Shanghai Express

When I needed your faith, you withheld it; and now, when I don't need it, and don't deserve it, you give it to me. Shanghai Express is directed by Josef von Sternberg and written by Jules Furthman (adaptation) & Harry Hervey (story). It stars Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brooks, Anna May Wong, Warner Oland, Eugene Palette and Lawrence Grant. Music is by W. Franke Harling & Rudoplh G. Kopp and cinematography by Lee Garmes. Plot finds Shanghai Lily (Dietrich) meeting up with old flame Donald Harvey (Brooks) aboard the Shanghai Express during the Chinese Civil War in 1931. However, this train has many passengers with secrets to hide, so when some rebels ambush the train, such things as loyalties, friendships, hidden motives and the birthing of legends come to the fore. Stylishly crafted by Sternberg and brisker than the other collaborations with Dietrich, Shanghai Express thrives on atmospheric visuals, strong scripting and a sultry turn from the leading lady. The cramped confines of the train allow Sternberg to dally with trademark shadows, smoke and shafts of light for maximum effect, garnering Garmes an Oscar in the process, while there is deft deadpannery amongst the myriad of intriguing characters. Quality film making on both sides of the camera and also off of the writers desk. 8/10

Amidst the civil war in 1930s China, a train is travelling from Peking to Shanghai carrying a disparate group of passengers that includes the infamous "Shanghai Lily" (Marlene Dietrich) and "Doc" (Clive Brook) who is on his way to perform surgery on a mandarin. The two have a past, and he reckons she is still a selfish woman quite capable of doing whatever is necessary to look after number one. That view changes when the train is stopped by guerrillas and he is taken hostage. With "Chang" (Warner Oland) now in charge, things are a great deal more perilous for everyone and "Lily" has to use all her feminine wiles and guile to keep her and the doctor as safe as she can in the face of a brutal and shrewd enemy. Dietrich is on good form here and there's an engaging degree of chemistry between her and Brook, but it was actually Oland who stole this for me as the truly malevolent soldier who knew no boundaries of human decency when it came to inflicting pain and torture on the unwitting passengers. As ever, Von Sternberg and the camera could make us fall in love with her reading of the phone book, and this is lit and paced in quite a menacingly intriguing fashion engendering a real sense of intensity as it progresses to it's not so predictable denouement. Well worth a watch on a big screen if you can - Dietrich positively glows and has no songs to fall back on.