If there was ever a “star vehicle,” Shanghai Express is it.
Marlene Dietrich is the centerpiece of this movie. And director Josef von Sternberg makes it clear from her first veiled appearance to the final embrace.
Dietrich, as well as her co-star, bulldog-faced Clive Brook, deliver their lines rather stoically; her expression and screen presence is more important and tells more of the story than the tone of either of their voices. Her looks speak volumes.
Shanghai Express is a road-trip story. While Dietrich is the draw, there’s still an interesting story going on as the train travels through civil-war-divided China.
Warner Oland had already cemented himself as a character actor portraying Asian characters, including Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan, in films before playing the revolutionary leader in Shanghai Express. While Oland’s portrayal is wildly insulting now, it’s good to see Anna May Wong in a key role. Too bad we didn’t see as much of her as we did Oland.
Although carefully staged, skillfully lit, and highly stylized, Shanghai Express feels more authentic than many Hollywood films from the early 1930s. The train sequences — in particular the one early on with the locomotive creeping through a tight Chinese street — and the large number of Asian-American extras contribute so much to this.
It has been a while since I’ve watched an early Dietrich film and I’m looking forward to watching more.