Shanghai Express (1932)

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
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Leonard Carey	...	Carey, Minister in Shanghai (uncredited)
Wong Chung	...	Chinese Officer checking Passports (uncredited)
Herbert Evans	...	British Railway Officer (uncredited)
Willie Fung	...	Train Engineer (uncredited)
Tom Gubbins	...	Chinese Officer (uncredited)
Forrester Harvey	...	Peiping Ticket Agent (uncredited)
Claude King	...	Mr. Albright, Division Superintendant (uncredited)
James B. Leong	...	A Rebel (uncredited)
Miki Morita	...	Chinese Officer (uncredited)
Minoru Nishida	...	Li Fung, 'Blue Lotus' the Spy (uncredited)
Mrs. Sojin	...	Chinese Woman (uncredited)

Directed by
Josef von Sternberg

Writing credits
Harry Hervey		(story)
Jules Furthman		(screenplay)

Produced by
Adolph Zukor	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
W. Franke Harling		(uncredited)
Rudolph G. Kopp		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Lee Garmes
James Wong Howe		(uncredited)

Film Editing by
Frank Sullivan		(uncredited)

Art Direction by
Hans Dreier		(uncredited)

Costume Design by
Travis Banton		(gowns)

Art Department
Richard Kollorsz	....	train designer (uncredited)

Sound Department
Harry D. Mills	....	sound (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Milton Bridenbecker	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Roy Clark	....	second camera operator (uncredited)
Warner Cruze	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Otto Dyar	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Don English	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Junius Estep	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Warren Lynch	....	second camera operator (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Travis Banton	....	costumer (uncredited)

Music Department
Karl Hajos	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Herman Hand	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
John Leipold	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)

Other crew
Adolph Zukor	....	presenter
Tom Gubbins	....	technical advisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Paramount Pictures (as Paramount Publix Corporation)

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1932) (USA) (theatrical) (as Paramount Publix Corporation)
• Paramount Pictures (1932) (Austria) (theatrical)
• MCA/Universal Pictures (1958) (USA) (TV)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (1993) (USA) (VHS)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (1993) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Criterion Collection, The (2009) (USA) (DVD)
• Cult & Classic (Brazil) (VHS)

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:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

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)

Sternberg, Dietrich reach their zenith in opulently photographed romantic intrigue as extraordinary today as it was 70 years ago

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.