Marlene Dietrich is Shanghai Lily on the "Shanghai Express" in this 1932 film directed by Josef von Sternberg. Lily and another woman of dubious reputation, Hui Fei (Anna May Wong) are on the train during a civil war, which might hold them up. On the train, Shanghai Lily runs into an old love, a British Army doctor, Dr. Donald Harvey (Clive Brook), who still loves her and she him. Seeing her now and knowing her reputation, can he ever believe she can become a one-man woman? When Chinese guerrillas stop the train, Dr. Harvey is taken as a hostage. Lily then has a choice to make.
This film is really a tribute to the fabulous beauty and glamor of Dietrich and the direction of von Sternberg because frankly, I'd have left Dr. Harvey with the guerrillas. Clive Brook was an actor of the stiff upper lip school, and he was unbelievably wooden.
Nevertheless, with Warner Oland as Henry Chang, one of the evil Chinese and Eugene Palette as a passenger on the train, this is a very good, highly atmospheric film. But it's Dietrich's show all the way with her incomparable acting, looks, and voice. One of our great screen personalities. A must see for Dietrich fans.
This film is really a tribute to the fabulous beauty and glamor of Dietrich and the direction of von Sternberg because frankly, I'd have left Dr. Harvey with the guerrillas. Clive Brook was an actor of the stiff upper lip school, and he was unbelievably wooden.
Nevertheless, with Warner Oland as Henry Chang, one of the evil Chinese and Eugene Palette as a passenger on the train, this is a very good, highly atmospheric film. But it's Dietrich's show all the way with her incomparable acting, looks, and voice. One of our great screen personalities. A must see for Dietrich fans.