The Lady from Shanghai Review

Review of The Lady from Shanghai (1947) by screenqueeen: 👍 4/5

Welles seems not exactly aware that the effect this film gives off is one that pokes at the tropes in noir while participating with tongue in cheek, while still managing to be relatively serious about its own affairs. It achieves something that feels closer to the advent of visually stark comic book visuals -- DARKMAN specifically came to mind during the funhouse sequence. By embracing the tonal shift you're able to follow Welles' constant abandonment of an Irish dialect, sometimes midsentence. If the shorter length was his decision I'd be keen to think of this in a different lane as something whimsically strange and in thematic terms close to Twilight Zone in a fashion.