Shanghai locations

[Tony]

I can't recall if I posted this before, so here it is anyway: a wonderful page about what were the real locations in Lady From Shanghai:

http://www.filminamerica.com/PacificNorthwest/NCA/TheLadyFromShanghai/

And here's another with some nice screen captures, publicity shots, and quotes:

http://www.eskimo.com/~noir/ftitles/ladysh/index.shtml

Here's a Rita photo gallery from the Shanghai period:

http://members.tripod.com/%7Eclaudia79/tlfspix.html

And finally, here's a colour promo shot of Rita I've never seen before:

http://img3.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?f45da7802c.jpg

[Roger Ryan]

The last time I was in San Francisco, I visited the Cliff House site and found aerial photos and a map of the Playland location. I then cajoled some friends into driving down to the old Playland site and I found the exact intersection where Welles walks out of the fun house during that final crane shot in "Shanghai". I retraced his steps mumbling to myself about how "I'll spend the rest of my life trying to forget her; maybe I'll die trying" while my friends looked on in complete bewilderment!

[Tony]

Roger: It sounds totally normal to me, but that's no standard for normalcy. :;):


http://img3.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?350af03003.jpg

[Roger Ryan]

http://img3.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?350af03003.jpg

Notice that the above image shows "Seal Island" (located off the coast just below Golden Gate Park) just above the "E" in "The End". I had never noticed it in the film before, but when retracing Welles' footsteps, I realized the island would have had to been visible in the shot. Next time I watched "Shanghai", I spotted it immediately.

[Tony]

It's such a rare ending for Welles: Michael is a survivor and guardedly optimistic, but optimistic nonetheless (he is alive), and he is the good guy...sort of; ok, at least we can say he's the stupid guy, and never malicious. :;): This is an unusual character for Welles to play. How I wish that he had been able to make Cyrano de Bergerac: Welles as a lover is such a strange concept; perhaps he came the closest with poor, naive Michael O'Hara.

[Glenn Anders]

Tony, Roger, those captures are wonderful!

Most of those locations are now gone or greatly altered, as the webmaster remarks. Whenever taking the ferry over to Sausalito, I always look for the skeleton of the old jetty to starboard. Haven't been on that trip for a while. I wonder if it is still there.

In a few stills, Rita Hayworth does not look at her best, reminding me that one of Harry Cohn's gripes about the production was that it went over budget. He blamed Welles, but, as I understand it, Miss Hayworth was off sick on a number of days, which lengthened the shoot.

I should say that, though he may not have known it at the time, Rita Hayworth was the romantic love of his life. THE LADY FROM SHANGAI is his elegy for that love.

"I'll spend the rest of my life trying to forget her; maybe I'll die trying."

When you quote that line, Roger, looking at "The End," I am reminded of a CASABLANCA theme in THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, which I don't often recognize. Thank you for that.

Glenn

[Tony]

Glenn:
I recall that, after this, say about 48, when Rita was engaged to Ali, She asked Orson to join him (wherever she was) and he stood on some shipping plane for hours in order to get to her; they spent one more rapturous night together, and then parted forever.

At least according to Welles. :;):

[Glenn Anders]

The other night, Tony, I happened to catch on PBS, perhaps in HD, a stunning print of THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA, not a film I've ever thought much of. The dialogue is a bit klunky, and the plot heavy handed. But here (in this print, at least), Cinematographer Jack Cardiff catches Ava Gardner in her iconic glory, her beauty not quite tamed by rather heavy "gypsy" make up. The film, like their PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (which I like much better), follows roughly the plot of Powell/Pressburger's THE RED SHOES (Cardiff, again), but the beauty in question is no doubt partly based on that Charles Foster Kane of Hollywood stars, Rita Hayworth.

A Welles-like film genius might advantageously have been written in as one of "Maria Vargas's" stations of the cross.

Ava Gardner did not escape the curse of stardom, for who can? But she did not allow it to entirely destroy her.

Glenn