- “How have I changed?”- “I don’t know. I wish I could describe it.”
- “Well Doc, I’ve changed my name.”
- “Married?”
- “No…It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily.”
Perhaps it is fitting that Marlene Dietrich’s birth name was Marie Magdalene. She was both a siren and an angel, a goddess of the silver screen when films were still “the movies.” She was adored by millions of fans, and likely hated by some Hollywood insiders for “corrupting” the likes of Jimmy Stuart and Gary Cooper, but I doubt many people knew her as well as Josef von Sternberg. He was her frequent collaborator and sporadic lover, and he knew that she had it in her to be both saint and sinner. The two made seven films together between 1930 and 1935, and by the time of Shanghai Express (1932) they knew what they were doing.
It is the middle film in the string of seven that began, again fittingly, with The Blue Angel (1930) and ended with The Devil is a Woman (1935). Though a great deal of the critical praise for this string of collaborations is devoted to The Scarlet Empress (1934), and rightfully so, I think I’d give the slight edge to Shanghai
It is a classic studio picture, clearly shot on the Paramount back lot. The resulting lack of location wide shots that would surely accompany any contemporary train picture is offset however by some of the most affective production design I can recall. Von Sternberg supposedly designed many of the sets himself, working alongside art director Hans Drier. He is also rumored to have shot much of the film’s breathtaking cinematography himself, if so, in the process winning and Oscar for credited D.P. Lee Garmes.
The story begins in the train station at Peking . We are introduced to a group of characters all boarding the luxury line of the film’s title. There is a sanctimonious priest, a cranky invalid, a military surgeon, a half-Chinese businessman (the Swedish born Charlie Chan, Warner Oland), a persnickety old woman, a flamboyant gambler (the reliably hilarious Eugene Pallette), and two women of ill repute. One of these women is rumored to be the infamous Shanghai Lily (Dietrich). Some of the passengers are intrigued by her presence, and others perturbed. The surgeon (Clive Brook) is surprised to meet the Dietrich character, whom he’d loved years before, only to find out that his former lover is the notorious “coaster” (“a woman who lives by her wits along the China coast”).
The two talk of the past, and the flame between them is rekindled, only to flicker when the Express makes an unexpected stop. The gambler was willing to bet that the train would not arrive on time, traveling through the civil war-torn China
These are the roles Dietrich was born for. She was never wholly good or truly evil; a study in the human condition, but larger than life. She had a face that was meant to be projected thirty feet tall; a real movie star. Look at the way Von Sternberg lights her close-ups, when she prays or smokes a cigarette. It’s clear in those moments how much he loved her, and how angelic she was in his eyes. Dietrich was controversial and so was the film. It was banned in China U.S.
Language: English and Cantonese
Runtime: 80 Minutes
Available @ Youtube.com
Grade: 4 Hats Off.
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