7.7 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.8 |
When unemployed Irishman Michael O'Hara saves Elsa Bannister from thugs, she obtains him a position on her invalid lawyer husband Arthur's yacht, as a deckhand. It soon becomes clear that Elsa has designs on O'Hara, and also wants her husband out of the way.
Starring: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane, Glenn Anders, Ted de CorsiaFilm-Noir | 100% |
Mystery | 12% |
Dark humor | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: Dolby Digital Mono
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Orson Welles. The name just sits there: immutable, unapproachable, yet also unavoidable. Is there any other name in cinema which evokes such a mixture of awe and despair? Welles, the enfant terrible who burst upon the film scene with Citizen Kane, which is still considered by many to be the finest film ever made. Welles, who with that film offended the sensibilities not only of powerful opinion shapers but also (perhaps even more perilously) those within the film industry. Welles, who then quickly saw his career hobbled by interlopers who repeatedly wrested control of his projects from him, remaking them in their own preconceived images of what they deemed to be more “appropriate”. The Lady from Shanghai represents what is arguably Welles’ last attempt to work within (what Welles considered) the confines of the so-called studio system. Though he was estranged from her at the time, his soon to be ex-wife Rita Hayworth agreed to star in a hastily put together Welles project, which Welles himself wanted to do only to raise funds to help pay debts associated with his stage production, a gargantuan musical version of Around the World in 80 Days. (The show’s producer, one Mike Todd, would go on to produce an all star, big budget film adaptation a decade or so later, sans the song score.) Welles, who of course was one of the world’s great raconteurs, insisted (according to the commentary by Peter Bogdanovich included on this Blu-ray as a supplement) that he came up with the idea on the spot, after phoning Harry Cohn (head of Columbia, where Hayworth was under contract) to raise money, and seeing a nearby paperback book stand in front of the phone booth. Welles, according to this perhaps fanciful “memory” (especially since it doesn't exactly jibe with other accounts of how this project got underway), simply chose one of the books from the display and insisted to Cohn that it was a hot property and that Welles would do the film for $50,000 (not so coincidentally the exact amount he needed to pay for the stage show’s costumes). Whether or not this is actually how the project was born is at least somewhat debatable, but it set Welles up to work on a relatively high budget and high visibility project for one of Hollywood’s major studios, something he would never again quite achieve after this film, with the possible exception of Touch of Evil, which was shot on nothing approaching the budget Welles enjoyed with The Lady from Shanghai.
The Lady From Shanghai is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The TCM Vault Collection (though this is a Sony-
Columbia property) with a VC-1 encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. You all might want to just get out the torches and
pitchforks right now, for I have a feeling my assessment of this transfer may generate its fair share of naysayers. I am, in
a
word, a bit underwhelmed. Why, you may well ask? Well, first of all, this was evidently (or at least reportedly)
sourced
off the original camera negative and given a 4K scan. Second of all, this is, as mentioned above, a Sony-Columbia title, a
studio which under the inspired mentorship of Grover Crisp has proven itself a remarkable (maybe the most
remarkable) curator of its assets catalog, especially with regard to their matriculation into high definition. And so let me
state up front part of my disappointment here is no doubt due to
expectations. Is there anything downright horrible about this transfer? No, and in fact parts of it look great—it
actually is at least marginally
cleaner
than the old DVD release, and it features well modulated gray scale and some impressively deep blacks, as a glance
at
the screenshots accompanying this review will prove. But this simply does not have quite the luster, the sheen,
and especially
the sharpness and clarity that we've come to expect from 4K scans of primary elements held by Columbia. It also has
occasionally problematic
contrast and image depth issues, as well as a slightly variable grain field (beyond understandable issues with opticals).
The fact that this title was "passed off" (for
want of a better term) to The TCM Vault Collection may indicate some inherent issues with the elements, but I'm more
prone
to point to
a
single layer disc and some fairly anemic bitrates (only occasionally ever rising much above 20 Mbps, with only a handful of
moments above 30 Mbps) that may (emphasis
may)
account for at least some of the issues here. (Some have pointed to the ostensibly less effective VC-1 codec, but I'm not
an
AVC elitist; I've seen many great looking transfers encoded via VC-1.) There is absolutely no doubt that some of the
softness and roughness on display is due to the film's reliance on multi-pass opticals; huge swaths of this film feature
literally
minutes
of dissolves and segues, something that will inherently add some problems. But the overall look here, while certainly
generally pleasing and just as certainly a step up from the DVD (especially in terms of damage), is something of a
letdown, at least to me. This is a
matter of degrees, however, and should be tempered by the realization that, yes, I was expecting a knock your socks off
transfer on this title (and unfortunately my socks are still on). There may be many of you who will be perfectly fine, maybe
even excited, by the video quality of this
release. I was just
expecting more. I'll be in the
Frankenstein
Castle awaiting your arrival.
Update: TCM has announced a reissue
of
this title, with an AVC codec and higher bitrates.
I've reviewed a lot of niche titles through the years by little labels just starting to put out Blu-rays, and seemingly they
inevitably feature Dolby Digital sound mixes, evidently ignoring the fact that Blu-ray consumers tend to be audiophiles as
well as videophiles. The fact that a relatively major release is deemed unworthy of lossless audio may not exactly be
reprehensible, but it's at least questionable, at least in my estimation. But here we have The Lady From Shanghai
presented via Dolby Digital Mono (pumped out over two channels in Dolby Digital 2.0). It's not the deal killer some might
insist, for the film's dialogue is still cleanly presented, and Welles' issues with Heinz Roemheld's music are legendary, so
perhaps less of that score is actually preferable. But it's still a shame that such an iconic film isn't offered in the best
possible way in terms of both audio as well as video.
Note: The reissue contains a Dolby
TrueHD 2.0 mono track.
Note: Though it played fine on my newer PS3 with up to date firmware, this disc initially refused to load on either the (older) PS3 I use to take screenshots or on PowerDVD, which I use to determine the resolution of supplements, requesting software/firmware updates on each platform. I was able to get it to load on my older PS3 after updating its firmware, but my PowerDVD is actually completely up to date and yet the disc still refused to load. Therefore, I am unable to absolutely guarantee the resolutions for the supplements, for which I apologize (though considering how quickly they loaded on the PS3 I use to watch Blu-rays, as well as their bitrates, I'm fairly confident they're all 1080i or 1080p). I have an inquiry into Cyberlink asking about this anomaly with PowerDVD.
Awe and despair are indeed probably on display in equal measure as one watches The Lady from Shanghai. Welles crafts an incredibly complex (maybe too complex) story that features several of his trademark flourishes, and yet the film also seems oddly constrained and uneven, which I personally attribute to meddlesome higher-ups at Columbia who, as so often happened in Welles' treacherous directing career, thought that they knew "better". Still, the film manages to weave a really hypnotic—indeed, almost hallucinatory—spell that makes it a "must see" for any devoted cineaste. This TCM Vault Collection Blu-ray, like Welles' films themselves, may not be all it might have been, for I personally feel both the video and audio could have been handled more effectively. That said, this is still a worthwhile release that comes Recommended.
TCM Vault Collection - reissued version
1947
1947
1947
1947
1947
1941
1958
Reissue
1957
StudioCanal Collection
1949
Warner Archive Collection
1953
1945
1955
1955
Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1962
1953
1948
1946
Warner Archive Collection
1946
1944
Encore Edition | Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1953
1945
40th Anniversary
1984
1930
1946
1989