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Shanghai Express (film)
Encyclopedia
Shanghai Express is a 1932 American film directed by Josef von Sternberg
. The pre-Code
picture stars Marlene Dietrich
, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong
, and Warner Oland
. It was written by Jules Furthman
, based on a story by Harry Hervey. It was the fourth of seven teamings of Sternberg and Dietrich.
The film is memorable for its stylistic black-and-white chiaroscuro
cinematography. Even though Lee Garmes
was awarded the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
, according to Dietrich, it was Sternberg who was responsible for most of it.
Shanghai Express has been remade as Night Plane from Chungking
(1942) and Peking Express
(1951).
In 1931, China is embroiled in a civil war
. Friends of British Captain Donald "Doc" Harvey (Brook) envy him because the fabulously notorious Shanghai Lily is a fellow passenger on the express train from Beiping
to Shanghai
. When the name means nothing to him, they inform him that she is a "coaster" or "woman who lives by her wits along the China coast" -- in other words, a courtesan
.
On the journey, Harvey encounters his former lover, Magdalen (Dietrich). Five years earlier, she had played a trick on Harvey to gauge his love for her, but it backfired and he left her. She frankly informs him that, in the interim, "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily." Lily makes it clear that she still cares deeply for him. It becomes apparent that his feelings also have not changed.
Among the other passengers are fellow coaster Hui Fei (Anna May Wong
), zealous missionary Mr. Carmichael (Lawrence Grant
), inveterate gambler Sam Salt (Eugene Pallette
), opium
dealer Eric Baum (Gustav von Seyffertitz
), boarding house
keeper Mrs. Haggerty (Louise Closser Hale
), French officer Major Lenard (Emile Chautard
), and a mysterious Eurasian
, Henry Chang (Warner Oland
).
Government soldiers search the train and arrest an enemy agent. Immediately afterwards, Chang sends a coded telegram. The train is taken over by rebels loyal to a powerful warlord, who turns out to be Chang.
Chang questions the passengers, looking for someone important enough to exchange for his valued aide, the man who was taken earlier. He finds what he wants in Harvey, who is on his way to perform brain surgery on the Governor-General of Shanghai.
Chang offers to take Shanghai Lily to his palace, but she claims she has reformed. Overhearing from the next room, Harvey breaks in and knocks Chang down. Because he needs Harvey alive, Chang swallows (but does not forget) the insult and leaves them alone. He then has Hui Fei forcibly brought to him to spend the night.
The government releases Chang's man, but Chang decides to blind Harvey for his insolence. Out of love, Lily offers herself in return for Harvey's safe release. Harvey remains unaware of the danger he is in and Lily's reason for going with Chang. Then, Chang is stabbed to death by Hui Fei. When she informs Harvey, he finds Lily. They board the train and depart before the body is discovered.
Carmichael, trusting his instincts, gets Lily to tell him the truth about her self-sacrifice. She insists that he not enlighten Harvey, because love must go hand in hand with faith. In the end, at the Shanghai train station, Harvey finally acknowledges his love for her.
Nominations
Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg — born Jonas Sternberg — was an Austrian-American film director. He is particularly noted for his distinctive mise en scène, use of lighting and soft lens, and seven-film collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich.-Youth:Von Sternberg was born Jonas Sternberg to a Jewish...
. The pre-Code
Pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood refers to the era in the American film industry between the introduction of sound in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines. Although the Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor and it did not become rigorously...
picture stars Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star...
, and Warner Oland
Warner Oland
Warner Oland was a Swedish American actor most remembered for his screen role as the detective Charlie Chan.-Biography:He was born Johan Verner Ölund in the village of Nyby, Bjurholm Municipality,...
. It was written by Jules Furthman
Jules Furthman
Jules Furthman was a magazine and newspaper writer before working as a screenwriter.Born in Chicago, Illinois, during World War I he wrote under the name "Stephen Fox." Furthman wrote screenplays for a number of important or popular films, including: The Docks of New York , Thunderbolt , Merely...
, based on a story by Harry Hervey. It was the fourth of seven teamings of Sternberg and Dietrich.
The film is memorable for its stylistic black-and-white chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro in art is "an Italian term which literally means 'light-dark'. In paintings the description refers to clear tonal contrasts which are often used to suggest the volume and modelling of the subjects depicted"....
cinematography. Even though Lee Garmes
Lee Garmes
Lee Garmes, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer. During his career, he worked with directors Howard Hawks, Max Ophuls, Josef von Sternberg, Alfred Hitchcock, King Vidor, Nicholas Ray and Henry Hathaway, whom he had met as a young man when the two first came to Hollywood in the silent era...
was awarded the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
Academy Award for Best Cinematography
The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
, according to Dietrich, it was Sternberg who was responsible for most of it.
Shanghai Express has been remade as Night Plane from Chungking
Night Plane from Chungking
Night Plane from Chungking is an American war film released by Paramount Pictures, and is a remake of Paramount's earlier film Shanghai Express ....
(1942) and Peking Express
Peking Express (film)
Peking Express is a 1951 adventure film made by Paramount Pictures. It is the second remake of Paramount's earlier Shanghai Express , remade as Night Plane from Chungking . It was directed by William Dieterle and produced by Hal B. Wallis, from a screenplay by John Meredyth Lucas, based on the...
(1951).
Plot
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...
. Friends of British Captain Donald "Doc" Harvey (Brook) envy him because the fabulously notorious Shanghai Lily is a fellow passenger on the express train from Beiping
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
to Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
. When the name means nothing to him, they inform him that she is a "coaster" or "woman who lives by her wits along the China coast" -- in other words, a courtesan
Courtesan
A courtesan was originally a female courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
.
On the journey, Harvey encounters his former lover, Magdalen (Dietrich). Five years earlier, she had played a trick on Harvey to gauge his love for her, but it backfired and he left her. She frankly informs him that, in the interim, "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily." Lily makes it clear that she still cares deeply for him. It becomes apparent that his feelings also have not changed.
Among the other passengers are fellow coaster Hui Fei (Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star...
), zealous missionary Mr. Carmichael (Lawrence Grant
Lawrence Grant
Percy Reginald Lawrence-Grant was an English actor known for his supporting roles in films such as The Living Ghost, I'll Tell the World, The Mask of Fu Manchu, and Son of Frankenstein...
), inveterate gambler Sam Salt (Eugene Pallette
Eugene Pallette
Eugene William Pallette was an American actor. He appeared in over 240 silent era and sound era motion pictures between 1913 and 1946....
), opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
dealer Eric Baum (Gustav von Seyffertitz
Gustav von Seyffertitz
Gustav von Seyffertitz was a German film actor and director. He appeared in 118 films between 1917 and 1939.He was born in Haimhausen, Bavaria and died in Los Angeles, California, aged 81.-Selected filmography:...
), boarding house
Boarding house
A boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...
keeper Mrs. Haggerty (Louise Closser Hale
Louise Closser Hale
Louise Closser Hale was an American actress, playwright and novelist.Louise Closser was born either in Springfield, Massachusetts or Chicago, Illinois . Her father was Joseph A. Closser, a wealthy grain dealer and her mother was Louise M. Closser...
), French officer Major Lenard (Emile Chautard
Emile Chautard
Emile Chautard was a French film director, actor and screenwriter of the silent era. He directed 107 films between 1910 and 1924...
), and a mysterious Eurasian
Eurasian (mixed ancestry)
The word Eurasian refers to people of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It was originally coined in 19th-century British India to refer to Anglo-Indians of mixed British and Indian descent....
, Henry Chang (Warner Oland
Warner Oland
Warner Oland was a Swedish American actor most remembered for his screen role as the detective Charlie Chan.-Biography:He was born Johan Verner Ölund in the village of Nyby, Bjurholm Municipality,...
).
Government soldiers search the train and arrest an enemy agent. Immediately afterwards, Chang sends a coded telegram. The train is taken over by rebels loyal to a powerful warlord, who turns out to be Chang.
Chang questions the passengers, looking for someone important enough to exchange for his valued aide, the man who was taken earlier. He finds what he wants in Harvey, who is on his way to perform brain surgery on the Governor-General of Shanghai.
Chang offers to take Shanghai Lily to his palace, but she claims she has reformed. Overhearing from the next room, Harvey breaks in and knocks Chang down. Because he needs Harvey alive, Chang swallows (but does not forget) the insult and leaves them alone. He then has Hui Fei forcibly brought to him to spend the night.
The government releases Chang's man, but Chang decides to blind Harvey for his insolence. Out of love, Lily offers herself in return for Harvey's safe release. Harvey remains unaware of the danger he is in and Lily's reason for going with Chang. Then, Chang is stabbed to death by Hui Fei. When she informs Harvey, he finds Lily. They board the train and depart before the body is discovered.
Carmichael, trusting his instincts, gets Lily to tell him the truth about her self-sacrifice. She insists that he not enlighten Harvey, because love must go hand in hand with faith. In the end, at the Shanghai train station, Harvey finally acknowledges his love for her.
Cast
- Marlene DietrichMarlene DietrichMarlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
as Shanghai Lily - Clive Brook as Captain 'Doc' Harvey
- Anna May WongAnna May WongAnna May Wong was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star...
as Hui Fei - Warner OlandWarner OlandWarner Oland was a Swedish American actor most remembered for his screen role as the detective Charlie Chan.-Biography:He was born Johan Verner Ölund in the village of Nyby, Bjurholm Municipality,...
as Mr Henry Chang - Eugene PalletteEugene PalletteEugene William Pallette was an American actor. He appeared in over 240 silent era and sound era motion pictures between 1913 and 1946....
as Sam Salt - Lawrence GrantLawrence GrantPercy Reginald Lawrence-Grant was an English actor known for his supporting roles in films such as The Living Ghost, I'll Tell the World, The Mask of Fu Manchu, and Son of Frankenstein...
as Reverend Mr Carmichael - Louise Closser HaleLouise Closser HaleLouise Closser Hale was an American actress, playwright and novelist.Louise Closser was born either in Springfield, Massachusetts or Chicago, Illinois . Her father was Joseph A. Closser, a wealthy grain dealer and her mother was Louise M. Closser...
as Mrs Haggerty - Gustav von SeyffertitzGustav von SeyffertitzGustav von Seyffertitz was a German film actor and director. He appeared in 118 films between 1917 and 1939.He was born in Haimhausen, Bavaria and died in Los Angeles, California, aged 81.-Selected filmography:...
as Eric Baum - Emile ChautardEmile ChautardEmile Chautard was a French film director, actor and screenwriter of the silent era. He directed 107 films between 1910 and 1924...
as Major Lenard
Academy Awards
Win- Best CinematographyAcademy Award for Best CinematographyThe Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
, Lee Garmes
Nominations
- Best Director, Josef von Sternberg
- Best PictureAcademy Award for Best PictureThe Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...