Because he badly needed money, Orson Welles churned out The Lady from Shanghai (1947), an unusual pulp movie with some tragic elements. The seaside party in Citizen Kane re-emerges in this flick and receives expansive treatment with a number of dandy shots. The script, however, is ineptly written, and Welles miscast himself as an Irish-American toughie who, by and by, gets pretty quiet and confused. (Not believable.) Rita Hayworth needs more magnetism in the titular role and, thanks to Welles, is insufficiently glamorous with her cut and bleached-blond hair. A flop, even at the box office.
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