Joseph Sternberg's portrayal of 1930s China is that of a Westerner's exotic dream of what the East is supposed to be like - full of danger and intrigue filled with beautiful, dangerous dames while everyone speaks perfect English. Shanghai Express is a visual feast made up of long tracking shots, expressive dissolves, gorgeous shadow play and most of all, its luminous star, Marlene Dietrich's stunning wardrobe changes.
Shanghai express's plot contains lost loves between a British officer Harvey (Donald Brook) and a courtesan known as Shanghai Lily (Dietrich) as they embark on a train ride from Peiping (Beijing) to Shanghai. Then there is a rogue element in Chang (Warner Oland in ridiculous 'oriental' makeup- raised eyebrows and three point mustache that looks like a Halloween gag costume for racists) who feigns to be a passenger but a revolutionary sleazebag who masterminds the train jacking and taking hostage of Harvey in exchange for his second-hand man who got captured by Chinese gov't troops earlier. Chang also threatens to keep Lily as his concubine and after her rejection, turns to Hu Fei (Anna May Wong), Lily's chamber-mate, and rapes her. The siege ends in Lily sacrificing herself - to stay with Chang to release Harvey without Harvey knowing it. After Hu Fei kills Chang and everyone gets released, Harvey, thinking that Lily chose the captor for her own volition makes the rest of the train ride a very uncomfortable one.
Silly plot aside, Shanghai Express is all light and shadows and how to light its star as beautiful as possible. And Dietrich is as always, stunning. Wong also shines as knife wielding dangerous beauty without backstory. It would have been great if there were a Hu Fei spinoff. Will investigate Wong's filmography in the future.
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