67. Shanghai Express (1932)

Directed By Joseph Von Sternberg

Synopsis

Marlene is a fox. Something on a train. Marlene is sexy. Chinese guy gets murdered... Marlene...





















Review

All the pictures you see here are taken from the film, so now you have a reason to watch it, there you go. Marlene is the film, enhanced by being extremely well shot and having a great sense of light and dark.

Actually there is not much to be said about the plot. There's a train from Peking to Shanghai during the Chinese revolution and Marlene is a notorious prostitute who is in love with a doctor also on the train. But Marlene and Anna May Wong steal the whole show as the white and chinese prostitutes, strong, yet fragile women who steal every scene they are in. The rest of the characters are there for scenery, and you really don't care that much.

There's just an electricity to Marlene's performance; she isn't that great an actress, although she plays the icy maiden perfectly. But the star quality is there like in no one else at the time, just as in the Blue Angel she is striking all the way through. The set design is also great, particularly at the beggining, when the train crosses Peking right through the city centre. Of course this is an imagined China, but it is the China as most of us imagine it in our dreams, chaotic, beautiful and dangerous... much like Marlene herself. And don't get me started about her clothing. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.




















Final Grade

8/10





















Trivia

A Marlene Slideshow:



From Wikipedia:

The movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and won for Best Cinematography (Lee Garmes).