The latest in my endeavor to watch the classic films noir. The Lady From Shanghai totally blew me away, as many of the classics have done. And with a little research I found out it was based on a Sherwood King novel called If I Die Before I Wake which, happy coincidence, I have a copy. So that's next on my reading list. I digress. The movie is brilliant. The first half of it is like a dream sequence. Beautifully filmed with wild angled facial close-ups and slightly odd lighting. There's really something about the way tropical locales were captured on film in the 40's that has a real otherworldly effect. The sky looks odd. It's hard to explain, watch the film, you'll see what I mean. It really adds to the dreamy look of it. There's some stunning dialogue as well. The shark bit is priceless, with local islanders having some kind of celebration in the background, sounds like they're playing Quiet Village. Me typing it out just wouldn't do it justice but luckily the scene is on YouTube so I've put it down there at the bottom of the post so you can check it out. It's great scenes like that which make these films such a joy to watch. I'm curious to see whether that comes from the book or straight from the mind of Orson Welles. What can you say about Rita Hayworth? I got a lump in my throat during her singing part (another YouTube video which I've added below.) What a gorgeous woman! Her eyes sparkle in every scene. Naturally, being the femme fatale, she turns out to be just as big of a shark as the rest of them and in the explosive finale, artfully shot in the crazy house of a carnival closed for the season, you find out just how prophetic that little shark dialogue from earlier on really was.
"I found her and from that moment on I did not use my head very much except to be thinking of her."
"We're short a man on the crew...I'll make it worth you while."
Mike "Black Irish" O'Hara
"What's a tough guy? A guy with an edge. Without an edge, there ain't no tough guy."
"I wasn't sure you'd come."
"I'm not stayin'"
"You've got to stay!"
Peeping Grisby
*sigh*
"Tell me...would you do it again? Would you kill another man?"
"so money doesn't interest you Michael, are you independently wealthy?"
"Well sir, I've always found it very sanitary to be broke."
"Don't take your lips or your arms...
...or your love away."
"Time for another!"
"You didn't answer me mister O'Hara. You oughta speak when you're spoken to."
"You're not going to try anything foolish are you?"
"We'll settle our account right now."
"Alright Broome, if you insist."
BANG!
"There's gonna be a murder. Ain't gonna be no fake murder this time. Somebody's gonna get killed."
"I was the murdered mans partner, the other victim was my servant. If I defend Michael any jury is going to have reason to believe he's innocent."
"No further questions."
"I came to...IN THE CRAZY HOUSE! And for a while there, I though it was me that was crazy."
"I was thinking it was just your husband you were supposed to kill."
"Our good friend the district attorney is just itching to open a letter that I left with him. The letter tells all about you, lover."
"With these mirrors it's difficult to tell. You are aiming at me aren't you? I'm aiming at you."
"For a smart girl you make a lot of mistakes. You should have let me live. You're gonna need a good lawyer."
"The waves overwhelmed me again and again. They flung me back, as if unwilling to take another victim."
You know, I don't know why I didn't pick this up to read ages ago. I got it in one the very first batches of pulp novels I bought when I first started collecting them. I've had it for many years. I loved the cover - the skinny dipping girl giving the come-hither eye to the guy currently in a frantic bid to dislodge his foot from his deck shoe in order to join her. The great back cover with the same? girl being leered at by a couple of creepy sailors. I must have never read the descriptions before because if I had, I surely would have read it immediately. Catch words and phrases like "Deserted island", "pirate treasure", "an assortment of villains", "sadistic hunchback and his negro companion with peculiar methods of persuasion" Seriously, could that sound any better? Would it help if I told you that the sadistic hunchback is also a little person or that the deserted island is also eerily shaped like and resembles a skull upon approach? Or that that island is inhabited solely by a crazy swedish hermit? It just keeps getting better.
The story is fantastic. Perfect rugged men's adventure type stuff. A couple of can't hold a job, caribbean adventurer types who appear to be friends but only barely get along and are clearly going to cross one another at some point get hold of an ancient treasure map pointing to a hidden treasure of the notorious french pirate L'Ollonais. The one who owns the boat decides out of a clear blue sky to take on a pretty young american girl to the crew despite all the tales of women being bad luck on a ship. This drives an even deeper wedge between the two friends. Thus begins a breakneck trip across the caribbean with enemies in tow all hoping to get a bit of the gold. Truly great writing as well, with some beautiful picturesque moments.
Awesome. 5 stars. 10 out of 10 and all that. If you see this one, don't pass it up!
"I started stringing together the longest, best and most descriptive series of curses and oaths that I knew. To the most anonymous listener, it must have been a puny effort. My imagination had been atrophied by what had really happened. If the world was sane, I was off my head. And that was no inducement to the artistry needed to produce elegant swearing."
