film

"I told you ... you know nothing about wickedness." 

Orson Welles gives what could well be his finest acting performance in this stunning and fast-moving 1947 noir treat that he also directed. Welles is warm, witty and exquisitely charismatic as Michael O’Hara, an Irish sailor who becomes entangled in a web of deceit after meeting the enigmatic Elsa Bannister (Rita Hayworth). Haworth's casting was controversial for altering her established screen persona, but she gives a performance every bit as memorable as that of Welles.

çThe 60 minutes cut from the original by the studio may leave the odd plot discrepancy, but the film's energy and style are more than enough to sideline such concerns. The story, which is adapted from Sherwood King’s novel If I Die Before I Wake, is labyrinthine and keeps the audience guessing right to the film's shocking end. And just wait for the hall-of-mirrors scene, a firmly established piece of cinema folklore that will be familiar to almost everyone given the countless references and parodies it has spawned in popular culture.