to say welles personal failure in not get over the shock of his newness in the movie colony and and his inability to deliver the good and as promise . the mere fact of him turn up in hollywood and like his mere presence in the film and could not forestall disaster well beyond his control . that he present himself in the movie a an amiable and naive outsider show a lack of self knowledge on welles part . he be much more of an inside player than he let on and and i imagine that he despise his knowledge of the worldly aspect of life and and himself for know so much .