The Lady from Shanghai

The Lady from Shanghai (1948)

  • 80% of critics liked it
    (30 reviews)

  • 84% of users liked it
    (7,913 ratings)

The Lady From Shanghai, a complex, involving puzzle-within-a-puzzle mystery story, is a showcase for Orson Welles, showing his singular talents and sensibilities as few other films have. The story is superficially simple: a seaman Michael O'Hara (Welles) is hired as a crew member on the yacht of the… More

Unrated, 1 hr. 27 min.
Directed By
Orson Welles
Written By
Orson Welles
Genres
Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Classics
In Theaters
Jun 9, 1948 Wide
On DVD
Oct 3, 2000

Critic Reviews

  • William Brogdon, Variety

    Script is wordy and full of holes which need the plug of taut story telling and more forthright action.

  • Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

    The weirdest great movie ever made.

  • Bosley Crowther, New York Times

    For a fellow who has as much talent with a camera as Orson Welles and whose powers of pictorial invention are as fluid and as forcible as his, this gentleman certainly has a strange way of marring his films with sloppiness.

  • , Film4

    Given Welles's reputation as an embattled genius and the fact that much of Shanghai is superb, this is a film you really want to like. And one might, were Welles's performance not so wretched.

  • Colin Kennedy, Empire Magazine

    Though the plot is impossible to follow, there are many glimpses of Welles' signature atmosphere-making.

Read all 13 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • First L


    Orson Welles stars in and directs this tale of sharks in the water, cannibalizing one another in a bloody frenzy. Actually, the sharks are human in nature and Michael (Welles) or "Black Irish" as he is also known, is stuck observing them in all their horrific glory. When… More

  • Chris W


    Even thoug hthis film came out several decades before it, I can't help but compare this movie to Fargo to an extent. This might be a more pure film noir than that one, but they both are very similar in their dealings with an average guy caught up in a scheme that can't… More

  • Bruce B


    .This is an excellent Orson Wells film with a beautiful Rita Hayworth, actress of the by gone era will never be matched by the female movie starts of today. They are just candles in the wind. This movie has so many twist and turns which will keep you guessing throughout the film,… More

  • Stefanie C


    Welles can do no wrong!

  • AJ V


    A good movie about a guy who gets involved with another man's wife, and finds out the husband wants him to be part of some crazy scheme. See it for yourself, it's good.

Read all 18 featured audience ratings

Cast

See full cast

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