Sunday 9 January 2011

You need more than luck in Shanghai

And onto film 2. Chosen by me. From a stack of films I own and have never gotten around to watching. This stack of films (including some vhs from over ten years ago) is a big reason for doing this film a day thing.

The Lady From Shanghai (1947)


The Lady from Shanghai benefits enormously from a couple of things. Rita Hayworth is amazing and it has brilliant opening and ending scenes. 
The start of the film sizzles, and is sexy and funny in a way that the rest of the film never really lives up to. After this the film meanders for quite a while never really getting around to doing anything especially interesting for a long time but has little moments and flourishes that means it never becomes dull. It then goes a bit strange with a comedy court scene that never seems to make any sense and that everyone in seems to be off their head on laughing gas.
However things pick right up again for the incredibly famous and massively influential climax in a hall of mirrors. Which just looks absolutely terrific and I'm so glad I finally bothered to put this disc in the machine.


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