Midnight Oil:Movies and More

“The Lady from Shanghai” (1947) stars Rita Hayworth as Elsa Bannister and Orson Welles as Micahel O’Hara. Welles does it all as principle actor, writer and director of the movie. It is an interesting film from more than one angle (à la crazy fun house mirrors of the climax scene). Hayworth and Welles were in the final phases of their off-screen relationship at the time of filming, Welles reported that he did the film simply as a way of  financing other projects in jeopardy, and the complicated plot of the original Sherwood King novel is just, well, hard to follow. But then, Michael O’Hara’s Irish brogue is rather hard to follow and even harder to swallow at times.

Rita Hayworth’s character is the rather too obvious femme fatale who spices up the exotic scenery and even indulges us with a musical number and a spectacular cliff diving scene for the benefit of box office sales. It’s film noir with more than the usual twist at the end with a visually discombobulating fun house scene that is all “Orson”. It can be fun, if you just relax and get into the genre and the period of Hollywood film making.

>>More to see: Looking for more out of life?

>>Real Life Story: Katie and Nathan realized that they were driving each other into someone else’s arms. See the real life turnaround in their marriage. 

Orson Welles as Michael O’Hara gives us his rendition of the poetic Irish soul in this famous “shark scene on video clip. See below a re-cut, remixed video trailer for “The Lady From Shanghai” (1947)

“The List of Adrian Messenger” (1963) a film directed by John Ford, produces an interesting mystery and an even more interesting list of cameo character appearances by famous Hollywood stars of the day. The premise of the film has a semi-retired MI6 officer, George C. Scott, investigating the whereabouts of a puzzling list of men who appear to have all gone missing. Kirk Douglas pops up throughout the film, eventually revealing himself to be one George Brougham, a long lost son who re-emerges from the Colonies (a.k.a Canada).

A fox hunt and a manhunt ensue. Will the fox be caught? Will the innocent young heir to the family fortune be spared a gruesome fate? Will his attractive widowed mother end up with the right suitor? All is set right in the end and the villain is “unmasked”.

But what really kept my interest the first time I saw the film on SNAM in the wee hours of the morning many moons ago was the hunt for the Hollywood stars. I just couldn’t figure out how you could manage to get Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum and Burt Lancaster into this odd little production. The joke was on the audience of course. The ending reveals all!

<<Back to Midnight Oil main journal

>>On to "Who's Directing Your Life?"