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Shanghai Express (1932)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
12 February 1932 (USA) morePlot:
Many passengers on the Shanghai Express are more concerned that the notorious Shanghai Lil is on board... more | add synopsisAwards:
Won Oscar. Another 2 nominations moreNewsDesk:
(3 articles)
Josef Von Sternberg: Eros And Abstraction—Blonde Venus (1932) (From Twitch. 15 February 2009, 4:27 PM, PST)
Josef Von Sternberg: Eros And Abstraction—Shanghai Express (1932)
(From Twitch. 15 February 2009, 3:22 PM, PST)
User Comments:
A dream of a ghostly train and shades of black moreCast
(Complete credited 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 |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
80 minCountry:
USAColor:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 moreSound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)Certification:
USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:Approved (PCA #1390-R, 31 August 1935 for re-release)Fun Stuff
Trivia:
One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since. moreGoofs:
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. moreFAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more
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Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Shanghai Express (1932)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
|---|---|
| One of Dietrich's best | ejgreen77 |
| DVD | paisleyraye |
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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!