Popular reviews

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  Review by karsten ★★★★½ 7

  Kinda loved this? Funnier than I could have ever expected, Orson Welles’ Irish accent definitely wasn’t supposed to funny on purpose but it was enjoyable nonetheless. I think the discombobulating tone of it is very effective in creating the dreamy state it wants to put you in. A dream that turns more into a nightmare with every turn. What I’m saying is yeah I‘ll acknowledge it’s “messy” I think it’s controlled and captivating in the process.
  Glenn Anders as Grigsby is nothing short of a great time, what a character. Yeah this rules!

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  Review by sydney ★★★★½ 2

  as gorgeous, scandalous, and twisty as i'd hoped, much funnier than i ever could have expected. wild as hell. highlights: mirrors (duh), aquarium, hayworth hats, juror sneezing repeatedly for some reason, sweaty face close-ups, the second most harrowing shark monologue of all time delivered in one of the most irritating faux accents of all time.

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  Review by vincent price was 6′4″ ★★★½ 1

  the last 10 minutes redeemed this mess, but nothing can help me forget orson welles' weird irish accent that constantly disappears mid-sentence

  3.25/5

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  Review by Sean Fennessey ★★★★ 1

  Arguably the best final 5 minutes of a film.

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  Review by Ethan Colburn ★★★★ 6

  The film’s plot is quite intense but this through the lens of Rita Hayworth and Ordon Welles’ marital troubles makes it all the more interesting. Hayworth is painted as the villain of the story, screwing over all the men in her life who love her. It’s been said he made her go blonde to take away the power of her signature red hair.

  Welles’ direction feels so ahead of it’s time. Movies from the 40s didn’t tend to have camera angles this radical or long takes, or fast cutting the way he used it. This culminates in the funhouse sequence which is one of the most spectacular things I’ve ever seen from old Hollywood. Representing his distorted reality, the characters superimpose each other as their trying to parse out fact from fiction.

  The plot line, especially in the middle drags a bit but watching Hayworth and the directing is enough to make this film worthy of its reputation.

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  Review by Will Sloan ★★★★½ 1

  I checked Wikipedia and it turns out that Orson Welles actually isn't Irish.

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  Review by josh lewis ★★★★★ 3

  the dangers of falling in love with an optical illusion.

  full discussion on episode 148 of my podcast SLEAZOIDS.

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  Review by Jake Cole ★★★★★

  Blissfully nonsensical. A deconstruction of noir during its heyday. But you wouldn't expect anything less from the man who unofficially brought the genre's golden age to a close a decade later.

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  Review by pd187 ★★★★★ 1

  a powerful alchemical dream, a trickster ghost, ley line navigation, gnostic visions of hidden/forbidden places; "it's a bright, guilty world"

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  Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★ 4

  Decades Project: 1/4 of the 40's

  "Everybody is somebody's fool."

  Everyone loves a good puzzle. The anticipation while you put it together, the satisfaction once it's complete; it's great. Mysteries are like puzzles (duh), except you have to watch someone else put the pieces together. You never know if they're hiding extra pieces up their sleeve or throwing out pieces that don't fit or making a different puzzle altogether.

  So here's the deal with The Lady from Shanghai: it's definitely a puzzle (duh), but Welles puts the pieces together so many times and in so many different ways that by the end of it all you're not sure if you've got the final picture or if the edges of the…

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  Review by Thomas McCallum ★★★★ 5

  Performances : 7.2/10
  Story : 9.3/10
  Production : 7.7/10
  Overall : 8.06/10

  The Lady from Shanghaiis easily the worst Orson Welles production that I've seen. The camera work doesn't blow me away...which isn't necessarily fair, as it really is fine, I'm just used to so much more from Welles. The lighting doesn't quite work for the genre and the score was out of place. Also I didn't really love his performance as "black irish". The accent just seemed so awkward and forced. However, besides Citizen Kane this film is probably Orson Welles' best story. It twists around more than most Noirs dare to do and it features some of the most thrilling closing moments I've personally ever seen put to…

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  Review by sakana1 ★★★½ 35

  We'll never know, really, what The Lady from Shanghai would have looked like, had Orson Welles been allowed to make the movie he envisioned and shot. What we've got instead is a stylish sizzle reel, one with little emotional weight, constructed of characters with whom it's almost impossible to connect.

  Visually, the film is incredible. Even the studio-mandated closeups work well, turning the leering, cheerfully malevolent Grisby (Glenn Anders) into a distorted monster, and emphasizing Rita Hayworth's chilly physical perfection as Elsa Bannister. And one glance at Hayworth makes it clear that Harry Cohn's controlling panic about the cutting and bleaching of her hair was patently absurd — she has genuinely never looked more beautiful. (I'm also lowkey obsessed with…