I’ve started watching The Lady from Shanghai. Film noir of Orson Welles with his then wife, I think, Rita Hayworth.

It’s a movie of its time, and in a good way. Not possible to make a movie like that again. It’s smart, whimsy, and terrifying. There’s something untold lurking in the background. These were the scary years of a World War, a time of fatalism, and of unadmitted fright.

Every word is in its right place, everything that has to be said is said.

What happened, in the end, with Orson Welles? In his middle age, this genius fell apart. He was shunned, and forgotten. Simon Callow, admirer and biographer, says that his personality “stopped him from making more films. He behaved very badly a lot of the time. He exhibited almost self-destructive behavior. In Hollywood he never recovered from that.”

How can such a great man be such a miserable failure?

A few days ago, Peter Bogdanovich died. Also a genius director. He taught himself his craft by interviewing other great directors of his times. And, also, self destructive to the end.

With Welles, the more you scratch, the more you find out, and never reach the bottom. I watched the mesmerizing film to the end. And enjoyed every frame. Then, read about it some more, in Simon Callow’s Welles biography, and on wiki.

Those frames I had enjoyed, then, came in a different light.

Welles himself kept reaching into his talented self, and never reaching bottom. His method was to disorganize things. He put people on the wrong foot, and let things sort themselves out, spontaneously. To do this takes great self trust. What if you never figure it out when the moment comes? What if your deep fountain runs dry? His never did.

There are many backstories to the production, and to the interactions with the characters.

Rita Hayworth was still in love with Welles. He was indifferent to her. Nevertheless, he was the only one trusting her as a great actress. When everybody else saw a mere poster girl.

She trusted his artistic instincts so much that she’d let him change the look of her persona for the film. Her trademark red hair got dyed blonde. This was a scandal to her fans. Producers thought it a mad move.

For this and other reasons, the movie tanked. Like many of Orson Welles films, the plot required engagement, and thinking from an audience not always used to think in novel ways. Film watchers have certain expectations. There are conventions, customs. Orson Welles kept pushing the visual boundaries. The editing was done by a studio editor. Close-ups were added, music changed. Welles was, as always, too ahead of his time (and ours).

The movie bombed at the box office, while now being considered a masterpiece, with all the non-Welles editing and changes.