00:05Thanks for watching TCM. I'm Alicia Malone. And up next in our eclectic Sunday lineup,
00:10we have a film noir directed by Orson Welles. He also stars alongside his then wife,
00:16Rita Hayworth. From 1948, it's the lady from Shanghai. Nowadays, we know Orson Welles as one
00:22of the greatest American filmmakers, but he wasn't seen that way during the studio system
00:28and struggled to get executives to trust his vision. That was mainly because his debut
00:34narrative feature, Citizen Kane, had failed at the box office in 1941. His follow-up,
00:40The Magnificent Ambersons, then suffered from RKO's meddlings. They recut the film until it
00:46barely resembled his original cut. And even after he proved he could bring a movie in on schedule
00:52with Sam Spiegel's The Stranger, he had to agree to direct the lady from Shanghai for free
00:58Columbia Pictures. Well, to be more accurate, Welles had asked Columbia studio head Harry Cohn
01:04to lend him money for his ambitious stage version of Around the World in 80 Days and in the process
01:11had promised to write and direct a movie for the studio. There are various stories surrounding
01:17how Welles discovered the book that he would use as source material, If I Die Before I Wake by Sherwood
01:22King, but in any case, he apparently did not like it when he finally read it and wrote his version
01:28in
01:28just three days, adding in all sorts of twists and turns. The basic plot centers on Welles' character,
01:35an Irish sailor in New York named Michael O'Hara, who becomes infatuated with a beautiful woman,
01:42Elsa Bannister, played by Rita Hayworth. He finds out that she's married to a prominent defense lawyer,
01:47but O'Hara falls in love with her all the same, and this leads to a complex web of intrigue,
01:53crime,
01:54and a literal hall of mirrors. From 1948, this is The Lady from Shanghai.
01:59The Lady from Shanghai.
