Modern society makes it hard to trust people.  Though made nearly eighty years ago, The Lady from Shanghai (1947) testifies to this fact.  One of the themes involved in it, described by one of the characters, is that everyone has an “angle.”  This means that the people you meet, even occasionally family and friends, are looking at you for whatever you can give them.  This can be tough for a Christian who takes Jesus’ words to heart, namely that you should help friend and foe alike.  That can describe anyone and everyone.  My interpretation of this is that you never err in trusting others.  If that trust is broken by another, the sin is on them, not you.  At the same time, you have to discern each situation on an individual basis.  For Michael “Black Irish” O’Hara (Orson Welles), he is about to learn that putting your confidence in another person can lead to some pretty dicey situations.

Michael is in Central Park in New York City when he meets The Lady from Shanghai.  She is Elsa “Rosalie” Bannister (Rita Hayworth), and no, her name is not Chinese.  The currently unemployed sailor Michael learns of Elsa’s checkered past being brought up in the criminal dens of China’s roughest cities after saving her from a mugging.  Before their encounter can develop any further, she also tells him that she is married to one of the best criminal defense lawyers in the country, Arthur Bannister (Everett Sloane).  The Bannisters are about to leave on their yacht to sail from New York to San Francisco by way of the Panama Canal, and Elsa asks Michael if he would be a deckhand since they are in need of additional crew.  This could be Christian charity, but Michael senses otherwise and refuses.  Still, he cannot get her out of his head.  When Arthur comes to the docks the next day looking for him, it is to insist that Michael take the position on their boat.  Arthur adds that it is Elsa that is requesting him, and that is all that Michael needs to be the fool he has already admitted to being.  Thus, it is off to sea, with her batting her eyes at him at every turn as they sweat through the Caribbean heat.  Along the way, they are joined by Arthur’s partner, George Grisby (Glenn Anders), who observes the chemistry developing between Elsa and Michael.  Indeed, he observes more than just fraught encounters, witnessing them kiss at one moment and then cackling as he makes off in a motorized dinghy.  You do not need to be a Christian to know that adultery is a bad thing.  Though Michael tries to keep his distance for the rest of the voyage, Arthur and George take every opportunity to turn up the tension on Michael.  It is also made apparent that things between the two associates are not peaceful.  Because George senses Michael’s feelings for Elsa, the lawyer decides that he is going to use the veteran of World War II for a scheme he has concocted to get out from under Arthur’s influence.  To put it bluntly, George wants Michael to kill him.  According to George, there will be no actual murder.  He will compose a letter that has Michael confessing to the crime, they will go to the docks where Michael will fire a gun, and then George will escape in a boat.  While this plan sounds mad, Michael is enticed into accepting it for two reasons.  First, he is in love with Elsa, but does not believe he has enough money for them to run away together.  The cash is the second part.  George offers Michael $5,000 for the caper.  He tells all this to Elsa at a supposedly secret assignation, that being the city aquarium, which is unsurprisingly ruined when they are seen kissing by a group of school children.  That night, Michael meets George at the Bannister home, though George arrives first.  Once there, George is greeted by Sidney Broome (Ted de Corsia), a man who works for the Bannisters.  Sidney claims to know all about George’s plot and attempts to blackmail the attorney for hush money.  Instead, George shoots Sidney before getting into the car with Michael, the latter being unaware for the moment about what has transpired.  Unfortunately for George, Sidney survives long enough to warn Elsa as to what George is attempting.  Sidney is also still alive when Michael phones to tell Elsa of what has happened, but Sidney says she has gone to Arthur’s office.  Michael rushes there only to find George being taken out, dead, and with a gun and confession note in Michael’s pocket.  Michael is still clinging to the hope that Elsa is on his side, particularly since she has essentially made Arthur represent Michael.  The trial, however, is a sham, with the judge (Erskine Sanford) presiding over what is more of a circus than a court room.  The proceedings turn when the prosecutor, District Attorney Galloway (Carl Frank), calls Elsa to the stand.  Under oath, she confesses to having feelings for Michael, which fits the prosecution’s narrative of a jealous lover.  Yet, before the jury can return its decision, Michael swallows a few of Arthur’s pills.  This is taken as a suicide attempt, and Michael is dragged from the room.  This is his window to escape, making his way outside and into the nearby Chinatown neighborhood.  Elsa catches up to him there, seemingly for them to finally be together.  What changes Michael’s mind is feeling inside Elsa’s purse and finding the small caliber gun.  This is the missing weapon used to kill George since the police know it is not Michael’s pistol that is the murder weapon.  In other words, Elsa had been trying to frame Michael all along.  Michael passes out at this moment and comes to at a deserted amusement park.  Arthur finds the two of them there, but in the confusing hall of mirrors in the crazy house.  Arthur and Elsa end up murdering each other, and Michael walks away, glad to be done with the whole affair.

To return to the theme brought up in the introduction to this review of The Lady from Shanghai, did Michael err in trusting Elsa?  He appears to feel that way at the conclusion.  Let us try to look at Michael’s actions from a different, arguably more Christ-like perspective.  While Jesus would not condone violence, He would approve of helping a stranger in need as Michael does for Elsa shortly after their first meeting.  The Bible is replete with examples of this sort of thing, sans the fist fights.  Next is Michael’s romantic interest in Elsa.  This one is a little trickier.  There is nothing overtly Catholic about the film, though Hayworth was raised in the Church.  I offer that as an aside as it has little bearing on the proceedings.  Yet, Michael does not know that Elsa is married at first, so there is nothing untoward in his initial interest.  One could further argue that he makes the right call by not accepting the job offer once he learns of her marital status.  Where he errs, and he freely admits it in the narrations throughout, is in allowing to let himself get involved.  As I indicated in the synopsis, adultery rarely turns out well for anyone involved.  Nonetheless, let us give him the benefit of the doubt as Jesus does for us (and undeservedly), and say that Michael’s intentions are noble.  After all, it appears that Arthur and George are not the best of people.  George clearly has an unsavory interest in Elsa, and Arthur hires people to follow his wife to keep tabs on her.  This is abuse, and grounds for invalidating a marriage even in the eyes of the Church, which is not keen on divorce.  In this light, though I would prefer Michael go about it in a less seedy way, he has the best interests of a woman who looks to be in need.  We know she is the one behind everything, but that is not revealed until the end.  God, because he sees our hearts, understands when our intentions are in the right place, and Michael seems to have this trait.

The reason one would watch The Lady from Shanghai is because it stars two of the leading lights from Hollywood’s Golden Age: Hayworth and Welles.  They were married at the time of the making of this film, but sadly divorced not long thereafter.  Otherwise, there are some neat filming techniques which is also a sign of Welles’ influence.  It may be a little convoluted, but it does have some merit.