Repeat Visit From ‘The Lady From Shanghai’

Orson Welles predicted that there would be a lot of interest in him after he was dead. “He said to me, ‘God, how they’ll love when I am dead,’ ” recalls Welles’ good friend, director Peter Bogdanovich. “He said that about a year before he died.”

Fifteen years after Welles’ death at age 70, the auteur is hotter than ever. His groundbreaking 1941 feature, “Citizen Kane,” was ranked by the American Film Institute as the greatest American film ever made. His underrated 1958 film noir, “Touch of Evil,” was restored and re-released to great acclaim two years ago and is set for video and DVD release later this month.

“The Battle Over Citizen Kane,” the 1996 PBS documentary about Welles’ struggle to make “Kane,” received numerous accolades, as did the 1999 HBO movie based on the documentary, “RKO 281.”

And Tuesday, Columbia TriStar Home Video is releasing Welles’ 1948 “The Lady From Shanghai” on DVD ($25). Bogdanovich, who wrote the book “This Is Orson Welles,” supplies the audio commentary.

“They asked me to do [the commentary] because there is nobody who seems to be left who had anything to do with the movie,” says Bogdanovich, the director of such hits as “The Last Picture Show” and “Paper Moon.” “I had nothing to do with it; the only [connection] I have is that I knew Orson. I feel a little silly being on there, but I’m glad if it helps people enjoy the movie.”

“The Lady From Shanghai” is considered a classic example of film noir, the genre of moody, atmospheric thrillers that became popular in America after World War II. Visually arresting, the film features an innovative, brilliant shootout sequence in a fun house hall of mirrors.

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But, as was true of the majority of Hollywood films Welles wrote, directed and starred in, “The Lady From Shanghai” was a major flop in its day. It was only when Welles went to live and work in Europe in the 1950s that he discovered the film had many admirers.

Based on a 1938 novel by Sherwood King, “The Lady From Shanghai” is long on atmosphere but short on common sense. “I’ll give anyone who can tell me what this film is about a hundred bucks,” said Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia, the studio that produced and released “Shanghai.”

Bogdanovich admits the plot has eluded even him. “In fact, if you ask me today, I don’t know what the hell it is [about],” he says, laughing. “I don’t think it’s essential to know the plot.”

The film finds Welles playing an Irishman named Michael O’Hara, who falls madly in love with an enigmatic femme fatale, Elsa, played by Welles’ then-estranged wife, Rita Hayworth. Elsa is married to Arthur Bannister (Everett Sloan), a rich, crippled lawyer.

After Michael rescues Elsa from a group of hoods in the park, he’s invited aboard the Bannisters’ yacht, and that is when the plot thickens, thickens and thickens.

During their near 20-year friendship, Welles never really confided in Bogdanovich about his brief marriage to Hayworth.

“She had a lot of problems [in her life],” Bogdanovich says. “She did not have a happy time in her life. Evidently, she was very fond of Orson. I think he was [fond of her], but the marriage just ended. The movie was kind of an attempt to bring them back together, which didn’t work.”

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Welles’ initial cut clocked in at approximately 2 1/2 hours, but the studio cut it to 86 minutes and let it sit on the shelf for two years.

Most of the missing sequences, says Bogdanovich, “were longer versions of the scenes [in the film], like the fun house sequence.” There have been attempts to unearth the missing footage, he says, but to no avail: “I asked them about it at Columbia when they did the DVD. It’s gone.”

Welles was never bitter about his Hollywood career, Bogdanovich says. “He could be very funny and ironic about things that happened to him. But he didn’t play the martyr. He preferred not to talk about the past. He preferred to talk about the future. He certainly realized that certain things happened to him, but I don’t think he felt picked on.”

Bogdanovich says a number of directors inspired his own career, including Welles. “He was very encouraging personally, but his career is one that encourages trailblazing. He was an innovator, and that was inspiring. He also gave me a lot of tips here and there about making pictures that I use often.”

But the greatest thing about Welles, says Bogdanovich, was that he made one feel comfortable enough to say anything, “not only in an acting situation, but even in a dinner situation. You didn’t hold back. There was something very relaxing about Orson, but exciting. You felt like you could be yourself with him.”