The Shanghai Gesture (1941)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Josef von Sternberg

Writers:

John Colton (play)
Josef von Sternberg (adaptation)

Release Date:

15 January 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir

Tagline:

"POPPY"...the Victim of Vengeance! Her love of life and laughter led her to a most amazing doom!

Plot:

A young woman, Poppy, out for excitement in Shanghai, enters a gambling house owned by "Mother" Gin Sling...

Plot Keywords:

Chinese New Year | Gambling | Casino | Revenge | Dinner Party

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Gene Tierney	...	Victoria Charteris
Walter Huston	...	Sir Guy Charteris
Victor Mature	...	Doctor Omar
Ona Munson	...	'Mother' Gin Sling
Phyllis Brooks	...	Dixie Pomeroy
Albert Bassermann	...	Van Elst
Maria Ouspenskaya	...	The Amah
Eric Blore	...	Caesar Hawkins
Ivan Lebedeff	...	Boris
Mike Mazurki	...	The Coolie
Clyde Fillmore	...	Percival Montgomery Hower
Grayce Hampton	...	Lady Blessington
Rex Evans	...	Mr. Jackson
Mikhail Rasumny	...	Mischa Vaginisky (as Mikhail Rasumni)
Michael Dalmatoff	...	The Bartender (as Michael Delmatoff)

Runtime:

99 min (copyright length) | USA:98 min (restored version) (1981)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #7972)

Filming Locations:

Chinatown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Arnold Pressburger Films

Trivia:

In the play, the setting was a brothel run by "Mother Goddam", who was once sold into prostitution, and it dealt with drug addition and nymphomania as well. Many initial adaptations of the original play were rejected by the Hays office, and they discouraged studios from making the film. The Chinese consulate also voiced objections to the portrayal of the Chinese in the play.

Quotes:

'Mother' Gin Sling: [on being a sex slave] My soles cut open and pebbles sewn inside to keep me from running away!

Movie Connections:

Featured in La société du spectacle (1973)

Soundtrack:

I'm Always Chasing Rainbows

Dreamy von Sternberg Morality Tale...

THE SHANGHAI GESTURE displays what was best and worst in Josef von Sternberg's 'German Expressionist' approach to film making, first seen by American audiences in his classic Marlene Dietrich productions of the 1930s. Each setting is decadent and mysterious, shot in soft focus, and wreathed in smoke; a sense of the absurd manifests itself in make-up, hairstyles, and costume; each character postures, incessantly, striking poses before delivering dialog; and there is always an undercurrent of sexual bondage, here manifested in the casual suggestions made by lazy, yet smoldering 'Dr. Omar' (Victor Mature), to the stranded showgirl, 'Dixie' (Phyllis Brooks), and the initially haughty, if naive 'Poppy/Victoria' (Gene Tierney), both of whom he easily 'bends' to his desires. In von Sternberg's world, there are seldom heroes, only survivors and predators.

Set in a fantasy version of the infamous Chinese port, GESTURE gathers a disparate group of international 'types', and sets them down in the multileveled center of inequity, a gambling parlor run by the legendary Chinese 'Mother' Gin Sling (Ona Munson). Ensnared by their debts, the mysterious woman 'owns' them, possessing an extraordinary degree of power.

Then the equally mysterious and powerful Sir Guy Charteris (Walter Huston) arrives in Shanghai, strong enough to control the local government, and with a goal of evicting 'Mother' Gin Sling, and tearing down her property. There is a shared 'skeleton' in both their closets, however, which she will reveal in the film's climactic 'Chinese New Year' dinner party...

While Munson could never 'pass' as Chinese, she does appear exotic and inscrutable, and is actually quite good, as is Huston, displaying a sensitivity masked in arrogant smugness. The true joy of the film, however, is watching the film's younger stars, early in their careers. Victor Mature, at 26, a year after his 'breakthrough' role in ONE MILLION B.C., poses more than acts in his role of an Arab gigolo, but clearly displays the sexuality that would make him a major heartthrob in the 40s; and Gene Tierney, not yet 21, occasionally overplays the 'fall' of her character, yet possesses the luminous beauty that would become her trademark.

Josef von Sternberg would only direct a handful of films after THE SHANGHAI GESTURE (receiving 'on screen' credit in even fewer), and this would be the last film he would have any kind of creative control over.

Faults and all, that alone would make THE SHANGHAI GESTURE worth viewing!