Exotic Marlene in her most breathtaking role
"Shanghai Express", is one of those films that very aptly fits into the category of "they sure dont make them like this anymore". Boasting hauntingly beautiful camera work and photography, the film being very much a product of the glamourous 1930's treats its leading ladies face as if it was a rare icon throughout the films running time. These haunting images are the work of Joseph Von Sternberg, the genius who was responsible for creating so much of the mystic around Marlene Dietrich in classic roles like "Morocco", "Blonde Venus", and "The Scarlet Empress".
Exotica is the one word that constantly comes to mind when viewing "Shanghai Express". It's not so much the storyline (which in actual fact while entertaining is rather trite) that holds your attention so much as the ever more amazing series of "photographic images" that are made of Marlene Dietrich throughout the film wrapped up as she is in exotic furs, black feathers or shrouded in cigarette smoke or partial shadows. They...
Classic Dietrich/Sternberg Collaboration.
A remarkable and mystically exotic story of love and destruction - the kind of film for which both star and director became legends. As "the White Flower of Chinese coast" Marlene speaks her most famous line in the film: "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily"! Dietrich, as always gave Von Sternberg the exact performance he envisioned while Clive Brook is pretty good as Captain Harvey, the object of Marlene's affection. Anna May Wong had probably her best Hollywood role as Hui Fei, the prostitute in search of redemption; she had been raped by insatiable rebel leader Oland. The story on which this movie is based is clearly drawn from Guy de Maupassant's classic short story of a French prostitute - "Boule de Suif". The photography of this film is in every respect excellent (Lee Garmes). Dietrich was dressed by Travis Banton for this and she looks truly ravishing throughout the movie (the film made 3 million dollars in the depressed...
It took more than one man...
Here is the legendary film that spawned hundreds of imitators, starring the one and only Marlene Dietrich in her early Hollywood signature role of Shanghai Lily. Actually, anybody else in this role would have been silly. Only a mysterious creature like Dietrich could carry this off.
More of an ensemble picture than one would think, the film has a pretty straight-forward plot, which is unusual for a Von Sternberg film. Dietrich plays a coaster, which is a polite term for a hooker, in China. she and group of other strangers board the Shanghai Express enroute to Shanghai. On board, she encounters former love Captain Harvey, who is about as warm as ice water. During the trip, the train is hijacked by Chinese rebels, and Lily must choose to sacrifice herself for her former(and still) love to save his life.
As I said, it all sounds hackneyed, but when watching, one can't help but be mesmerized. Dietrich is at her most exotic and alluring in this role, and you really can't take...
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