Sternberg, Dietrich reach their zenith in opulently photographed romantic intrigue as extraordinary today as it was 70 years ago
Author: bmacv from Western New York
3 January 2003
When Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express chugs out of Peking, squeezing through a teeming alleyway as it picks up steam, it marks the start of a momentous journey – not only for its motley of passengers but for Hollywood. In this fourth teaming of the Svengali-like director and his Trilby of a star – Marlene Dietrich – they reach the zenith of their legendary collaboration and strike a template for the kind of movies America would do best and like best: voluptuous hybrids of adventure and intrigue, romance and raffish fun.
Leaving for Shanghai to operate on the stricken British Consul-General, army physician Clive Brook climbs aboard only to find the woman he loved but lost five years ago (Dietrich). Now, however, she goes by another appellation; as she explains, in the script's most emblematic line, `It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily.' Her presence on the train, and that of one of her sisters-in-sin (Anna May Wong) is cause for scandal and indignation among the other passengers: prim boarding-house proprietress Louise Closser Hale (with her pooch Waffles smuggled on board); sputtering man of the cloth Lawrence Grant; sardonic gambling man Eugene Pallette; a Frenchman; a German; and the inscrutable, pre-Charlie Chan Warner Oland.
Soon, China being embroiled in a civil war, they have more to worry about than Dietrich's morals. Rebel troops halt the journey lead the passengers, one by one, to be interrogated by their warlord, who turns out to be Oland. The various eccentricities, secrets and agendas of the passengers get brought into the open, affording Oland opportunity to avenge any number of racial and personal slights. But finally he finds what he's been looking for – a valuable hostage to serve as a bargaining chip – in Brook. And from then on Shanghai Express becomes a drama of reckoning, with all the characters scheming to save their own (and occasionally one anothers') skins.
None of the players can be faulted, except for Brook, who gives a dead-earnest impersonation of the stick that stirs the fire; that Dietrich should have fallen for him is like believing several impossible things before breakfast. (Cary Grant was around in 1932; too bad Sternberg didn't catch up with him until his next movie, Blonde Venus.) But in his handling of Dietrich, Sternberg all but patents what came to be called star treatment. Stunningly lighted, her feline face is caught in a breathtaking range of moods and attitudes. But she's more than a passive vessel for the director's intentions – her blend of worldly savvy and steely spine is hers and hers alone.
She isn't the only beneficiary of Sternberg's eye. He shoots the movie in a haunting, intense chiaroscuro (few movies from this early in the 1930s were so richly and handsomely photographed). He cuts from scene to scene teasingly, layering new shots on fading images, adding a little rubato to relate incidents of the story to one another. Shanghai Express may be the first masterpiece of the sound era, one that's still no less extraordinary today than it was 70 years ago.
20 out of 23 people found the following review useful:
An Excellent Marlene Dietrich Romance Film
Author: Ron Oliver (revilorest@juno.com) from Forest Ranch, CA
26 February 2000
Nine first-class passengers board a train to travel the 3-day trip from Peiping, China, to Shanghai. Nine souls with widely varying backgrounds & uncertain futures. For they are traveling into countryside racked by civil war and one of their number may not be all he seems. What dangers await & who will survive the journey on the SHANGHAI EXPRESS?
Marlene Dietrich is mysteriously beautiful as Shanghai Lilly, a `coaster' (a woman living by her wits on the coast of China) whom all men - and most viewers- find fascinating. Clive Brook, a silent film star little remembered now, is very effective as the British Army doctor who was once Lilly's lover. Anna May Wong plays an exotic Chinese prostitute who is used to taking care of herself.
The supporting cast is equally good: Warner Oland as a sly Eurasian; Eugene Pallette as a jovial American gambler; Lawrence Grant as a grumpy old English missionary; Gustav von Seyffertitz as an invalid German with a dangerous secret; Emile Chautard as an elderly French Major with a hidden past; and wonderful old Louise Closser Hale as a feisty American widow who runs `the best boarding house in Shanghai.'
Paramount put a lot of money into this pre-Production Code adventure drama, which has an exciting plot, good acting & plenty of romance. The Peiping scenes, with the crowded tenements squeezing right down to the very railroad tracks, are especially well done.
16 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
Great Film Classic !
Author: whpratt1 from United States
6 December 2004
Always enjoy films from the 1930's and especially this one, which stars Marlene Dietrich,(Shanghai Lily),"Touch of Evil",'58, who looks very young and trim and plays a woman who has been around the block quite a few times. Lily is still in love with a long lost lover and she once again gets involved with him on the "Shanghai Express", along with quite a few other characters on the mysterious train ride. Warner Oland,(Mr. Henry Chang), a great veteran actor who performed in many "Charlie Chan Films in the 1930's, gave a great supporting role along with another veteran actor, Eugene Palette(Sam Salt),"The Cheaters",'45. If you love an excellently produced Classic Film, this is the film for YOU!!
9 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Please refrain from further bashing of Clive Brook
Author: tentender from France
26 July 2008
Certainly one of the greatest films yet made (even I still have hope there will be more!), not least for the beautifully restrained performance of Clive Brook. Apparently the depiction of nobility and restraint is lost on modern audiences. Not a surprise, since these qualities seem to be almost entirely lost to modern society! OK, off the soapbox. This is one of the most moving stories ever depicted on film (compare, too, with Nicholas Ray's "In a Lonely Place," which tells a similar tale of misunderstandings that destroy a deep love -- without the happy ending that is so welcome in "Shanghai Express.") All the supporting players brilliantly portray their variously flawed characters, and the direction is simply breathtaking. Note, for instance, the multi-layered dissolves in the opening sequence. A stunning film -- I think it the best of the seven magnificent Sternberg-Dietrich collaborations. (This is the fourth, and, perhaps significantly, it was made after Sternberg took a break from Dietrich with his "American Tragedy." Did Sternberg realize how much he missed having her... and was he inspired beyond all measure? So it would seem. This and the succeeding three films, "Blonde Venus," "The Scarlet Empress," and "The Devil is a Woman" make anything else from the period -- from any period -- pale by comparison.)
8 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Simply Breathtaking!
Author: (sylviastel@aol.com) from United States
8 October 2006
Jozef Von Sternberg was one of those legendary directors. Marlena Dietrich who is better known for other roles is one of the leading roles in this film. They are all on a train going to Shanghai, China in a time when it was fashionable to take the train on overnight trips. Anyway, she is the "femme fatale" of all time even now. Marlena along with many other travelers that are quite forgettable. I think there was a lady with a dog but I can't be sure since I haven't seen the film in years. This film is an early classic from a time when film-making was new, fresh, and exciting. Now, it's all violence, sex, and vulgarity. Can you imagine somebody like Marlena being an actress today without losing that unforgettable mystique about her? No, you can't because they don't have actresses today who have managed to maintain any sense of mystery without being penalized by the Hollywood system. It's a shame that most of old Hollywood is gone.
This is one of those rare films where you know within the first few minutes that it's going to be excellent.
The train is leaving Peiping (Peking) for Shanghai. As we quickly learn, this train has an eclectic group of travelers.
The very notorious Shanghai Lily is among them. As if that isn't enough, there is a rebellion underway and the train must travel through dangerous territory.
The only regret i have about this film is that I couldn't give it a score higher than ten.
Movies this good will never, ever be made again because the directors, writers, and stars simply lack the talent those of that bygone era possessed.
Roger Moncrief
4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
The best of the Dietrich/von Sternberg films?
Author: bdornon2 from United States
3 August 2004
'Shanghai Express' is arguably the greatest of the seven films that featured the collaboration of Marlene Dietrich and Josef von Sternberg. More coherent and exciting than 'Blonde Venus', better written and acted than 'The Blue Angel', visually more exciting than 'The Scarlet Empress', and starring a finer cast than any of their other films, 'Shanghai Express' works as a love story, as a comedy, as adventure, and [almost] as a war story. This is the most successful pairing of the two geniuses; in this film, there is no telling where one leaves off and the other begins.
Smothered in feathers, laces, leather, and satins, Dietrich's long lean body and superbly lit face dominate the film with an air of poised languor. She masterfully conceals her feral, nocturnal energy beneath a lacquered, bored exterior, so that when she does erupt in a fit of violence it is truly shocking. Von Sternberg ordered the entire cast to mimic the monotonous cadence of the train in their dialogue, giving the long slow opening scenes a dreamy quality of suspension and anticipation. Von Sternberg and Dietrich build tension and excitement, sprinkled with well-placed brilliant comic bits, to a climax that is satisfying and delightful.
Like a great novel, this film begins slowly, builds inexorably, and rewards intense scrutiny with the astonishing detail and lavish care invested in it. Far from a 'happy ending', this movie ends with a conquest and a surrender, with a betrayal and with hope.
10 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Unforgettable journey
Author: Gary170459 from Derby, UK
6 October 2007
Over the decades I've managed to see nearly all of the films Sternberg directed and I've always considered that this one was his best work. It was pre Hays Code Paramount for starters, with a marvellous cast and an unusual and simple story full of romance and action gripping to the end. It was also lovingly photographed from beginning to end, everyone and everything gleaming in a by turns savage and erotic dreamlike world.
During the Chinese Civil War and travelling on the Peiping-Shanghai Express ("where time and life have no meaning") are a disparate band of Westerners plus a couple of enigmatic natives – all sadly lacking in moral fibre except Clive Brooks who has too much of it. This makes him less of a human being, along with the rest of them. He's still in love with Marlene Dietrich whom he ditched 5 years and 4 weeks before thus unwittingly turning her into Shanghai Lily the notorious coaster - a woman living on the coast of China by her "wits" – which is a bit of a serious problem to the upright Britisher even though she still loves him. Warner Oland plays a fundamentalist Chinaman with secrets and ashamed to have white blood in his veins while Eugene Palette is a gambling mad American capitalist. Inscrutable and sullen Anna May Wong is Dietrich's companion in vice, and 4 other international eccentrics make up the passenger list we're interested in. Favourite bits: Wong's dramatic announcement of her consummated revenge; the iconic image of Dietrich smoking in the dark; the all-too believable chaotic scenes of civil warfare. The interplay between the main characters is occasionally laboured but always fascinating and always thought provoking - there's plenty going on so attention is recommended! The only thing that gets in the way of this being an absolute masterpiece is Brooks' lousy stilted acting style – entertaining in its own way to study the forgotten technique, but it's often jarring in its unconvincingness.
An early talkie classic, mesmerising even after all these years.
11 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
Sternberg and Dietrich make this great despite Clive Brook
Author: Tashtago from Vancouver, Canada
1 December 2004
As others have mentioned this is one of the great films of the 1930's. All films eventually become dated even the movies our younger reviewers might think are timeless e.g. "Pulp Fiction" or "Lord of the Rings" will someday be seen as old fashioned or of their time . That said great film-making is always worth watching and Josef von Sternberg was one of Hollywood's first directors with artistic vision. It shows in the extraordinary opening sequence and throughout; particularly the night time search for the suspected spy. Dietrich was the sexiest woman in films at that time and she's still sexy. It's interesting to note that many of the top female stars during this time period were European. Dietrich, Garbo, Hedy Lamaar. Present day Hollywood has nothing to compare with them. The same can be said for astonishing Anna May Wong the scenes with her and Marlene are pure erotic fantasy on a grand scale. Shanghai Express would be perfect if it weren't for the god awful Clive Brook, as others have mentioned, he is terrible,wooden,stiff,corpse like. Brook is the films single most reason for appearing dated. 9/10
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
A train across China, danger, mystery, interesting characters, and Dietrich looking amazingly beautiful
Author: netwallah from The New Intangible College
1 June 2006
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
A classic romance-thriller, in which a train full of miscellaneous people on their way across China encounter danger, mystery, and transformation of character. Shanghai Lily (Marlene Dietrich), aka Madeleine, meets up again with chilly former lover Dr. Donald "Doc" Harvey (Clive Brook), and they push around the old story of their separation. Meanwhile, a certain Mr. Chang (played by Warner Oland, the Swiss-born actor who specialized in "Chinese" parts, especially Charley Chan) turns out to be the rebel leader, halts the train, and holds the passengers, and especially Dr. Harvey, hostage for the return of his number two. Chang forces Madeleine to promise to go away with him in return for sparing Dr. Harvey his sight. Before everything can go completely wrong, the elegant Chinese 1st-Class passenger Hue Fei (Anna May Wong, of course) kills Chang. Doc scorns Madeleine, but led by a minister who had initially ranted about fallen women but recognized Madeleine's heroism and love, he manages at last to declare his love without knowing what happened, as an act of faith. It's a soppy and predictable plot, assuredly, and the stuffed-shirt woodenness of Brooke doesn't help, but several elements make the movie a real pleasure. The supporting cast of character actors is very good, and it's always a pleasure to hear the wry rumbling voice of Eugene Burdette, who plays a travelling salesman and compulsive gambler, a minor part but amusing The photography is outstanding, especially the scene of the train leaving Beijing very slowly, making its way through the crowded, narrow market street with crowds getting out of the way, and a few night scenes as when the crew swing the water pipe out over the engine, and nearly every scene with Dietrich. Students of film technique should study this one to see the magic von Sternberg did with lighting her face. She plays a part not so different from so many of the roles thrown to her and to Garbo, the woman with a history, smooth and self-assured, jaded, powerful, and either doomed or surprised by discovering she has a heart after all. This one has a happy ending. Another bonus—she acts, rather than just standing or moving and letting the camera adore her.
