Lady From Shanghai Trailer - new footage?

[MartynH]

I have the Columbia DVD 2003 version of the above. I watched the film last night and then the trailer that came with it. In the film at 16-15 Elsa makes an advance to O'Hara who slaps her once. Well, it was more of a flick than a slap. However, in the trailer O'Hara slaps her hard three times and Elsa reacts in a horrified way. Looking back at that section in the film you can see it was edited. Does anybody know why this scene was edited from the film?

I am aware this may have been mentioned before.

[Roger Ryan]

Yeah, that was something I noticed upon seeing the trailer as well. I'm sure the scene in the finished film was re-edited to tone down the violence of the act out of concern that the character of O'Hara would lose some audience sympathy. Did Welles agree to the change? I don't know. Shanghai suffered more post-production butchery than any other Welles-directed studio film (including Ambersons), but this is partially obscured by the fact that Welles was obligated (as the leading actor) to participate in the butchery by appearing in the numerous re-shoots. One likes to think that when Welles is on-screen, he's in control of the scene, but the pedestrian look of all those process screen scenes and inserts make me think he's (barely) going through the motions while his mind is on future projects.

I can think of three other examples of the leading man slapping the face of a female character in Welles' films: Kane slapping Susan while on the picnic, Kindler slapping Mary as she recognizes who he really is, and Hannaford slapping critic Juliet Riche at the drive-in. All three of those moments happen near the climax of each film and demonstrate the lead character losing control, the veneer of confidence or respectability slipping away to reveal the monster, if only temporarily. O'Hara slapping Elsa has a somewhat different meaning: while it reinforces O'Hara's predilection for violent outbursts, he is also reacting to the immorality of Elsa's actions; at that moment, he is offended that the woman he is charmed by would brazenly suggest an adulterous relationship.

[Le Chiffre]

Othello slapping Desdemona would be another. With the Lady slap, I agree O'Hara would have lost audience sympathy, and it probably would have been somewhat implausible, or even perverse, that they would have had a romantic kiss right after he slapped her like that. Still, it might be interesting to see how the scene played with the original slap, if that footage could somehow be extracted from the trailer.

[JMcBride]

I tried to partly subvert Welles's plan to have (a double for) Hannaford
slap Juliette Rich. I was worried that he might do to Susan Strasberg what
he did to Suzanne Cloutier in OTHELLO, telling her he wouldn't
slap her but then doing so anyway. So I warned
Strasberg about that. She thought about it
and demanded a prosthetic arm slap her -- the kind
that doesn't hurt. Welles was disappointed but agreed.
He said, "All right -- I'll have to put the same scene into
my next movie and find an actress who's willing to be slapped."
Strasberg also quietly told a female extra to laugh when
Juliette gets slapped. Welles was surprised and said, "My God!
That's the strangest thing I've ever seen in my life! Why did you
do that?" Strasberg cut in to admit that she had planned the moment
secretly, to inject some gray shading into what otherwise could have
been a scene of purely male chauvinist antagonism. Welles pondered a bit, then declared,
"I like it. Pauline Kael gets slapped, and a woman laughs. YES! We'll keep it!In the finished
film Bob Murawski manages to cut the slapping sequence
so that while it is very quick and somewhat oblique, it is
shocking, as it should be. Strasberg's highly intelligent
and subtle approach to the role takes it beyond Welles's
early intent to caricature and attack Kael and make Juliette Rich
a three-dimensional character. To his credit, since he was
an artist and not a polemicist, Welles went along with that,
and the character becomes the most acute, perceptive,
and accurate observer of Hannaford in the film, even
if she is also hostile to him, which under the circumstances
is largely warranted, from her character's point of view.
The older women cronies of Jake -- Zarah and Maggie --
are more sympathetic and motherly, while also being somewhat critical of him.

[Le Chiffre]

In the finished film Bob Murawski manages to cut the slapping sequence so that while it is very quick and somewhat oblique, it is
shocking, as it should be.

Yes, it's a well done, startling moment, but I think it would have been stronger if we had seen Hannaford himself slapping her. It's a crucial enough moment in his breakdown. The slap is more about him than her. But I guess none of the film buff's cameras caught it.

I wonder how they did the triple slap with Hayworth. Interesting that all four slaps in Welles films (Kane, Lady, Othello, and Wind) happen with the slapper out of picture.

[Byron Stayskal]

Joe McBride’s post of May 9 mentions how he warned Susan Strasberg of a coming slap since he knew that Welles had done something similar to Suzanne Cloutier during the shooting of Othello. Right around the time of this and the other “slap” posts, I happened to be reading Micheál MacLiamóir’s Put Money in Thy Purse, and what should I come upon but MacLiamóir’s description of the Cloutier slap:

Poor old Schnucks (Suzanne Cloutier’s nickname) did it countless times, moving beautifully … towards the camera but … could not prevent herself flinching … Schnucks did it again. Flinched. Again. Flinched. And again and again. And at last Orson … said ‘O.K., Schnucks, … you just do it once more and I’m not going to strike you, see, we’re going to cut on your line on your last “Why, sweet Othello!” …

Schnucks, reassured and radiant, sailed into her close-up, no sign of a flinch, and got the best puck in the face you ever saw and ‘Cut!’ says Orson, and it was all over. ‘Perfect. Thank you, Schnucks.’

Followed a short silence while Schnucks wiped the salt and smarting tears away, and then deprived us of our breaths by saying very sweetly, ‘Of course I’m very grateful, Mr. Orson, it was the only way to make me do it, but of course I did know all the time you were going to hit me: I guess I’m psychic.’

Orson is right and so am I and so are we all … she is Indestructible.

(1988 Columbus Books paperback edition, pp 154-154. Please pardon all the ellipses …. I felt I needed to shorten the quote for a post but wanted to indicate how much fuller and richer MacLiamóir’s description is. )

And one last observation… In light of all the other “slap” posts (thanks Martyn, Roger, & Le Chiffre), it seems the risk of a Wellesian slap is rather greatly increased if one’s name is Susan, e.g., Susan Strasberg, Suzanne Cloutier, and Susan Alexander Kane.

[Wellesnet]

Thanks for the excerpt from MacLiamóir’s book, Byron. Cloutier was a trooper.

If you look at this compilation of great movie slaps, you see that, with the sound down, most of them look fake. It's the sound that usually puts them across: