In 1931, during the civil war in China, a train leaves Beijing to Shanghai. Among the passengers, the British Captain Donald "Doc" Harvey (Clive Brook) that is traveling to operate the Vice-Governor of Shanghai; the courtesan Hui Fei (Anna May Wong); the Reverend Mr. Carmichael (Lawrence Grant); the boarding house owner Mrs. Haggerty (Louise Closser Hale); the French Major Lenard (Emile Chautard); the dealer Eric Baum (Gustav von Seyffertitz); and the local Mr. Henry Chang (Warner Oland). Out of the blue, Captain Harvey stumbles with the notorious courtesan Shanghai Lily (Marlene Dietrich), who is a "coaster" ("a woman that travels along the China coast with her wealthy clients"), and he recognizes her as her former lover Magdalen. Five years ago, Shanghai Lily tested his faith and love for her and Doc left her, in the beginning of her promiscuous life. Their encounter rekindles the old flame of their love and he shows that he is wearing the watch she gave to him. The train is stopped by Chinese soldiers seeking out a rebel agent and they arrest him. But Chang telegraphs a coded message and the rebels take over the train along the trip. Chang, who is their leader, interviews the passengers to find someone worthwhile to be exchanged by the arrested agent and he chooses Captain Harvey. Chang also tries to force Shanghai Lily to stay with him but Captain Harvey defends her and knocks him down; then he rapes Hui Fei. When the government releases the rebel agent, Chang decides to revenge Harvey blinding him. However, Shanghai Lily offers herself to Chang to release Harvey. What will happen to her?

"Shanghai Express" is a great Pre-Code Film with magnificent performances of the gorgeous Marlene Dietrich and Anna May Wong. The melodramatic romance about the lack of faith in love and the recounter of two former lovers in the environment of the Chinese Civil War in 1931 is engaging with wonderful black and white cinematography. Marlene Dietrich deserved a better romantic pair since the wooden Clive Brook does not have good performance. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Expresso de Shanghai" ("The Shanghai Express")

One of Marlene Dietrich's most popular films from her early period with Joseph Von Sternberg was Shanghai Express. In fact her portrayal of the notorious Shanghai Lily is the main reason for watching this film today.

Set in Kuomintang China, the film concentrates on a group of train passengers making a journey from Peking to Shanghai. These are the white passengers all heading for their extraterritorial enclaves on the China coast and a couple of richer Chinese. One of them is Warner Oland who is a seemingly respectable Chinese merchant, but actually a notorious warlord leader a group that Chiang Kai-Shek has sworn to exterminate. In fact during this period his government was doing just that.

Oland is best known for playing Chinese detective Charlie Chan, but he's not dispensing fortune cookie wisdom here. He's a most menacing figure who when he's revealed holds all the lives of the passengers in his hands. The other Oriental in this group is well to do prostitute Anna May Wong. She and Dietrich find themselves kindred spirits and are shunned by the other passengers.

It's a reunion of sorts for Dietrich, another of the passengers is Clive Brook a British army doctor who is on his way to China to perform a delicate operation on a big shot. He and Dietrich were once involved, but when he dumped her, she took the road that made her the notorious Shanghai Lily.

The main weakness of Shanghai Express in fact is Brook. He's such a cold fish drip of a man, I can't see how Dietrich and he could ever have been involved. The film would work a lot better if the role had been cast with someone of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr's charm. Still Brook proves the old flame hasn't quite died down and in fact it hasn't for Marlene either.

Other characters on the train are Lawrence Grant as a reverend Davidson type missionary, Louise Closser Hale as an old American dowager, Emile Chautard as a disgraced French Army officer, Gustave Von Seyfertitz as a hypocritical opium dealer, and Eugene Palette as a crass American businessman as only Eugene Palette can play them. They provide quite a cross section of the western powers who were nibbling on the Chinese body politic at the time.

Shanghai Express won an Oscar for Cinematography and was in the running for Best Picture that year, losing to Grand Hotel which has a lot of similarities to this film. Dietrich is unforgettable as Shanghai Lily and this is a must for her fans.

Marlene Dietrich's fourth out of seven collaborations with director Josef Von Sternberg is among her best in films and performances and one of her better collaborations with Sternberg.

Dietrich herself is one of 'Shanghai Express' selling points. Rarely has she been more stunningly photographed and everything about her performance here is unforgettable, dominating the film in the most fearless of ways. Most of her supporting cast are more than up to her level, especially the exotic and exuberant Anna May Wong and menacing Warner Oland. One also highly appreciates amusing Eugene Palette and Lawrence Grant's sympathetic character.

'Shanghai Express' is efficiently directed as ever by Sternberg, and the cast are fully advantaged by the deliciously arch yet remarkably sophisticated script and a story that has so much style and class and is always absorbing. The histrionic nature, stereotypes and any ridiculousness didn't bother at all.

Other than Dietrich, it is the production values and how the confined space is used that particularly impresses in 'Shanghai Express'. The lighting is positively exotic and clever use is made of the confined setting, having a real and appropriate sense of intimacy. The costumes are wonderfully ornate, the sets are atmospheric and the cinematography is some of the visually striking and best of its year and even decade.

Unfortunately Clive Brook's wooden, stiff and excessively earnest presence makes a wooden plank more animated. His performance and his and Dietrich's lack of chemistry are the sole drawbacks to an otherwise great film that had all the ingredients for a classic and almost was.

Great film all the same however. 9/10 Bethany Cox