Film Noir is a name bestowed on a number of films produced after World War II. These black and white films portray the world as having no justice or meaning. Characters lie, cheat, and deceive one another. The Lady from Shanghai is a classic example of film noir because it consists of three major elements of a film noir: an average man, a femme fatale, and has a complicated, unjust plot.
To be considered a film noir the main character must be an average man. In the Lady from Shanghai the protagonist, Michael O'Hara, is played by Orson Wells. He, any average man in a film noir, is nave and falls in love with the femme fatale. In the movie, he plays an average working class man whose life is changed when he thinks he meets the "girl of his dreams- and is caught in a love triangle between her, her husband, and himself. As the plot unfolds you realize, even though he doesn't, that she is only using him for her personal advances. As in any other film noir, the male protagonist has to make a decision on whether or not to commit a crime. In this case it is to fake a murder. Ultimately he decides to go along with Elsa and is trapped in a situation where he had to struggle to survive. .
The femme fatale in the Lady from Shanghai is played by Elsa. She uses her good looks to manipulate Michael in order to try gain independence and money. The main character eventually falls in love with her and, as the story unfolds, it leads you to believe that they will be together but in film noirs the femme fatale is unobtainable. She only pretends to love Michael to satisfy her own greed. The femme fatale of film noir is known as an irresistibly attractive, ambitious woman who is confined in a marriage and Elsa matches falls under all those descriptions. .
The easiest element of a film noir to identify is its confusing plot. Michael O'Hara, an employee on the Bannister's yacht, has fallen in love with his wife, Elsa.