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George Antheil

Hedy Lamarr – beauty, brains and bad judgment

Hedy Lamarr arrives in Hollywood
4 October 1937. Hedy Lamarr arrives in Hollywood. Read more.

Hedy Lamarr had it all: beauty, brains, fame and fortune. For a few years she had the world, or at least Tinseltown, at her feet. And she blew it. So what went wrong? Was Hedy the victim of forces beyond her control or of her own character flaws. Or was she just plain unlucky?

Hedy Lamarr arrives in Hollywood in October 1937. She has just fled Vienna, her husband Fritz Mandl, and the looming threat of a Nazi invasion. Taking the train to Paris and then crossing the Channel to England, she has discovered that Louis B Mayer, MGM’s head honcho, is in London and looking for talent. Somehow, she manages to arrange a meeting with him. He’s worried about the scandal surrounding her appearance in Ecstasy but not blind to her charms (how could he be?). So he offers Hedy a bulk-standard, six-month contract with MGM at $125 a week. Which she flatly rejects. She’s has her own idea of what she’s worth and she’s not going to be pushed around.

Still, Hedy is in a pretty desperate situation and, after a meeting with Robert Ritchie, one of Mayer’s talent scouts, she changes her mind. But then it turns out that the mogul is leaving the next day for France in order to catch the superliner Normandie back to the US. Getting a berth requires the sale of most of her jewels as well as some subterfuge (the voyage is already fully booked). On board, Hedy, in a gown by Alix, dazzles her fellow passengers, and the effect is not lost on Mayer, who ups his offer to a seven-year contract beginning at $550 a week.

So by the time Hedy Lamarr arrives in Hollywood (her name changed by MGM from Hedwig Kiesler to Hedy Lamarr), she has proved that she is daring, ambitious, determined and resourceful. Those are qualities she is going to need in spades. But that’s far from the whole story. Ever since she was a little girl, she’s wanted to be an actress in spite of being, by all accounts, a very private person. Is that because acting can be a form of escapism for her and, if so, what demons is she struggling with? Well, for one thing she believes that her mother wanted a boy and didn’t really like her. Then, married at age 19 and dominated by her husband Fritz Mandl, she likely feels she needs to take back control of her life.

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Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for White Cargo

Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for White Cargo

1942. It's possible that this photo is from the same sitting as the

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Hedy Lamarr, glamour shot

Hedy Lamarr, glamour shot

Around 1943. A classic glamour shot of Hedy Lamarr, the background thrown out of...

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Hedy Lamarr as Irene in The Conspirators

Hedy Lamarr, power dresser

1944. Hedy Lamarr wears this costume in The Conspirators. With its exaggerated shoulder pads...

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Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for White Cargo

Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for White Cargo

1942. This photo of Hedy Lamarr is one of a series of three on...

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Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for White Cargo

Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for White Cargo

1942. In White Cargo, for which this photo is advance publicity, Hedy Lamarr is...

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Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for White Cargo

Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for White Cargo

1942. The caption on the back of this photo refers to three Hedy Lamarr...

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Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for The Heavenly Body

Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for The Heavenly Body

1943. The Heavenly Body is little more than a bit of froth, with one...

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Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for The Heavenly Body

Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for The Heavenly Body

1943. Pencilled on the back of this photo are the words “BY CARPENTER.” That...

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Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for The Heavenly Body

Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for The Heavenly Body

1943. According to IMDb, Joan Crawford was offered the lead role...

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Now, put yourself in her shoes for a minute. She’s 23 years old. She’s in a strange city with a culture very different from that in which she’s grown up. She can speak only a few phrases of English so she struggles to communicate with those around her. And she knows no-one. Columnist Sheilah Graham, out on the town at the Beverly Hills Brown Derby one Saturday evening that winter, spots Hedy at a table all by herself. Her partner, F Scott Fitzgerald, wryly observes: “How typical of Hollywood, the most beautiful girl in the world alone on a Saturday night.”

Hedy Lamarr with a bust by Nina Saemundsson
1939. Hedy Lamarr poses beside a bust of her by Nina Saemundsson. Read more.

Hedy Lamarr – beauty

And beauty is a recurring theme, the dominant theme, when it comes to Hedy Lamarr. Jet-black tresses, cherry-red lips, porcelain complexion… Hedy’s looks are classic and exotic, innocent and alluring, making her the perfect model for two very different movie legends: Disney’s Snow White on the one hand and, on the other, Catwoman in the original Batman comics.

What immediately strikes you when you look at Hedy in her movies or her stills is just how staggeringly beautiful she is – drop-dead gorgeous. And a different kind of beauty from the blondes who have been fashionable through the thirties, a fact that’s not lost on her audiences or the other Hollywood actresses.

In Those Glorious Glamour Years: Classic Hollywood Costume Design of the 1930s, Margaret J. Bailey, a historian of film costume, observes:

After her first appearance on the screen in Algiers, drugstores experienced a run on hair dyes, and soon everybody, including starlets and established luminaries like Crawford and Joan Bennett, had changed their locks from blonde or brown to jet black. The Lamarr hairdo with the part in the middle and the tall Lamarr look became the new standard of glamour. Shock waves were felt not only in personal beauty, but also in the realm of fashion, in particularly, the hat. Somehow that three letter word seems inadequate when describing what Lamarr wore in her first films. Lamarr veils, snoods, turbans, and such swept the fashion world and millinery companies would overnight fill the hunger for the new cinema image. Not everyone could affect the Lamarr styles, but just about everyone tried. Turbans and snoods became the fashion for Forties headgear.

Suddenly, Hedy’s image is everywhere. Overnight she becomes a star. In December 1938 she is named Glamour Girl of 1938 by the popular press. Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper describes Hedy as “orchidaceous.”

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Hedy Lamarr modelling a Grecian gown

Hedy Lamarr modelling a Grecian gown

1939. After her success in Algiers, Louis B Mayer (head honcho at MGM) envisages...

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Hedy Lamarr's golden

Hedy Lamarr’s golden “bib”

1939. The ornamental "bib" that adorns Hedy Lamarr's black crepe evening gown is in...

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Hedy Lamarr kneeling on a couch

Hedy Lamarr kneeling on a couch

1939. The photographer is not one of Hedy's fans and it does look a...

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Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for Lady of the Tropics

Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for Lady of the Tropics

1939. The bamboo screen and prop give it away – this is a publicity...

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Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for I Take This Woman

Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for I Take This Woman

1940. Another photo that showcases Hedy Lamarr's luxurious tresses and porcelain complexion. A caption...

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Hedy Lamarr in a dress decorated with spangles

Hedy Lamarr’s spangles

1940. Is that a palm frond in the upper left corner? And if so,...

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Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for The Heavenly Body

Hedy Lamarr, publicity shot for The Heavenly Body

1943. A dramatic vision of Hedy Lamarr, with strong overhead lighting and a faux...

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Hedy Lamarr wrapped in ostrich feathers

Hedy Lamarr wrapped in ostrich feathers

1943. Most of the other images of Hedy Lamarr on aenigma are studio issues....

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Hedy Lamarr with a pearl necklace and earrings

Hedy Lamarr wears pearls

1943. This photo of Hedy Lamarr may have been taken on the set of...

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There’s no doubt that she looks gorgeous in stills. In fact, David O Selznick, producer of Gone with the Wind, refers in a memo to Hedy as having “actually been established [as a Hollywood star] purely by photography.” And yet, the photographers themselves are less than enthusiastic. Hungarian lensman Laszlo Willinger, who has photographed Hedy in Vienna as well as in Hollywood, complains to John Kobal:

How do you make Hedy Lamarr sexy? She has nothing to give. It wasn’t as simple as showing legs or cleavage. She was not very adept at posing. She was just… She felt if she sat there, that was enough. You try to bring it to some life by changing the lighting, moving in closer to the head, whatever, because nothing changed her face. It never occurred to me that one could wake her up… and nobody ever did.

Then there’s Virgil Apger, another MGM snapper who remembers:

She thought she knew it all and was forever telling you what to do. She was beautiful – she had great skin texture – but I don’t recall anybody saying they enjoyed shooting her. She never came alive, except to keep making damned uncouth remarks to the people I had around me.

Legendary photographer George Hurrell feels much the same way, having first photographed Hedy soon after her arrival in Hollywood. He tells John Kobal:

I didn’t get too much out of Hedy because she was so static. Stunning. But it was the nature of her, she was so phlegmatic, she didn’t project anything. It was just a mood thing. And she had just one style. It didn’t vary particularly. She had a pretty good body. But she wouldn’t dress for it. She was always dressing in black. She liked suits. You can’t do anything – a woman in a suit is a dead duck.

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Hedy Lamarr, still a Hollywood wannabe

Hedy Lamarr, still a Hollywood wannabe

1938. Hedy Lamarr's first movie after arriving in Hollywood is Algiers, for which MGM...

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Hedy Lamarr wears a black sequin dress and pearls

Hedy Lamarr, sequin chic

1938. Clarence Sinclair Bull, head of MGM's stills studio, gets to work glamming up...

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Hedy Lamarr wears pearls

Hedy Lamarr, sequin chic

1938. This photo looks like it comes from the same sitting as another in...

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Hedy Lamarr ramps up the sensuality

The loveliness of Lamarr

1939. There's something cat-like about Hedy Lamarr's pose, and her bare shoulders intensify the...

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Hedy Lamarr relaxes in an armchair

Hedy Lamarr relaxes

1940. Hedy Lamarr relaxes in an armchair while a back light casts a soft...

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Hedy Lamarr in profile

Hedy Lamarr in profile

1941. An arresting shot of Hedy Lamarr that, unusually, showcases her profile. A caption...

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Hedy Lamarr, glamour goddess

Hedy Lamarr, glamour goddess

1941. With its dramatic use of highlights and shadows, this image pulls out all...

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Hedy Lamarr with her hair pulled back

Hedy Lamarr, her hair pulled back

1941. Hedy's long tresses, centrally parted and cascading over her shoulders, are such a...

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Hedy Lamarr, publicity portrait for The Heavenly Body

Hedy Lamarr, lady of the pearls

1943. Hedy looks dreamy in this publicity portrait for The Heavenly Body. Perhaps she's...

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Some clues there to what Hedy is like and why her career will crash and burn. But on a more positive note, when Clarence Sinclair Bull, head of MGM’s stills studio, visits Hedy to take some shots of her at home, she prepares lunch for him herself. “This is the first time a star’s ever done this for me,” he remarks. “Oh, I always fix my lunch by the kitchen sink when I’m alone. It’s easier,” says Hedy (Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood, Los Angeles Times, October 13, 1941). 

Hedy is a looker and knows how to turn it to her advantage. According to June Allyson, “No doubt about it, she was stunning and she knew how to look at a man with an intimate little smile that turned him on.” Men are drawn to her like bees to honey, and people are so blinded by her beauty that they struggle to see beyond it. The default response seems to be that she’s just decorative, should stick to being an ornament, should not get involved in “real” acting. Bosley Crowther, notorious critic of The New York Times, is typical in his review of Lady of the Tropics, admittedly a lousy movie:

Now that she has inadvisedly been given an opportunity to act, it is necessary to report that she is essentially one of those museum pieces, like the Mona Lisa, who were more beautiful in repose.

But Hedy Lamarr can act. She may not have the dramatic prowess of a Bette Davis or a Barbara Stanwyck, but watch her in The Strange Woman and you’ll see a subtle and nuanced performance that brings to life Jenny’s (her character’s) ambiguity. What’s more, it seems there is more to Hedy Lamarr than just a perfect face.

Hedy Lamarr with her stand-in, Sylvia Hollis, on the set of The Heavenly Body
1943. Hedy Lamarr with her stand-in, Sylvia Hollis, on the set of The Heavenly Body

Hedy Lamarr – brains

Perhaps the most astonishing thing about Hedy Lamarr, and it would certainly have baffled Bosley Crowther, is that her name is on the patent for a technology which would pave the way for both cellular networks and Bluetooth. Hedy, it turns out, is a smart cookie.

Perhaps the most astonishing thing about Hedy Lamarr, and it would certainly have baffled Bosley Crowther, is that her name (as Hedy Kiesler Markey) appears on the patent for a technology which will pave the way for both cellular networks and Bluetooth. So what’s going on here?

One day in 1940, dress designer, Adrian, one of Hedy’s closest friends, asks her along for dinner. Also there is the multi-talented George Antheil, not just the self-styled Bad Boy of American music (and partner in crime of Orson Welles for The Lady from Shanghai) but also something of an expert on endocrinology – he’s published three books about glands. Hedy’s interest is in finding out about the possibility of breast enlargement – something that Louis B Mayer has suggested to her. Antheil assures her that that would not be a problem. According to his autobiography, at the end of the evening, Hedy leaves before him and uses her lipstick to scrawl her phone number on his car window.

That’s not an invitation to be taken lightly. So he invites her round to his place for dinner and discussion. Fascinating as Hedy’s breasts undoubtedly are, the conversation does eventually move on to the prospect of the US entering the war in Europe. Hedy feels she should be doing something to help the Allies. She is also convinced she has something to offer in that regard because she used to eavesdrop on Fritz Mandl’s (her munitions manufacturer ex-husband) discussions about weapons technology.

She said she knew a good deal about new munitions and various secret weapons, some of which she had invented herself, and that she was thinking seriously of quitting M.G.M. and going to Washington, D.C., to offer her services to the newly established Inventors’ Council.

The challenge they set themselves is to find a way to stop the Germans from jamming the signals controlling the radio-guided torpedoes fired at their U-boats, which are playing havoc with the British shipping trying to cross the Atlantic. The solution the pair come up with is a radio-directed torpedo based on a transmitter and receiver, programmed to shift continually and at random through 88 different frequencies. The programming is done by paper tape inspired by the paper-rolls Antheil has used to synchronise player pianos. This is the invention they submit to the government for a US patent under the title of Secret Communication System.

The invention is covered in the October 1 1941 edition of The New York Times:

HEDY LAMARR – Actress Devises ‘Red-Hot’ Apparatus for Use in Defense

So vital is her discovery to national defense that government officials will not allow publication of its details. Colonel L. B. Lent, chief engineer of the National Inventors Council, classed Miss Lamarr’s invention as in the ‘red-hot’ category. The only inkling of what it might be was the announcement that it was related to remote control of apparatus employed in warfare.

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Hedy Lamarr in her garden

Hedy Lamarr in her garden

Around 1942. According to the person from whom this photo was acquired, it was...

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Hedy Lamarr with cinematographer Ray June on the set of Ziegfeld Girl

Hedy Lamarr with cinematographer Ray June

1941. Based on Internet searches, this shot appears to have been taken on the...

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Hedy Lamarr boosts war-bond sales

Hedy Lamarr boosts war-bond sales

1942. Asked on radio about her attitude to war-bond sales, Hedy Lamarr doesn't mince...

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Hedy Lamarr at home

Hedy Lamarr at home

24 January 1942. A glimpse of Hedy Lamarr in her kitchen before going to...

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Hedy Lamarr with cinematographer Bud Lawton on the set of I Take This Woman.

Hedy Lamarr with cinematographer Bud Lawton

1940. The other side of the lens. On the set of I Take This...

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Hedy Lamarr – Uncle Sam's saleslady

Hedy Lamarr – Uncle Sam’s saleslady

1942. Hedy Lamarr is delighted to accept the challenge when the Treasury Department asks...

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When their patent application is approved in August 1942, Hedy and Antheil offer it to the US government. But the powers-that-be just sit on it, regarding the device as too unwieldy. They are more interested in having Hedy do some tours to sell war bonds. She accepts the invitation and throws herself wholeheartedly behind the initiative.

All the ships dispatched to defend the US during the Cuban Missile Crisis will be equipped with frequency-hopping technology (the paper rolls replaced by electronic circuitry) to secure their communications. But the technology itself will remain a secret until it is declassified in 1981. By the time its commercial potential is realized, the patent will have expired and others will profit hugely from it. It will not be until 1997 that Hedy and Antheil (by this time deceased) will be officially recognized for their invention and receive the sixth annual Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer Award. Hedy will be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame posthumously in 2014.

Is the idea behind spread spectrum a one-off for Hedy? It’s difficult to know. There’s a story about her at age five taking apart and reassembling a music box. Antheil is certainly impressed by her inquisitiveness and ingenuity. And in interviews towards the end of her life she talks about how, while she was dating Howard Hughes, she designed a new wing shape to make his planes more aerodynamic. That’s about the size of it. Whatever her credentials as an inventor, though, Hedy Lamarr is no airhead. When she leaves MGM in 1945, she partners with Jack Chertok, producer of The Conspirators (one of her 1942 movies) to set up Mars Productions, a production company. She goes on to produce The Strange Woman (1946 – arguably the showcase for her finest performance) and Dishonored Lady (1947) as well as attempting to make further movies in Italy. She amasses a considerable art collection that includes works by the likes of Modigliani, Chagall, Rodin, Dufy, Vlaminck, Rouault, Utrillo and Renoir. And late in life she proves herself to be quite an astute investor so that when she dies in 2000, she leaves behind an estate worth $3.3 million – mainly shares.

Hedy Lamarr – bad judgment

Unfortunately, intelligence doesn’t necessarily translate into good judgment, let alone wisdom. Hedy is not afraid to make decisions and in too many cases she opts for the wrong course of action. This is the case with regard to both her professional and her private life. With the benefit of hindsight, Hedy will admit that she had poor taste both in scripts and in husbands. It’s difficult to argue with that.

Let’s start with her career. The movies in which an actor or actress appears can make or break their career. When she arrives in Hollywood, Hedy realizes that the place is full of wannabees looking for roles, that her contract makes no guarantees and that if she’s to be successful she has to engineer an opening.

She’s fortunate to run into Charles Boyer at a party; it is thanks to him that she gets a starring role in Algiers, her first and breakthrough Hollywood movie. She’s unfortunate that even after she makes headlines, her employers, Louis B Mayer and MGM, have pretty much no idea how to use her. They do a great job of building her image through a stream of glamorous stills. But the films in which they cast her range from second-rate to downright bad.

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Hedy Lamarr in Algiers

Hedy Lamarr in Algiers

1938. In February, Hedy gets her first break. She meets Charles Boyer at a...

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Hedy Lamarr alongside Judy Garland and Lana Turner in Ziegfeld Girl

Hedy Lamarr in Ziegfeld Girl

1940. Here's Hedy Lamarr alongside her co-stars, Judy Garland and Lana Turner. Looking back...

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Hedy Lamarr in Tortilla Flat

Hedy Lamarr in Tortilla Flat

1942. Tortilla Flat, based on an early novel by John Steinbeck, gives Hedy Lamarr...

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Hedy Lamarr in The Heavenly Body

Hedy Lamarr in The Heavenly Body

1943. The title says it all – Hedy Lamarr is cast in an essentially...

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Hedy Lamarr as Tondelayo in White Cargo

Hedy Lamarr as Tondelayo in White Cargo

1942. Hedy Lamarr covered in brown make-up as Tondelayo in White Cargo. She appears...

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Hedy Lamarr in the Conspirators

Hedy Lamarr in the Conspirators

1944. The Conspirators is a tale of romance, intrigue and adventure set in Lisbon...

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Hedy Lamarr on the set of Experiment Perilous

Hedy Lamarr on the set of Experiment Perilous

1944. For Experiment Perilous, a psychological mystery set in the early years of the...

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Hedy Lamarr in The Strange Woman

Hedy Lamarr in The Strange Woman

1946. In late summer 1945, Hedy partners with Jack Chertok, producer of The Conspirators...

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Hedy Lamarr in Dishonored Lady

Hedy Lamarr in Dishonored Lady

1947. Dishonored Lady was always going to struggle to be a success given its...

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Worst of all, in 1942 Mayer turns down Warner Bros when they come calling, refusing to loan Hedy out to star opposite Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. Instead, she ends up in the toe-curling White Cargo. Two years later, Hedy has opportunities to star in Laura and Gaslight. She rejects both of them (Gene Tierney and Ingrid Bergman say hi!). Had she appeared in just one of that trio of films, how different might her career trajectory have been and how differently might she be remembered?  As it is, how many Hedy Lamarr movies can you remember off the top of your head? None, right?

Relatively early in her career, a certain litigiousness starts to characterize Hedy’s affairs. In 1943, she sues Loew’s and MGM for failing to pay her the $2,000 a week stipulated in her contract. They claim that the reason for this is a wartime executive order, issued by President Roosevelt, limiting salaries to $25,000 a year. The case is settled out of court. But as time goes by, it does seem as if Hedy is rather too keen on litigation, and this tendency will dog her for pretty much the rest of her life because all too often courts will fail to find in her favour.

More often than not, Hedy’s litigation has to do with money. Hedy’s attitude to it is ambiguous. On the one hand, money matters to her and she worries about not having enough of it. On the other, she spends lavishly, which for a time she can afford to do. She gets into the habit of living in the best homes with the finest furnishings, amassing an amazing art collection, and travelling whenever and wherever she wants.

Hedy Lamarr with Charlie Chaplin at the LA Tennis Club
1942. Hedy Lamarr with Charlie Chaplin

After she leaves MGM in late summer 1945, she sets up her own production company, Mars Productions, in partnership with Jack Chertok, producer of her 1944 film, The Conspirators. They manage to find financial backing from producer, Howard Stromberg and their first film, The Strange Woman, is a bit of a triumph even though Hedy doesn’t get on with chosen director Edgar Ulmer. But their second movie, Dishonored Lady, is a turkey.

Hedy’s career is brought back from the brink by her appearance in Cecil B DeMille’s outrageous biblical epic Samson and Delilah (1949), the highest grossing movie of the decade. But she falls out with Paramount by refusing to help promote the film unless paid top dollar to do so.

Soon she is sinking her fortune into her own productions, taking advantage of the facilities offered by Rome. She’s well out of her depth, her projects end in failure and she runs out of road. She’s over-reached herself – spent too much money, fallen out with too many people (she’s acquired a reputation for being difficult to work with), burnt too many bridges.

In her autobiography she summarizes her attitude to money:

I figured out that I had made—and spent—some $30 million. … I advise everybody not to save; spend your money. Most people save all their lives and give it to somebody else. Money is to be enjoyed.

Hedy Lamarr’s private life is messy and sad. She is married and divorced six times: to munitions magnate Fritz Mandl: screenwriter Gene Markey; actor John Loder; nightclub owner Ernest Stauffer; oil millionaire W Howard Lee; and lawyer Lewis W Boies Jr. None of her marriages last more than six years and she doesn’t always maximize what she could get from her divorce settlements. Meanwhile, she has many affairs. Sadly, such turmoil is not unusual for attractive women trying to make careers in Hollywood.

By the mid-1960s, Hedy struggles to pay her utility bills and doesn’t always know where her next meal is coming from. Her ghost-written, sexed-up autobiography, Ecstasy and Me, published in 1966, is a pretty desperate attempt to raise some much-needed money. But she’s horrified when she reads it and (surprise, surprise!) contests its accuracy in court. Much of the content is indeed dubious and sensational.

She reaches her nadir when she is arrested for shoplifting in 1966 and again in 1991. She is fortunate to get away with it on both occasions.

Hedy Lamarr – what to make of her?

Let’s be clear from the outset. Hedy Lamarr is no angel. She has quite a temper and can be difficult to live with – John Loder, her third husband, should know. And as she establishes herself as a star, she gains a reputation (dubious at first but increasingly credible) as a real prima donna.

Hedy Lamarr looks sultry
Around 1940. Hedy Lamarr looks sultry

But it would be unfair to see her as just a spoiled diva who gets what’s coming to her. There are certainly some extenuating factors. Let’s start with her looks. Reflecting on her life, Hedy would suggest that:

My face has been my misfortune. It has attracted six unsuccessful marriage partners. It has attracted all the wrong people into my boudoir My face is a mask I can’t remove. I must live with it. I curse it.

She embodies the fate of so many beautiful women drawn to Hollywood, preyed upon and spat out. And it’s worth adding that, as Richard Avedon observed, beauty can be isolating. Hedy is undoubtedly lonely in the US and it’s easy to imagine that her looks and her shyness being a fatal combination for her. In 1952, actor Farley Granger attended a private party at which he recalled seeing Hedy:

She was very shy, very quiet, and very retiring. She just kind of receded almost into the woodwork. She kept very much to herself, you know.

Indeed, what comes through as you read Hedy Lamarr’s biographies and interviews with those who knew her is that she is a very private person. So, while acting may provide a channel for the more extrovert side of her personality, perhaps it turns out not to be the ideal career for her. In Hedy Lamarr Reveals She’ll Retire from Films in the January 24 1951 edition of the Los Angeles Examiner, gossip columnist Louella Parsons quotes a letter:

Dear Louella,

To straighten out all various statements about my retiring from the screen I want you to know it is true for the simple reason that I would like the privilege of a private life. As for marriage it is the normal desire of any woman, when I find the man I love enough to be my husband and father of my children.

Fond love to you,

Hedy Lamarr

By the late-1940s if not before, perhaps because of the mounting pressure and expectations, Hedy’s mind seems to be in a fragile state. Again, her public confidante is Louella Parsons, who reveals in The Strange Case of Hedy Lamarr (Photoplay, September, 1947) that, “with all the things in her past, and all she still holds of the material things of life, Hedy has been dangerously close to a nervous breakdown for the past year and she is still far from well.”

Her former co-star, John Fraser, paints a harrowing picture of Hedy’s mental decline in an email to Stephen Shearer:

In 1952 Hedy was neurotic and completely unable to communicate socially. In company, she was unaware of anyone but herself. Her need to be the centre of attention meant that whenever she appeared in public, she launched into a meaningless monologue. She was accompanied by her PA, Frankie Dawson and sometimes by her psychiatrist, who wasn’t doing her much good.

From around the mid-1950s to the early-1970s, Hedy is treated by New York physician Max Jacobson, nicknamed “Miracle Max” and “Dr Feelgood.” He has arrived in New York from Berlin in 1936 and his practice attracts the rich and famous including an impressive roster of Hollywood movie celebrities – Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, Yul Brynner, Montgomery Clift, Cecil B DeMille, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Marilyn Monroe, David O Selznick, Elizabeth Taylor and Billy Wilder. According to Wikipedia, Jacobson is known for his “miracle tissue regenerator” shots, which consist of amphetamines, animal hormones, bone marrow, enzymes, human placenta, painkillers, steroids, and multivitamins.

Add to such a lethal cocktail of drugs the shock Hedy suffers when, in December 1958, her 11-year-old son, Anthony, out riding his bike, is hit by a car and seriously injured, and her erratic behaviour is hardly surprising. To compound matters, as her looks fade in the 1960s she undergoes some pretty disastrous cosmetic surgery that leaves her reluctant to show her face in public.

The last word on Hedy Lamarr goes to John Fraser:

She had been fawned upon, indulged and exploited ever since she had reached the age of puberty. Her extraordinary intelligence did not encompass wisdom. How could she have learnt about the values that matter, about kindness and acceptance and laughter, in the Dream Factory that is Hollywood? She had been thrust into the limelight at a pitilessly early age, been devoured by rapacious lovers and producers who saw her ravishing beauty as a ticket to success, and who looked elsewhere when she began to grow older. Beauty and money in moderation are undoubtedly a blessing. In excess, they are surely a curse.

Want to know more about Hedy Lamarr?

The two main sources for this piece are Hedy’s autobiography Ecstasy and Me (to be read with a large pinch of salt) and Stephen Michael Shearer’s Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr. Other titles are available at Amazon and elsewehere. Alexandra Dean’s documentary film, Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, provides an overview of her life, shining a spotlight on her prowess as an inventor.

Other topics you may be interested in…

Ava Gardner – the journey to Hollywood
Gene Tierney – a sick rose
Hedy Lamarr in Vienna
Hedy Lamarr before she came to Hollywood

Filed Under: Films, Photographers, Stars Tagged With: Algiers, Charles Boyer, Clarence Sinclair Bull, Dishonored Lady, Ecstasy, Experiment Perilous, Fritz Mandl, Gene Tierney, George Antheil, George Hurrell, Hedy Lamarr, Lady of the Tropics, Laszlo Willinger, Louis B Mayer, The Conspirators, The Heavenly Body, The Strange Woman, Tortilla Flat, Virgil Apger, Ziegfeld Girl

The Lady from Shanghai – the weirdest great movie ever made

The Lady from Shanghai – hallucinatory, baffling, sinister, brilliant, twisted. All of those adjectives apply to this flawed masterpiece by one of cinema’s great magicians. Or, in the words of Dave Kehr, the weirdest great movie ever made.

The Lady from Shanghai has become something of a cult for movie buffs, particularly for connoisseurs of film noir. It’s full of originality, strangeness and atmosphere. But the film we see today is very different from the one that Orson Welles, its writer, director, producer and co-star, envisioned. And the story behind it has enough twists and turns to form the basis of a movie in its own right.

If you’ve never seen the movie, now’s the time to find out what you’ve been missing. If you have a blu-ray player, try to get hold of the Mill Creek Entertainment transfer.

Spoiler Alert!!! Let’s begin with the main characters and the plot of the film itself. So, stop reading now if you’ve never seen The Lady from Shanghai and want to watch it without knowing the plot in advance.

The Lady from Shanghai – characters, plot and things to look out for

Rita Hayworth as Elsa Bannister in The Lady from Shanghai
1947. Rita Hayworth as Elsa Bannister in The Lady from Shanghai. Photo by Robert Coburn.

There are five main protagonists in The Lady from Shanghai:

  • Michael O’Hara, an unemployed freelance sailor who acts as the film’s narrator. Orson Welles cast himself in the role, assuming a less-than-convincing Irish accent. For all that, his wistful voice-over imbues the film with a sense of overwhelming sadness, world-weariness and resignation.
  • Elsa Bannister, the drop-dead gorgeous lady from Shanghai with a murky past and a great deal on her mind. This role marked a radical departure from those previously played by Rita Hayworth.
  • Arthur Bannister, Elsa’s husband whose brilliant legal mind is in stark contrast with his pitiful, crippled body. He’s played with “hawk-like malevolence” by Mercury Player Everett Sloane, who made his screen debut in Citizen Kane. And indeed Arthur Bannister, like Charles Foster Kane, is full of despair despite his success.
  • George Grisby, Arthur Bannister’s sweaty, bulging-eyed, leering legal partner, obsessed with the atom bomb and the end of the world. He has a habit of calling people “fella,” presumably a reference to Nelson Rockefeller, who had recruited Welles to create It’s All True (a film comprising three stories about Latin America), only to terminate the project before it came to fruition. Glenn Anders’ performance in the role all but steals the show.
  • Sidney Broome, a private detective hired by Arthur Bannister to spy on Elsa. This marked Ted de Corsia’s screen debut and he went on to play a number of villains in movies including Jules Dassin’s terrific The Naked City (1948).

The Lady from Shanghai has a tortuous, labyrinthine storyline. At the beginning, it’s easy to follow. But as the film moves towards its shattering (literally!) climax, the intrigue careers out of control, piling plot-twist on plot-twist. Perhaps things would have been spelled out more clearly had the film not been cut by an hour and subjected to numerous retakes and edits. But even before that happened… after the preview showing, Harry Cohn, Columbia’s president, offered to pay anyone in the room US$1,000 if they could explain the storyline. So perhaps it was always Welles’ intention to take his audience for a ride.

The following sequence of stills should help you to make sense of the plot. The synopsis in the captions draws on a much longer and rather brilliant one at Filmsite.org.

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Michael O’Hara meets Elsa Bannister

1. Michael O’Hara meets Elsa Bannister

Michael O’Hara meets and is captivated by Elsa Bannister as she is riding in a horse-drawn carriage through Central Park in New York. After they part, he hears her scream and rescues her from muggers. He learns about her past and talks about his. She offers him a job as a crew member on board her yacht. Later he meets George Grisby and Sidney Broome, from whom he learns that Elsa is married to Arthur Bannister, a renowned San Francisco lawyer.

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Arthur Bannister comes to find Michael O'Hara

2. Arthur Bannister comes to find Michael

The next day, Arthur Bannister, crippled and by implication impotent, comes looking for Michael at the seamen’s hiring hall. He reiterates the job offer.

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Arthur Bannister takes Michael O'Hara for a drink

3. Bannister takes Michael for a drink

Bannister takes Michael and two of his mates to a bar for a drink. When he gets legless, Michael takes him home.

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Elsa Bannister and Bessie, her maid

4. Bessie is concerned for her mistress

The Bannisters’ maidservant Bessie is concerned for her mistress and urges Michael to help the vulnerable “child” – “She needs you bad, you stay”.

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Elsa Bannister flirts with Michael O’Hara

5. All at sea

The cruise is sultry and fraught. A strange sense of doom and a malicious torpor hangs over the yacht like an albatross. At sea, Grisby, who has joined the party, asks Michael if he would be prepared to commit a murder. The conversation is interrupted by Elsa calling Michael, with whom she has begun to flirt. Grisby sees them embrace.

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A picnic in the jungle

6. A picnic in the jungle

Bannister organizes a picnic that requires the whole crew to make their way through a dangerous jungle on the Mexican coast. He tells Broome, the yacht’s steward, that he (Bannister) will be the victim of a murder plot. Elsa tells Michael that Broome is actually a private detective whose remit is to spy on her so that in the event of a divorce she would be left with nothing. At the picnic, the Bannisters bait each other about Michael’s role as her “big, strong bodyguard.” When they call him to join them, he likens them to a pack of blood-seeking sharks.

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George Grisby makes Michael O'Hara a strange proposition

7. Grisby makes Michael a strange proposition

Docked in Acapulco, Grisby offers Michael $5,000 to murder him.

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Michael O'Hara promises to take care of Elsa Bannister

8. Michael promises to take care of Elsa

The following night, when Elsa comes to find him on one of the city’s streets, Michael tells her about Grisby’s weird proposal. When Broome appears in the shadows, Michael knocks him out. Elsa runs away from the scene but Michael catches up and promises to take care of her.

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Elsa Bannister at the San Francisco aquarium

9. The plot thickens

The cruise ends in San Francisco, where Michael proposes to Elsa that he accept Grisby’s offer and use the money to elope with her. She declines his offer.

Grisby reveals that his plan is for an insurance scam: if either of the partners in the firm of Bannister & Grisby dies, the other stands to get a lucrative pay-out.

Next morning, in Grisby’s office Michael listens to part of the typed statement he must sign, admitting to killing Grisby. Grisby persuades him to go ahead on the basis that he, Grisby, will disappear and that in California a murderer cannot be convicted without a corpse.

The following day, Michael has a clandestine meeting with Elsa at the San Francisco aquarium, where he convinces her to go along with his plan. On reading a copy of the statement he has signed, she warns him that her husband is behind Grisby’s proposal and that it’s some kind of trap.

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George Grisby takes Michael O'Hara for a ride

10. Grisby takes Michael for a ride

At the Bannisters’ house on the night of the fake murder, Broome reveals that he’s rumbled Grisby’s plan, which is in fact to kill Bannister, pin the murder on Michael and run off with Elsa. When he tries to blackmail Grisby, the latter shoots him, then goes out and hands the gun to the unsuspecting Michael to use for the fake murder.

While Grisby and Michael make for the Sausalito dock, Elsa, who has heard the gunshot, finds Broome dying on the kitchen floor and listens unmoved as he tells her about the plot to murder her husband.

At the dock, Grisby smears some of his blood (he’s been cut when the car windscreen was smashed on the way) onto Michael’s clothes and then sails off in a speedboat. Only when he phones the Bannisters’ house and hears Broome’s dying words does Michael realize he’s been taken for a ride:

Get down to the office, Montgomery Street. You was framed. Grisby didn’t want to disappear. He just wanted an alibi – and you’re it. You’re the fall guy. Grisby’s gone down there to kill Bannister now.

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Michael O'Hara is arrested and charged

11. Michael is arrested and charged

Michael rushes into the city to prevent Bannister’s murder but his car is stopped by police, who surround the law office. They discover blood, a written confession and a fired gun. And Michael discovers that Bannister is alive but Grisby is dead.

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The Bannisters discuss Michael O'Hara

12. The Bannisters discuss Michael

Bannister is to act as Michael’s lawyer in the upcoming murder trial. He’d be happy for Michael to be found guilty but doesn’t want Elsa to see him as a martyr.

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Elsa Bannister visits Michael O'Hara in jail

13. Elsa visits Michael in jail

Elsa visits Michael in jail and encourages him to trust Bannister. He tells her what transpired between him and Grisby.

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The courtroom scene in The Lady from Shanghai

14. In court

The courtroom scene is pure farce, with preposterous proceedings (including Bannister making to question himself), an undisciplined jury and disruptive observers.

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Elsa Bannister is called as a witness

15. Elsa is called as a witness

Elsa is called as a witness and questioned about Broome and her feelings for Michael.

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16. Michael tries to commit suicide

16. Michael tries to commit suicide

Just before the jury announce their verdict, Elsa motions Michael to take an overdose of her husband’s painkillers, which are within his reach. He does so and is seized by his guards.

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Michael escapes

17. Michael escapes

In the confusion that follows, Michael overpowers his guards, flees the building and makes for San Fransisco’s Chinatown district. Hiding in a theatre, he is found by Elsa and discovers the gun used to kill Grisby in her handbag.

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Michael O'Hara in the Crazy House

18. The plot revealed

Michael is kidnapped by Elsa’s servants and taken to the Crazy House at an amusement park that’s closed for the season. He realizes that Elsa had plotted with Grisby to kill her husband so that Grisby could get the insurance money. But that her ultimate aim was to kill Grisby once he had served his purpose. When things didn’t go to plan and Grisby shot Broome, she murdered Grisby to ensure he wouldn’t confess their plan to the police. And Michael was always going to be the stooge.

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Michael O'Hara on the Crazy House slide

19. Into the abyss

As he wanders around the Crazy House, Michael trips a mechanism that pitches him down a long, zigzag slide.

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Michael O'Hara and Elsa Bannister in the Hall of Mirrors

20. The dénouement

Michael emerges into the Hall of Mirrors. Elsa appears in a doorway and confesses her guilt while claiming to love Michael. Bannister arrives and threatens Elsa with a letter he has written to the district attorney explaining her guilt and Michael’s innocence. The couple draw guns and begin to fire at the multiple reflections of each other in the mirrors. Once the panes have been shot to smithereens, it is clear that Bannister and Elsa are both fatally wounded.

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Michael O'Hara leaves Elsa Bannister to die

21 The end

Elsa stumbles with Michael into another room where she begs for his sympathy. But he’s having none of it and leaves her dying on the floor. He walks across the street to call the police, reflecting that he will be exonerated by Bannister’s letter.

Note: stills 5 and 8 have been cropped from portrait to landscape format so as not to disrupt the grid.

One of The Lady from Shanghai’s most striking aspects is its cinematography – in particular its use of wide-angle lenses to caricature faces, notably those of Grisby and Bannister; startling camera angles (such as the vertiginous vantage point along the coast from which we see Grisby explain his plot to Michael); and deep focus, which disorients the viewer by giving equal weight to foregrounds and backgrounds. There are also many virtuoso passages. Five of the most remarkable are:

  • The cruise with its sweltering, claustrophobic, voyeuristic atmosphere and the allusions to Elsa’s siren character via the name of the yacht (Circe) and the shots of her reclining on the rocks and singing.
  • The picnic in the jungle with its air of doom, desire and venom, culminating in Michael’s extraordinary speech:

Do you know, once off the hump of Brazil, I saw the ocean so darkened with blood it was black, and the sun fadin’ away over the lip of the sky. We put in at Fortaleza. A few of us had lines out for a bit of idle fishin’. It was me had the first strike. A shark it was, and then there was another and another shark again, till all about the sea was made of sharks, and more sharks still, and the water tall. My shark had torn himself away from the hook, and the scent, or maybe the stain it was, and him bleedin’ his life away, drove the rest of them mad. Then the beasts took to eatin’ each other; in their frenzy, they ate at themselves. You could feel the lust of murder like a wind stingin’ your eyes, and you could smell the death, reekin’ up out of the sea. I never saw anything worse, until this little picnic tonight. And you know, there wasn’t one of them sharks in the whole crazy pack that survived.

  • The aquarium, which provides such a disconcerting setting for Michael’s clandestine meeting with Elsa.
  • The outrageous court scene, which makes a hilarious mockery of the legal system.
  • The Fun House and Hall of Mirrors that Welles created for the film’s dénoement.

The Lady from Shanghai – how it came about

In 1945 Welles found himself in a predicament:

I was working on Around the World in 80 Days [a stage musical based on the Jules Verne novel] and we found ourselves in Boston on the day of the premiere, unable to get the costumes from the station because $50,000 was due and our producer, Mr. Todd, had gone broke. Without that money we couldn’t open. I called Harry Cohn [head of Columbia Studios] in Hollywood…”


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Orson Welles in The Lady from Shanghai

Orson Welles in The Lady from Shanghai

A caption on the back of the photo reads:

ENDANGERED .. Orson Welles in a dramatic scene from Columbia’s “The Lady from Shanghai,” in which he stars with Rita Hayworth.

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Orson Welles in The Lady from Shanghai by Robert Coburn

Orson Welles in The Lady from Shanghai

Orson Welles as Michael O'Hara in The Lady from Shanghai. Photo by Robert Coburn.

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Orson Welles in the Lady from Shanghai by Eddie Cronenweth

Orson Welles in The Lady from Shanghai

A caption on the back of the photo reads:

ENDANGERED .. Orson Welles in a dramatic scene from Columbia’s “The Lady from Shanghai,” in which he stars with Rita Hayworth.

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

According to Welles, he made the call from a drugstore and when Cohn asked him what the film would be about, he grabbed a novel from a nearby shelf and read out the synopsis on the back. However, Welles was a master of creating his own mythology and the truth is a bit more prosaic. The film is based on Sherwood King’s novel, If I Die Before I Wake. Years earlier, producer William Castle had sold the movie rights to Columbia on the condition that he would be involved should a film be made. He subsequently produced a treatment and set it to Welles, who responded:

About If I Should Die – I love it … I have been searching for an idea for a film, but none presented itself until If I Should Die and I could play the lead and Rita Hayworth could play the girl. I won’t present it to anybody without your OK. The script should be written immediately. Can you start working on it at night?

But why did Harry Cohn go along with the idea, given that at the time Welles was pretty much persona non-grata in Hollywood. Citizen Kane (1941) had done a pretty effective character assassination job on newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst, setting Welles up as a threat to the establishment. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) had gone over budget and failed to recoup its investment. It’s All True was terminated before completion and never saw the light of day. Welles went some way to redeeming his credibility with The Stranger (1946), which came in under budget and proved a modest commercial success.

Perhaps Cohn felt that for the money Welles wanted it was a risk worth taking. Or perhaps he didn’t want to upset Hayworth, his biggest star, by turning down her husband even though the marriage was on the rocks. Besides, the pairing of Welles and Hayworth as the leads could be an intriguing prospect for audiences.

The Lady from Shanghai – Welles’ ambition

Rita Hayworth's million dollar haircut for The Lady from Shanghai
1947. Rita Hayworth’s million dollar haircut for The Lady from Shanghai. Read more.

The first thing Welles did was have Hayworth’s trademark long red hair bobbed and dyed “topaz blonde.” And he made it into a media event, inviting the press to come along and witness the makeover for themselves. It was not what Harry Cohn had in mind for his biggest star and he was furious. In spite of that, the studio released a whole series of shots of the event to the press.

Gossip columnist Louella Parsons (who had it in for Welles ever since he parodied her boss, William Randolph Hearst, in Citizen Kane) claimed that with The Lady from Shanghai he had deliberately and maliciously set out to destroy Rita Hayworth’s career. She then asserted that Welles was “washed up.”

It’s difficult to know what impelled Welles to such a controversial move. He may well have felt ambivalent, even vindictive, about his marriage, and there’s certainly a case to be made for seeing the whole movie as a misogynistic, not to say toxic, farewell to Hayworth. And yet… Is Elsa nothing more than a cold-blooded, scheming femme fatale? It’s tempting to jump to that conclusion. But it’s also possible to see her, like Gilda, as a victim – a woman in a man’s world who’s been exploited her whole life and who is now so desperate she’s prepared to take matters into her own hands.

Back to the haircut and it’s likely that, however he felt about his marriage, with his director’s hat on Welles saw the need for a completely new look that would disassociate Hayworth in audiences’ minds from her previous roles. It was an early symptom of the way in which Cohn’s and Welles’ ambitions for the movie diverged. Cohn was looking for a box-office hit. Welles wanted to produce “something off-center, queer, strange,” according to a memo he sent Cohn, by giving the film a nightmarish feel and striving for performances that were “original, or at least oblique

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Orson Welles with Rita Hayworth just before she has her million dollar haircut for The Lady from Shanghai

Orson Welles with Rita Hayworth before her million dollar haircut for The Lady from Shanghai

1946. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

MILLION DOLLAR HAIRCUT .. Rita Hayworth is shown here with husband Orson Welles just before having her tresses shorn for her starring role in “The Lady from Shanghai,” in which Welles will co-star with her as well as produce and direct it for Columbia Pictures.

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Helen Hunt about to embark on Rita Hayworth's million dollar haircut for The Lady from Shanghai

Helen Hunt about to embark on Rita Hayworth’s million dollar haircut for The Lady from Shanghai

1946. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

MILLION DOLLAR HAIRCUT .. Rita Hayworth is shown here with Columbia’s chief hair stylist, Helen Hunt, just before having her tresses shorn for her starring role in “The Lady from Shanghai,” in which Rita’s husband, Orson Welles, will co-star as well as produce and direct it for Columbia Pictures.

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Helen Hunt giving Rita Hayworth a million dollar haircut for The Lady from Shanghai

Helen Hunt giving Rita Hayworth a million dollar haircut for The Lady from Shanghai

1946. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

MILLION DOLLAR HAIRCUT .. Rita Hayworth is shown here with locks of hair in her hands while Columbia’s chief hair-stylist, Helen Hunt, continues to cut away Rita’s tresses for her role in “The Lady from Shanghai,” in which she has her husband, Orson Welles, as co-star. He is also producer and director of the Columbia picture.

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Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth admiring her million dollar haircut for The Lady from Shanghai

Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth admiring her million dollar haircut for The Lady from Shanghai

1946. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

MILLION DOLLAR HAIRCUT .. Rita Hayworth and husband, Orson Welles, seem pleased with Rita’s new hair style. Rita had her long tresses shorn for her starring role in “The Lady from Shanghai,” in which Welles is her co-star. He is also producer and director of the Columbia picture.

Photo by Homer Van Pelt.

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Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth admiring her million dollar haircut for The Lady from Shanghai

Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth admiring her million dollar haircut for The Lady from Shanghai

1946. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

MILLION DOLLAR HAIRCUT .. Rita Hayworth and husband, Orson Welles, seem pleased with Rita’s new hair style. Rita had her long tresses shorn for her starring role in “The Lady from Shanghai,” in which Welles is her co-star. He is also producer and director of the Columbia picture.

Photo by Homer Van Pelt.

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Rita Hayworth's million dollar haircut for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth’s million dollar haircut for The Lady from Shanghai

1946. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

THE WORLD’S FIRST TOPAZ BLONDE! Glamorous Rita Hayworth, as this photo shows, has submitted to the ministrations of Columbia Studio’s chief hair stylist, Helen Hunt, to acquire a new coiffure for her forthcoming starring picture, “The Lady From Shanghai.” With 18 inches snipped from her crowning glory, and her titian locks changed to a new blonde called topaz blonde, it is a new and vibrant Rita who faces the cameras these days. “I just didn’t want to stay ‘Gilda’ forever,” Rita explains when asked the reason for the change in her hairdo.

Characteristically, Welles was hugely ambitious for the film. For the opening scene, set in Central Park, he planned the longest dolly shot ever filmed. involving huge arc lights, a sound boom and a 20-foot camera crane, which followed Elsa Bannister’s carriage for nearly a mile. That was just the beginning. He also planned to shoot most of the film on location, something pretty much unheard of in Hollywood at the time since seemingly every cinematic need could be catered for by the vast studio lots and soundstages. For Welles that would have been just too obvious and easy. Plus, shooting on location would have been a great way of escaping Cohn’s surveillance – the mogul bugged Welles’ office at Columbia, as he had Glenn Ford’s dressing room when Gilda was being filmed.

And then there were the sets and set pieces, the two most celebrated being the Fun House (a great set for a fashion shoot – Rita’s wardrobe is by Jean Louis) and the Hall of Mirrors. The inspiration for the former were the expressionist images of the German silent movie, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). According to Rob Nixon:

Stephen Goosson designed an elaborate set with sliding doors, distorting mirrors and a 125-foot zigzag slide from the roof of a studio sound stage down into a pit that was 80 feet long, 40 feet wide and 20 feet deep. For one shot simulating Welles’ point of view as he hurtled down the slide, Lawton and camera operator Irving Klein slid the entire length of it on their stomachs with the camera on a mat. The director himself spent more than a week from 10:30 at night until 5 in the morning painting the set.

The Hall of Mirrors was designed with the help of special effects wizard Lawrence Butler and contained almost 3,000 square feet of glass. Some of the mirrors were two-way, others had holes through which the camera crew could shoot

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Rita Hayworth fashion shot, The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth fashion shot, The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

PLEATS ARE NEW … Rita Hayworth, in her next Columbia picture, “The Lady From Shanghai,” wears this black dinner dress featuring the new pleated skirt, which is embroidered in amber beads. The dress may be worn with the accompanying V scarf as a tie-on sash or as a head covering.

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Rita Hayworth fashion shot, The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth fashion shot, The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

WHITE FOR EVENING … Rita Hayworth, co-starring with Orson Welles in Columbia's "The Lady From Shanghai" wears this lovely white marquisette creation by designer Jean Louis against the background of an amusement park "fun house." It is there that one of the most dramatic sequences of the picture takes place.

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Rita Hayworth fashion shot, The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth fashion shot, The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

PLEATS ARE NEW … Rita Hayworth, in her next Columbia picture, “The Lady From Shanghai,” wears this black dinner dress featuring the new pleated skirt, which is embroidered in amber beads. The dress may be worn with the accompanying V scarf as a tie-on sash or as a head covering.

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Rita Hayworth fashion shot, The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth fashion shot, The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

PLEATS ARE NEW … Rita Hayworth, in her next Columbia picture, “The Lady From Shanghai,” wears this black dinner dress featuring the new pleated skirt, which is embroidered in amber beads. The dress may be worn with the accompanying V scarf as a tie-on sash or as a head covering.

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Rita Hayworth fashion shot, The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth fashion shot, The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

DRESSY BLACK … Rita Hayworth, in her next Columbia picture, “The Lady From Shanghai,” wears this smart black wool suit designed by Jean Louis. The fashion interest in this lies in the contrast between the dull of the fabric and the shiny satin trim. This shot was taken on the “fun house” set, where one of the most dramatic moments of the picture takes place.

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Rita Hayworth fashion shot, The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth fashion shot, The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

DRESSY BLACK … Rita Hayworth, in her next Columbia picture, “The Lady From Shanghai,” wears this smart black wool suit designed by Jean Louis. The fashion interest in this lies in the contrast between the dull of the fabric and the shiny satin trim. This shot was taken on the “fun house” set, where one of the most dramatic moments of the picture takes place.

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

When it came to cinematography, Welles and his director of photography, Charles Lawton Jr, decided to use low-key interior lighting and natural light wherever possible. For outdoor skies and transitions between outdoor and indoor scenes they employed filters. And they exploited wide-angle lenses to lend distortion to close-ups. Shooting on board a yacht was always going to be a challenge – the sort of thing Welles loved. So he and Lawton did a series of experimental test shoots to determine how to deal with the problem of over-exposure – the light meters struggled to cope with the glare of the sea and sky. They also turned the lack of space on the yacht to their advantage by creating cramped, claustrophobic compositions. And for the aquarium scene they got seriously tricksy. First they shot the fish-tanks separately. Then they enlarged the resulting film and used it as the background for the close-ups of Michael and Elsa, making the sea creatures appear super-size and super-sinister.

The Lady from Shanghai – a disaster in the making

Rita Hayworth takes time to relax during the filming of The Lady from Shanghai
1947. Rita Hayworth relaxes at home after a day at the studios. Photo by Ned Scott. Read more.

Shooting began in autumn 1946 in locations including Acapulco, San Francisco and New York as well as Columbia Studios – for details and photos take a look at Reel SF. For the Acapulco shoot, which took more than 35 days, Welles rented Errol Flynn’s yacht, and Columbia sent 40 technicians and more than six tons of equipment.

Even under the most favourable circumstances, the location shoot was never going to be straightforward. The jungle picnic scenes were filmed close to a crocodile-infested river. Poisonous barnacles had to be scraped off the rock from which Elsa dives into the ocean. A spear-wielding Mexican swimming champion had to be employed to swim off-camera to protect Hayworth from deadly barracuda.

But it was as if the shoot was cursed. In Mexico, the cast and crew were plagued by problems, many of them detailed by producer William Castle in his diary. During the day, the temperature was sweltering. At night, clouds of poisonous insects swarmed around the arc lights, sometimes rendering them useless. Histamine poisoning from an insect bite caused such swelling to one of Welles’ eyes that he couldn’t open it. And half the crew went down with dysentery. Meanwhile, Hayworth was sick throughout the shoot, collapsing both In Mexico and in San Francisco, and halting production for a month.

Worst of all, on the first day of shooting, assistant cameraman Donald Ray Cory, working bareheaded in the blazing sun, had a heart attack and died. Rumour has it that Errol Flynn, who insisted on captaining his boat and was regularly drunk and abusive, wanted the body dumped into the ocean in a duffle bag. The crew ignored him, discreetly put the corpse ashore and hushed the incident up.

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Rita Hayworth dines in her dressing room between scenes while filming The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth dines in her dressing room while filming The Lady from Shanghai

A caption on the back of the photo reads:

HOLLYWOOD CHOW TIME .. Glamorous Rita Hayworth, in her new topaz blonde coiffure, is so busy filming “The Lady from Shanghai” with her husband and co-star, Orson Welles, that she doesn’t have time to leave her portable dressing room at Columbia Studio for lunch. So she dines on her makeup table, and seems to be really enjoying it.

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles off to Mexico to film The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles off to Mexico for The Lady from Shanghai

A caption on the back of the photo reads:

OFF TO MEXICO: Glamour star Rita Hayworth and husband Orson Welles are shown here as they boarded a special plane at Lockheed Air Terminal, Los Angeles, en route to Acapulco, Mexico, for location scenes for the Columbia picture, “The Lady From Shanghai,” in which the pair co-star. Welles is also writer-director-producer of the film.

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Joseph Cotton and his wife with Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth backstage on The Lady from Shanghai

Joseph Cotton and his wife backstage on The Lady from Shanghai

A caption on the back of the photo reads:

VISITORS .. Joseph Cotten (with straw hat) and Mrs. Cotten (far right) visit Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles on the Columbia soundstage where Rita and Orson are filming “The Lady from Shanghai.” And the straw hat on Cotten is no gag! When Orson saw Joe on the set, he immediately ordered a wardrobe man to bring Joe a hat and bandanna, and put Cotten to work doing a walk-through in a brief street scene in “The Lady from Shanghai.”

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Rita Hayworth poses for Eddie Cronenweth

Rita Hayworth photo shoot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

LOOK PRETTY, PLEASE .. Lovely Rita Hayworth, in a fetching shorts outfit, poses for still photographer Eddie Cronenweth, in the patio of the Hotel Casablanca at Acapulco, Mexico, where Rita and Orson Welles took their Columbia Studio crew and supporting cast on location to film scenes for 'The Lady from Shanghai."

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Rita Hayworth poses for Eddie Cronenweth

Rita Hayworth photo shoot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

LOOK AT THE BIRDIE .. Lovely Rita Hayworth poses for still photographer Eddie Cronenweth in the patio of the Hotel Casablanca, in Acapulco, Mexico, where Rita and Orson Welles took the Columbia Studio crew and supporting cast to film location scenes for "The Lady from Shanghai."

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Rita Hayworth poses for Eddie Cronenweth

Rita Hayworth photo shoot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

GLAMOROUS .. Lovely Rita Hayworth poses for still photographer Eddie Cronenweth on the terrace of the Hotel Casablanca at Acapulco, Mexico, where Rita and Orson Welles took their Columbia Studio crew and supporting cast on location to film scenes for “The Lady from Shanghai."

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Orson Welles gets a quick trim from makeup expert Bob Schiffer between scenes of The Lady from Shanghai

Orson Welles and Bob Schiffer between scenes of The Lady from Shanghai

A caption on the back of the photo reads:

NEXT!! .. Orson Welles gets a quick trim from makeup expert Bob Schiffer between location scenes of Columbia’s “The Lady from Shanghai,” on a beach near Acapulco in tropical Mexico. “The Lady from Shanghai,” thrilling story of love and crime, stars Rita Hayworth and Welles.

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Orson Welles prepares to film a location scene for The Lady from Shanghai

Orson Welles prepares to film a location scene for The Lady from Shanghai

A caption on the back of the photo reads:

ON LOCATION .. Orson Welles (on platform) prepares to film a location scene in tropical Mexico for Columbia’s “The Lady from Shanghai,” in which he is starred with Rita Hayworth.

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Orson Welles prepares to film a location scene for The Lady from Shanghai

Orson Welles prepares to film a location scene for The Lady from Shanghai

A caption on the back of the photo reads:

ON LOCATION .. Orson Welles (on platform) prepares to film a location scene in tropical Mexico for Columbia’s “The Lady from Shanghai,” in which he is starred with Rita Hayworth.

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Rita Hayworth with Robert Coburn between scenes during the filming of The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth with Robert Coburn while filming The Lady from Shanghai

A caption on the back of the photo reads:

LOOK AT THE BIRDIE .. Lovely Rita Hayworth poses for Columbia’s chief still photographer, Robert Coburn, between scenes of “The Lady from Shanghai,” in which she and Orson Welles are co-starred.

Photo by Ned Scott.

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Rita Hayworth shopping in Acapulco while filming The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth shopping in Acapulco while filming The Lady from Shanghai

A caption on the back of the photo reads:

SHOPPING IN OLD MEXICO .. Rita Hayworth buys a colorful native bare-midriff beach outfit from Julia Polin during the lovely star’s 6-week stay in Acapulco with Orson Welles to film location scenes in a Mexican background for Columbia’s “The Lady from Shanghai.”

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Orson Welles directing Carl Frank and Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai

Orson Welles directing Carl Frank and Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai

A caption on the back of the photo reads:

MENACE .. This is the picture you won’t see on the screen. It shows Orson Welles, his usual mug of steaming coffee in hand, directing Carl Frank and Rita Hayworth in a dramatic courtroom cross-examination scene for Columbia Pictures’ “The Lady from Shanghai.” Orson is producer, writer, director and co-star with Rita in “The Lady from Shanghai.” Frank plays the role of a tough district attorney.

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

And then there were problems Welles brought on himself by his way of working. He would rewrite the script from day to day so everyone ended up confused. And as a director he would give his actors a hard time. Sometimes he deliberately upset them to get nervous, edgy performances. Other times he would cause them to forget their lines and improvise on the spot. By all accounts, it was not a happy project.

Welles never viewed the rushes; he just shipped them straight off to Columbia. There they were reviewed by Viola Lawrence, the studio’s chief editor. As a firm advocate of using close-ups and highlighting actors’ eyes to convey drama and emotion, she was horrified to discover that the rushes contained no close-up shots of Hayworth. She reported this to Cohn, who sent orders to rectify this. On location, Welles refused to do so. Back on the studio lot, he caved in. On Cohn’s orders, he also added the scene of Elsa singing on the yacht.

The Lady from Shanghai – from bad to worse

The rough cut of the film was based on an editing concept outlined by Welles. It ran approximately 155 minutes. But Welles’ contract with Columbia left it up to the studio to decide who would edit the final cut. Their choice was Lawrence, who had previously worked on Rita Hayworth vehicles Cover Girl and Tonight and Every Night, and would go on to work on Down to Earth, Affair in Trinidad, Salome, Miss Sadie Thompson and Pal Joey.

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Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. Rita Hayworth wears a sexy black evening gown in The Lady from Shanghai. Photo by Robert Coburn.

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Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. Rita Hayworth wears a sexy black evening gown in The Lady from Shanghai. Photo by Homer Van Pelt.

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Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. Rita Hayworth wears a sexy black evening gown in The Lady from Shanghai. Photo by Robert Coburn.

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Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. Rita Hayworth wears a sexy black evening gown in The Lady from Shanghai. Photo by Robert Coburn.

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Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. Rita Hayworth wears a sexy black evening gown in The Lady from Shanghai. Photo by Homer Van Pelt.

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Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

GLAMOUR – Rita Hayworth wears a revealing black evening gown in Columbia’s “The Lady from Shanghai,” in which she and Orson Welles are co-starred.

Photo by Homer Van Pelt.

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Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. Rita Hayworth wears a sexy black evening gown in The Lady from Shanghai. Photo by Robert Coburn.

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Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

TOPAZ BLONDE – Glamorous Rita Hayworth, who appears as a topaz blonde in her latest Columbia picture, “The Lady from Shanghai,” in which Orson Welles is her co-star.

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Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. Rita Hayworth wears a sexy black evening gown in The Lady from Shanghai. Photo by Robert Coburn.

Enlarge
Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. Rita Hayworth wears a sexy black evening gown in The Lady from Shanghai. Photo by Robert Coburn.

Enlarge
Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. Rita Hayworth wears a sexy black evening gown in The Lady from Shanghai.

Enlarge
Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth, publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. Rita Hayworth wears a sexy black evening gown in The Lady from Shanghai. Photo by Homer Van Pelt.

Taking her orders from Cohn, she cut about 55 minutes from the movie, including the opening dolly shot in Central Park, much of the Chinese opera sequence and most of the Fun House scene – all highlights of the original concept; the fashion shoot above shows just how weird and wonderful the set was). Quite apart from the damage done to the storyline, the continuity of Welles’ long takes was disrupted by the insertion of close-ups, and the result is a bewildering hotchpotch. Welles accepted some responsibility for the fiasco but pushed most of the blame onto Lawrence’s editing.

Rita Hayworth filming a location scene off the coast of Mexico for The Lady from Shanghai
1947. Rita Hayworth films a location scene off the coast of Mexico for The Lady from Shanghai. Photo by Eddie Cronenweth. Read more.

What he was most upset about was what became of the soundtrack. He’d wanted to use sound to unsettle the audience – for example by fading in voices so quietly that viewers would have to strain to make out what was being said. Traces of what he intended are evident in the grating voices of Bannister and Grisby and the final dialogue in the Hall of Mirrors.

After the success of the songs, Amado Mio and Put the Blame on Mame in Gilda, Cohn insisted on retrofitting a song into The Lady from Shanghai. The result was Please Don’t Kiss Me, commissioned from the same team – Alan Roberts and Doris Fisher (with Hayworth’s singing voice once again dubbed by Anita Ellis). The song itself is a class act. What absolutely isn’t is the way in which it is exploited as the background track for pretty much the entire movie, replacing the original score by George Antheil. Welles was incensed:

The only idea which seems to have occurred to this present composer is the rather weary one of using a popular song – the “theme – in as many arrangements as possible. Throughout we have musical references to “Please Don’t Kiss Me” for almost every bridge and also for a great deal of the background material. The tune is pleasing, it may do very well on the Hit Parade — but Lady from Shanghai is not a musical comedy.

The Lady from Shanghai – from box office failure to cult

When The Lady from Shanghai was completed in 1946 Columbia got cold feet. They were worried that it would bomb at the box office and anxious to protect Hayworth’s image. So they chose to hold it until after they’d released Down To Earth (1947) – a much more commercial movie. The Lady from Shanghai ran first in Europe (1947), where it was generally well received, before finally opening in the US in 1948, seven months after Welles and Hayworth were divorced. The studio did nothing to push the film, allowing it to be shown as the bottom half of double bills.

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Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. Rita Hayworth, as Elsa Bannister in The Lady from Shanghai, chats on the phone. Photo by Robert Coburn.

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Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

TOPAZ BLONDE .. Glamorous Rita Hayworth, who appears as a topaz blonde in her latest Columbia picture, "The Lady from Shanghai," in which she and Orson Welles co-star.

Photo by Robert Coburn.

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Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. Rita Hayworth poses in a killer, black-satin gown by Jean Louis for a publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai. Photo by Robert Coburn.

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Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

TOPAZ BLONDE .. Glamorous Rita Hayworth, who appears as a topaz blonde in her latest Columbia picture, "The Lady from Shanghai," in which she and Orson Welles co-star.

Photo by Robert Coburn.

Enlarge
Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. Rita Hayworth as Elsa Bannister, dressed by Jean Louis to kill in The Lady from Shanghai.

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Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

TOPAZ BLONDE .. Glamorous Rita Hayworth, who appears as a topaz blonde in her latest Columbia picture, "The Lady from Shanghai," in which she and Orson Welles co-star.

Photo by Robert Coburn.

Enlarge
Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. Rita Hayworth sports her dramatic new haircut in this publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai. Photo by Robert Coburn.

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Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

JACKETS FOR MOTORISTS … Lovely Rita Hayworth, who is currently working in Columbia’s “The Lady From Shanghai,” has found the ideal coat. Made of broadtail, it is designed after the Navy “P” jackets, its length and fullness allowing complete freedom.

Photo by Ned Scott.

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Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth publicity shot for The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

TOPAZ BLONDE .. Glamorous Rita Hayworth, who appears as a topaz blonde in her latest Columbia picture, "The Lady from Shanghai," in which she and Orson Welles co-star.

Photo by Robert Coburn.

Contemporary critics were pretty disparaging. Bosley Crowther opened his review for The New York Times with:

For a fellow who has as much talent with a camera as Orson Welles and whose powers of pictorial invention are as fluid and as forcible as his, this gentleman certainly has a strange way of marring his films with sloppiness which he seems to assume that his dazzling exhibitions of skill will camouflage.

John Carter’s review for The New Yorker was in a similar vein: “The penny-dreadful aspects of The Lady from Shanghai are obvious, but the film is nevertheless often remarkable.” While William Brogden, in Variety wrote:

The Lady from Shanghai is okay boxoffice [sic]. It’s exploitable and has Rita Hayworth’s name for the marquees. Entertainment value suffered from the striving for effect that features Orson Welles’ production, direction and scripting. Script is wordy and full of holes which need the plug of taut story telling and more forthright action.

So The Lady from Shanghai sank without trace and for many years was regarded as one of Welles’ great failures. In an interview with Peter Bogdanovich, he remembered how:

Friends avoided me. Whenever it was mentioned, people would clear their throats and change the subject very quickly out of consideration for my feelings. I only found out that it was considered a good picture when I got to Europe. The first nice thing I ever heard about it from an American was from Truman Capote.

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Rita Hayworth autographs fan photos between takes of The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth autographs fan photos between takes of The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

FAN PICTURES…Whenever Rita Hayworth has a few minutes between scenes she autographs pictures for her fans in her roomy studio apartment. Rita has departed for an extended European tour after completing her latest Columbia picture, “The Lady from Shanghai."

Photo attributed to Robert Coburn.

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Rita Hayworth autographs fan photos between takes of The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth autographs fan photos between takes of The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

FAN PICTURES…Whenever Rita Hayworth has a few minutes between scenes she autographs pictures for her fans in her roomy studio apartment. Rita has departed for an extended European tour after completing her latest Columbia picture, “The Lady from Shanghai."

Photo by Robert Coburn.

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Rita Hayworth in her boudoir during the filming of The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth in her boudoir during the filming of The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

MIRROR, MIRROR, ON THE WALL … Lovely Rita Hayworth pauses a minute from brushing her new coiffure. Her hair was cut short and lightened to a topaz blonde for her role in Columbia’s, “The Lady From Shanghai.”

Photo by Robert Coburn.

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Rita Hayworth about to go on tour after completing The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth about to go on tour after completing The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

RITA’S BEDROOM .. Rita Hayworth’s bedroom in her Santa Monica home is done in a soft blue grey with accents of color in the lamps and other furnishings. It will be months before Rita sleeps in it again, as she left for an extensive European tour after she completed her latest Columbia picture, “The Lady from Shanghai.”

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Rita Hayworth relaxes after completing The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth relaxes after completing The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

RITA RELAXING .. Rita Hayworth, after completing her Columbia picture, “The Lady from Shanghai,” enjoyed a fortnight of relaxation in her own back yard before departing on an extensive European tour.

Photo by Robert Coburn.

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Rita Hayworth relaxes after completing The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth relaxes after completing The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

RITA RELAXING .. Rita Hayworth, after completing her Columbia picture, “The Lady from Shanghai,” enjoyed a fortnight of relaxation in her own back yard before departing on an extensive European tour.

Photo by Robert Coburn.

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Rita Hayworth about to go on tour after completing The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth about to go on tour after completing The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

HAYWORTH AT HOME .. Rita Hayworth, who recently completed “The Lady from Shanghai," at Columbia, enjoyed a fortnight of relaxation at her Santa Monica home before departing for an extended tour of Europe.

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

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Rita Hayworth about to go on tour after completing The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth about to go on tour after completing The Lady from Shanghai

1947. Rita Hayworth relaxes in the garden of her Santa Monica home before leaving for an extended tour of Europe. Photo attributed to Eddie Cronenweth.

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Rita Hayworth smiles off set during the filming of The Lady from Shanghai

Rita Hayworth smiles off set during the filming of The Lady from Shanghai

1947. A caption on the back of the photo reads:

TOPAZ BLONDE .. Glamorous Rita Hayworth, who appears as a topaz blonde in her latest Columbia picture, “The Lady from Shanghai,” in which Orson Welles is her co-star.

Photo by Eddie Cronenweth.

More recently, though, not least thanks to the advocacy of François Truffaut, critical opinion has swung behind The Lady from Shanghai, with Dave Kehr in his review for the Chicago Reader dubbing it “the weirdest great movie ever made.” Flawed masterpiece is probably the best description of the film, which in many respects makes it a whole lot more interesting than a perfect masterpiece (if such a thing even exists).

Want to know more about The Lady from Shanghai?

Ava Gardner and Orson Welles on the set of The Lady from Shanghai
1947. The pixie looks like he belongs to the Fun House – hence the suggestion that this photo was taken on the set of The Lady from Shanghai, supported by Welles’ suit and haircut. This is an incredibly rare image – apparently sthe only photo of the two stars together.

There are some brilliant analyses and critiques of The Lady from Shanghai available online.

  • Filmsite Movie Review has some good background and an excellent, detailed plot synopsis.
  • Brian Phillips provided a combination of background fact and insightful observations in his piece, Through a Glass, Darkly: ‘The Lady From Shanghai’ and the Legend of Orson Welles for Grantland (unfortunately now defunct).
  • Chris Justice offers a similar combination of background and analysis, well worth reading at senses of cinema.
  • Among a series of articles at TCM (apparently not accessible outside the US), Why The Lady from Shanghai is Essential by James Steffen & Rob Nixon and Behind the Camera on The Lady from Shanghai by Rob Nixon stand out.
  • Stories Behind The Screen has some great anecdotes about the making of the film.
  • Reel SF covers the locations with then and now shots together with interactive maps of Acapulco and San Fransisco.

Other pieces worth reading are at:

  • Film Noir of the Week
  • Film Court
  • Parallax View.

If you’d like to know more about Orson Welles, then Rosebud: The Story of Orson Welles by David Thomson is a terrific read.

Other topics you may be interested in…

Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth at loggerheads
Celebrity break-up – why Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth split
Cover girl Rita Hayworth with magazines
Cover Girl – fashion goes to the movies
Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford in a passionate embrace
Gilda – the movie that made Rita Hayworth into a bombshell

Filed Under: Films, Stars Tagged With: Alan Roberts, Anita Ellis, Doris Fisher, Everett Sloane, George Antheil, Glenn Anders, Harry Cohn, Jean Louis, Louella Parsons, Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, Ted de Corsia, The Lady from Shanghai, Viola Lawrence

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