Rent Shanghai Express (1932)

Oriental Exotica. - Shanghai Express review by Steve

More foreign intrigue from Marlene Dietrich and Josef von Sternberg, set in the mysterious east during the Chinese Civil War, though naturally shot at Paramount studios. Sound technology had advanced since they made Morocco two years earlier and the camera moves with greater freedom. But it's still all shadows and cigarettes and shooting though diaphanous nets.

There's a cast of chain-smoking western fugitives with dubious pasts who might not be all they appear. Marlene used to be the respectable Madeline, but now she's a notorious adventurer. As she unforgettably clarifies: 'It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily'. Clive Brook is an old flame who was burned by Madeline many years ago.

So will the spark reignite as they travel by train though the hazards of war to Shanghai, and a ship for home? Clive Brooks was a terrible ham in everything he did and this is his signature role. And yet, the stiff, terse, detached Englishman is such an archetype in early talkies that he actually seems perfect casting! Anna May Wong makes an impression as a Chinese courtesan.

There's a remarkable moment then the director holds a close up of his star looking up into a light for a long thirty seconds... The story is very slight and slow and predictable. The film is more about the director's eye for an artistic image and Marlene's glamour at the peak of her allure. On those terms it doesn't disappoint.

An adventure - Shanghai Express review by sb

FILM & REVIEW With Babylon showing in cinema’s which dissects the “Golden” Age of Hollywood - a screening of one of the classics of the era. Set during the Chinese Civil War a motley collection of people are travelling across China by train. There is a dashing English military doctor, an American gambler, an apparent French Major, a strict English Reverend and at the centre two ladies of questionable virtue (Dietrich and May Wong). It’s revealed that Shanghai Lily played by Dietrich and the English Doctor Harvey have a chequered history together - she still loves him but has been hurt and is very standoffish. The train gets ambushed and one of the travellers is revealed to be a revolutionary general who holds the passengers hostage in return for one of his lieutenants - forcing Lily into making a moral choice. Diertrich is just astonishing a mixture of smouldering detatchment and vulnerability who dominates every frame with May Wong equally good. At times Brook as Harvey can be a little stuffed shirt and you can wonder what she sees in him but the film looks superb all shot in crisp monochrome by Lee Garmes with some really iconic shots. Ok the Chinese general is played by a white Swede ( who oddly was cast quite often as Oriental ) but apart from that it’s a great movie - 4/5