Shanghai Express is an American 1932 film directed by Josef von Sternberg. The pre-Code picture stars Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong, and Warner Oland. It was written by Jules Furthman, based on a story by Harry Hervey. It was the fourth of seven teamings of Sternberg and Dietrich.
The film is memorable for its stylistic black-and-white chiaroscuro cinematography. Even though Lee Garmes was awarded the Academy Award for Best Cinemat...
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Shanghai Express is an American 1932 film directed by Josef von Sternberg. The pre-Code picture stars Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong, and Warner Oland. It was written by Jules Furthman, based on a story by Harry Hervey. It was the fourth of seven teamings of Sternberg and Dietrich.
The film is memorable for its stylistic black-and-white chiaroscuro cinematography. Even though Lee Garmes was awarded the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, according to Dietrich, it was Sternberg who was responsible for most of it.
Shanghai Express has been remade as Night Plane from Chungking (1942) and Peking Express (1951).
In 1931, China is embroiled in a civil war. Friends of British Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey (Brook) envy him because the fabulously notorious Shanghai Lily is a fellow passenger on the express train from Beiping to Shanghai. When the name means nothing to him, they inform him that she is a "coaster" or "woman who lives by her wits along the China coast", in other...
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