Summary: The Lady From Shanghai

The Lady from Shanghai (1946) has all of the elements that encompass a great film noir. For the purposes of this short paper, I will focus strictly on one prominent scene in the film and the elements that comprise it. The scene I have chosen is the crazy house scene, one of the final scenes in the film. Michael awakes from his drugged stupor and realizes he is in a crazy house. His mind whirls as he begins to put the pieces of the puzzle together, realizing that Elsa was in fact the murderer and had planned to frame him all along. As we hear these thoughts whirl around in his mind, his surroundings seem to mimic his confused feelings. He stumbles through the crazy house and large clown faces randomly appear, seeming to mock and threaten him.
A blank look on her face sends chills up our spine as we realize the woman we once thought was simply sad and lonely has actually become cold and conniving. Elsa hates her controlling husband and his heartless ways, but her cold countenance reveals she has become like the very thing she hated. Mr. Bannister arrives and his stumbling, handicapped reflection is multiplied in the mirrors. It is as if the room is full of both of their reflections, as if to portray that they can’t escape who they have become. Their deception, greed and secrecy have caught up with them and they are becoming “sharks, mad with their own blood, chewing away at themselves.” There is a close-up shot of Mr. Bannisters face as he says the telling words “I am pretty tired of both of us.” Their shootout ensues and sounds of shattered glass signifies the shattering of their sad lives as the loud music bangs. Michael drags Elsa’s limp body out of the mirror hall and leaves her to die. As he walks away, the gravity of the situation hits him. Succumbing to the fact that he was deceived by the woman he thought he loved, he utters the somber words “Maybe I’ll live so long that I’ll forget her. Maybe I’ll die