The Lady From Shanghai

To raise money for his major Broadway project IN 80 DAYS AROUND THE WORLD, Welles promises Columbia boss Cohn his next film: ‘If I Die, Before I Wake’. He had read the title by chance on a book in a telephone booth. According to storyteller Welles, the making of his dark and comic thriller, in which he plays an Irish sailor alongside his ex-wife Rita Hayworth, who falls for a mysterious and unscrupulous beauty and becomes embroiled in a murder case. Things became more difficult when Cohn saw the first rough cut of the film and demanded countless changes. While the reception at the time was reserved, today everyone agrees: THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI is a masterpiece of film noir. (Florian Widegger)