Worst Movie Accents: Part 3

The Lady from Shangai ("Sharks" Forshadowing scene)

Orson Welles, 1947

 

Considered a deity amongst some fanatical cineaste folk, Orson Welles gave the world Citizen Kane (1941) at the tender age of just twenty-six. That was enough to earn him a free pass with whatever erroenous error he might have commited throughout the rest of his professional career.

Film noir, The Lady from Shanghai (1947) was a side-project for Welles, since he was only obligated with it inorder to raise funds for his musical adaptation of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. This level of half-hearted commitment would lead into the film being an expensive and troubled production; not just in terms of causing a shitstorm of problems with Hollywood's workers' union, but with his deteriorating marriage with his onscreen co-star, Rita Hayworth.

Haven't read Sherwood King's If I Die Before I Wake, the film's original source material, to find out whether its protagonist spoke in an Irish accent, but I do know when I hear a terrible one that's on par with Cameron Diaz's godawful accent in Gangs of New York (2002). Welles' accent, while hilarious, genuinely hurts the film as it's hard to appreciate spoken word nuances or pivotal forshadowing, like how he compares his employers to frenzied sharks. Thankfully, the finale isn't hampered by a stereotypical, mock Irish accent that could have come from Warwick Davis in the Leprechaun franchise, but artistic eye candy for my film tastes; ending a flawed production on a particular a high note.

The climax, which includes some obvious inspiration from Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), would also be the forbearer to other notable films down the road, including: Bruce Lee's showdown with Han in Enter the Dragon (1973); Scaramanga's contest with Bond in The Man With the Golden Gun (1974); and more recently Col. Parker's Faustian seduction of the King of Rock & Roll in Elvis (2022). The Lady from Shanghai might not be one of Welles' strongest films, but it's abundantly clear, its artistic legacy would be homaged decades later.

The Lady from Shanghai (Funhouse & Hall of Mirrors scenes)

Orson Welles, 1947