Who "directed" The Lady from Shanghai?
January 27, 2024 1:05 PM Subscribe
Orson Welles directed The Lady from Shanghai. We know this. But the Wikipedia entry for the film says Welles was "uncredited." What is that about? Was someone else credited? Was there no title card listing a director? Was that omitted from posters? It seems to have been common knowledge he was the director. Contemporary reviews mention this. In what way was he "uncredited"?
Best answer: According to an IMDB user, posted by mbrubeck at 1:17 PM on January 27, 2024 [3 favorites]
Yep, I just watched the opening credits and what mbrubeck said is correct.
posted by goatdog at 1:19 PM on January 27, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by goatdog at 1:19 PM on January 27, 2024 [2 favorites]
Welles did direct. However, due to the major reshoots the studio ordered, extensive cuts the studio instructed the editor to make, and a score that Welles was very unhappy with, the movie ended up very different from how he envisioned it and he requested his director credit be removed.
posted by theory at 1:20 PM on January 27, 2024 [6 favorites]
posted by theory at 1:20 PM on January 27, 2024 [6 favorites]
However, due to the major reshoots the studio ordered, extensive cuts the studio instructed the editor to make, and a score that Welles was very unhappy with, the movie ended up very different from how he envisioned it and he requested his director credit be removed.That made me curious enough to look up the history of Alan Smithee. It appears that the use of Smithee as a standardized pseudonymous director for films whose actual directors disavowed them because of a dispute with the finished product didn't begin until 1968.
I have no idea whether The Lady From Shanghai would have been credited to Smithee in a different era but in 1947 that wasn't even a thing yet.
posted by Nerd of the North at 3:56 PM on January 27, 2024 [1 favorite]
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