The Lady From Shanghai (1947) IMDB
Rita Hayworth plays a vixen that gets director/actor Orson Welles mixed up in a murder plot in this film-noir classic. If you are a fan of film noir this is a perfect representation of the genre. The film was based off of the book If I Die Before I Wake by Sherwood King.
The plot revolves around a possible planned murder and the use of corpus delicti laws that were common at the time. That means that in order to be convicted of a crime you need to prove that a crime has been committed. We have a husband who is suspicious of his wife (Rita) and is having her followed by a private investigator. We get double crosses, misdirection’s and questionable decisions from from our characters.
In the last act our characters find themselves caught in a fun-house mirror maze in a key plot moment that involves gunshots…if they can find what they are shooting at ! One of the few maze films that involves a funhouse mirror maze but is not a horror film. Also a film that doesn’t just contain a maze, but uses it in a major way to move the plot and story forward (like The Shining). Side note - I could listen to Orson Welles speak all day. About anything.
A very solid movie. 8/10.
Check out the trailer:
Other Movie posts you may like:
A Collection of Maze and Labyrinth Movies
Other classic Maze Movies:
Alice in Wonderland Movie Review (1951)
Barbarella Movie Review (1968)
Enter The Dragon Movie Review (1973)