Shanghai Express (1932)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

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:

It was von Sternberg's intention that the style of the film should reflect the rhythm of a train journey. This explains the film's tight pace and the rather staccato quality of the dialog.

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:

Reverend Mr. Carmichael: Love without faith, like religion without faith, doesn't amount to very much.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970)

Moves along like a steam train.

The movie has an original concept of a story set almost entirely aboard a train. It nevertheless knows to keep things going in a fast pace and to keep things interesting at all times. This is also thanks to the many characters that are pleasant in the movie. The much present light humor in this movie also makes this an entertaining one to watch as well. It's a movie in which there is always something happening.

But no, not everything in this movie works out as it should and it prevents this movie from being a true classic must-see in my opinion. Basically the core of the movie is that Shanghai Lily and Captain Harvey are still madly in love with each after haven't seen each other for years, before meeting again by coincidence on the Shanghai Express. However the love-story is ridiculously unbelievable, since Clive Brook is too wooden in his performance and Marlene Dietrich is too much of a femme fatale.

The movie is further more a good looking one, with especially some nice Oscar winning cinematography. Von Sternberg's movies from the '30's were among the most visionary of the era. It's one of the reasons why he is such a much praised director.

Movies in which Josef von Sternberg is directing Marlene Dietrich are always something above the usual, this movie forms no exception to this. They made quite a few movies together in the '30's. Von Sternberg by the way also directed quite some movies with Asian themes in them. He must have really liked the culture and he also seemed to have been inspired by its politics, much to the annoyance of the Chinese government itself, who wanted to ban this movie globally

A real good movie to watch!

8/10