The Lady from Shanghai 4K Review: Orson Welles’ Film Noir Is Still Great By It’s always a delight when classic movies receive a 4K release. Sony’s The Lady from Shanghai 4K release brings ‘ 1947 film noir to UHD for the first time. While it isn’t the director’s best work, it has an incredible ending, several stellar performances, and remains a fun watch (even if the plot gets a bit convoluted) nearly 80 years later.
“Murders, plot twists, and remarkable camerawork all contribute to this spellbinding, time-honored film noir written, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. Hired to work on a yacht owned by the husband of femme fatale Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth), Michael O’Hara (Welles) is an innocent man drawn into a dangerous web of intrigue. The Lady from Shanghai is now considered vintage Welles, with his famous hall-of-mirrors climax hailed as one of the greatest scenes in cinematic history,” says the description.
Welles stars in The Lady from Shanghai opposite Rita Hayworth, who was his wife at the time. While they were divorced by the time the film actually came out, their on-screen chemistry is strong, and Welles gives a great performance, even if his Irish accent can lead to a few unintended laughs. The film’s story takes plenty of twists as a fake murder gets planned, and it ends with an incredible courtroom sequence that leads into a hall of mirrors shootout that you’ve no doubt seen referenced in other media.
It’s a movie that ends supremel.