Shanghai Express (1932)

Director:

Josef von Sternberg

Writers:

Harry Hervey (story)
Jules Furthman (screenplay)

Release Date:

12 February 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Romance

Plot:

Many passengers on the Shanghai Express are more concerned that the notorious Shanghai Lil is on board...

Plot Keywords:

China | Hostage | Doctor | Chinese | Civil War

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Marlene Dietrich	...	Shanghai Lily, aka Magdalen
Clive Brook	...	Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey
Anna May Wong	...	Hui Fei
Warner Oland	...	Mr. Henry Chang
Eugene Pallette	...	Sam Salt
Lawrence Grant	...	Reverend Mr. Carmichael
Louise Closser Hale	...	Mrs. Haggerty
Gustav von Seyffertitz	...	Eric Baum
Emile Chautard	...	Major Lenard

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | Cantonese | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:Approved (PCA #1390-R, 31 August 1935 for re-release)

Filming Locations:

Santa Fe railroad station, San Bernardino, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

China initially banned the movie, demanding its withdrawal from worldwide circulation. The ban was lifted when Paramount pledged not to make another film involving Chinese politics.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The film is set in northern China (Peking to Shanghai). The government and warlord soldiers are speaking Cantonese, which is a southern Chinese dialect not generally spoken in northern China. The northern dialects of Mandarin Chinese (a Beijing dialect) and/or Shanghainese would be spoken instead.

Quotes:

Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey: You appear to be nervous. Sleep would do you more good.
Shanghai Lily: What makes you think I'm nervous?
Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey: For one thing, your hands are trembling.
Shanghai Lily: It’s because you touched me, Doc.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Why Be Good? Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema (2007)

A dream of a ghostly train and shades of black

Shanghai Express is another von Sternberg masterpiece, probably not appreciated in his day (no academy awards) and lesser known that it should be in this day. Film theory says this film was an attempt to shade degrees of blackness. At one point, Marlene Dietrich's face blooms like a white flower out of the shadows, then closes again.

Beautiful is not a big enough word enough to describe the cinematography in Shanghai Express. The plot is dreamlike and unrealistic (Sternberg hated realism), the costumes are excessive (impossible to contain in Dietrich's supposed luggage), the atmosphere is deliciously layered with decadence, exoticism (good part for Anna Mae Wong) and deterioration (broken walls, slats and fantasies), punctuated by von Sternberg's caprice (chickens wandering in front of the train -- a symbol of Dietrich's husband's profession as a chicken farmer?).

The storyline is basically a broken romance seeking to be healed between Clive Brook and Dietrich or "Shanghai Lily," the naughty lady who has sold her body the past few years to keep herself in glittery costumes and furs.

The real "story" is "Dietrich and von Sternberg visit China" on some movie lot, on their way from or to Russia (The Scarlet Empress), Spain (The Devil is a Woman), North Africa (Morocco), or somewhere in the U.S. (Blonde Venus).

Gorgeous and lots of fun!