And this week's Friday night movie has been... The Lady From Shanghai!
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Once again I am watching a movie from the pre-New-Hollywood era: in this case, from 1947. Nothing wrong with that - but in this case, I have been wanting to see this because there's a story attached.
You see apparently, this movie originally ran for three hours but the director, Orson Welles, was forced to cut it down to half that running time. The missing portion has since been lost to time and the movie has suffered for it.
With this in mind, watching The Lady From Shanghai is an odd experience. The narration is strongly placed, the flow is jarring and there are moments that may have required additional scenes. Welles have been attempting to do something different with film noir - admirable seeing as he was working with the limitations of what he had - but he doesn't quite pull it off successfully. Still it has it's moments: Not least of which is the final showdown in a hall of mirrors (oft-imitated but never bettered).
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