Shanghai Express

1932
Approved
1h 22m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Costume Drama Film Noir Tragic Romance Adventure Drama Romance

A notorious woman rides a train through a dangerous situation with a British captain she loved.A notorious woman rides a train through a dangerous situation with a British captain she loved.A notorious woman rides a train through a dangerous situation with a British captain she loved.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

11K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 1 Oscar
- 1 win & 2 nominations total

Photos123

+ 116

Top cast26

Edit

Marlene Dietrich

Shanghai Lily

Clive Brook

Captain Donald Harvey

Anna May Wong

Hui Fei

Warner Oland

Henry Chang

Eugene Pallette

Sam Salt

Lawrence Grant

Mr. Carmichael

Louise Closser Hale

Mrs. Haggerty

Gustav von Seyffertitz

Eric Baum

Emile Chautard

Major Lenard

Sami Ayanoglu

Dr. Professor Jack
(uncredited)

George Blagoi

Minor Role
(uncredited)

Leonard Carey

Carey
(uncredited)

George Chung

Chinese Soldier
(uncredited)

Wong Chung

Chinese Officer Checking Passports
(uncredited)

Jack Deery

British Officer at Shanghai
(uncredited)

Herbert Evans

British Railway Officer
(uncredited)

Bess Flowers

Undetermined Secondary Role
(uncredited)

Willie Fung

Train Engineer
(uncredited)

Director
- Josef von Sternberg
Writers
- Jules Furthman
- Harry Hervey
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
The extras in the film mostly speak Cantonese - a Chinese dialect used mainly in southern China. If the film were to be more accurate, the extras would speak Mandarin, but most Chinese residents in the Los Angeles area (who worked as film extras) spoke Cantonese, necessitating Josef von Sternberg use Cantonese. Even so, Cantonese was one of the main languages of China at the time. It was nearly the national language, losing to Mandarin by only one vote in 1912. It was unsettled in popular culture during the 1930s. https://www.scmp.com/article/694592/cantonese-almost-became-official-language?campaign=694592&module=perpetual_scroll_0&pgtype=article

Goofs
The film is set in northern China (Peking to Shanghai). The government and warlord soldiers are speaking Taishanese, 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
Mr. Henry Chang: All the money in the world can't wipe out his insult to me.
[Shanghai Lily tries to shoot him]
Mr. Henry Chang: You only had my interest before. Now you have my admiration. I could love a woman like you.
Shanghai Lily: You made me an offer to leave with you. Does it still hold good?
Mr. Henry Chang: I wouldn't trust you from here to the door. What assurance have I you won't trick me?
Shanghai Lily: I give you my word of honor.
Mr. Henry Chang: A man is a fool to trust any woman, but I believe a word of honor would mean something to you.

Alternate versions
Comments in the AFI Catalogue suggest the credits were changed when re-released in 1935. According to the Catalogue, the original print referred to Harry Herveys work as a novel. In the viewed print on TCM, the onscreen credit was "story." The print was clearly a re-released print because of the PCA certificate number listed onscreen; such numbers were not issued until 1934. It is not known what other changes were made, if any, but the print ran only 82 minutes, suggesting some additional editing had been done.

Connections
Featured in Without Regret (1935)

Soundtracks
Shanghai Express Prelude
(uncredited)
Music by Rudolph G. Kopp
Played during the opening credits

User reviews91

Review

Featured review

A dream of a ghostly train and shades of black

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!