The Harvey Girl from Shanghai

In early 1945, Judy Garland and Orson Welles are about to go into production on their films THE HARVEY GIRLS and THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI. They go to MGM producer Arthur Freed with the idea of combining the scripts to create a new kind of film musical. Many great talents are assigned and the film goes into production. But something happened, and the film was stopped mid-production. What happened?

We are told "only the players know" by columnist Louella Parsons. Those players -- Parsons in 1956 from her office, Welles in 1955 while working in Europe and Garland in 1954 on the set of A STAR IS BORN -- tell their stories about this unfinished holy grail of film history.

Bits of the production are extant, including a 1945 pre-trailer; a scene in Chinatown between the Garland character (Susan Bradley) and the Welles character (Michael O'Hara) for which only still images exist; a musical number with Garland, for which the sound has been lost and an alternate "film noir" ending written by Lillian Hellman.

The footage shot on the fun house hall of mirrors set was ordered burned as whatever happened must have closed down the film. A re-inactment is staged based on the Hollywood lure of the occurrence, and years later, in 1967, Orson and Judy are reunited to discuss the film on the television series, THE JACKIE SUSAN SHOW. A mysterious thread involving the Stendahl syndrome, the Stolkhom syndrome and the Helsinki Formula runs throughout.