MovieChat Forums > The Lady from Shanghai (1948) Discussion > Date Mistake, or Goof?

Date Mistake, or Goof?

posted 15 years ago by stevieg-13
1 reply | jump to latest

Greetings,

I was watching LFS again last night, yes I REALLY like this film. If only just the music could be erased from the "mirror" scene! Couldn't Welles' estate address this issue? Of course if the estate had that much stroke "The Other Side of the Wind" would be edited and released. Actually couldn't Bogdonovich have some claim to this? Of course the full length of the mirror scene is in parts unknown and likely destroyed, though just delete the music and leave the sound of gunshots and breaking glass. Possible, yes?

Anyway last night I noticed in Welles' voice-over that the yacht arrived in San Francisco in October. Yet during the conversation in Grimsby's office, Michael is told that the confession is dated August 3 and adds that's tomorrow so you'd better move fast. I am paraphrasing hence no quotation marks though is is close.

Somehow post arriving in S.F. over two months were restored to the lives of all involved.

Speaking of S.F., the scene in the Steinhart Aquarium is so strange it always creeps me out. Simply the size of the fish in the tanks is totally not right. They look like radiation-mutated giants. I do not think it was the lens taht was used, since all the sidtortion is in the bacjground rather thabn the foreground and it doesn't look like a matte. The over size of the fish (and turtle) is consistent as they move from tank to tank. That is, each species is disproportionally too large. This is a mystery to me.

Perhaps, I am creeped out because I'm a SCUBA diver. Of this I am certain, Leopard sharks are nowhere near as large as those in the film and I have never in all my dives seen a Moray Eel even 1/4 the size of the one depicted in the film.

Explinations, comments, criticisms, the usual are welcome.

Bye,

s

[–] ShiraxManji 11 years ago

I didn't catch the date error, but perhaps it was just a mistake.

The warped views of the animals in the aquarium were also bizarre to me. I thought that possibly the actors were filmed elsewhere and placed in front of the aquarium during editing. Although they were obviously actually in the aquarium during some far away shots. Maybe this was due to the reflections of the film equipment on the glass of the tank? Thus, shooting directly in front of it would reveal the camera? Just a speculation.