Shanghai Express

Shanghai Express is an excellent little movie that probably not enough people are aware exists. Based loosely on a real events (the Lincheng Incident, where bandits seized a train from Beijing to Shanghai and demanded ransoms) and played against the backdrop of the beginnings of the communist revolution in China, the film is partly about spies, politics, and hypocrisy; partly about an adventurous journey in an exotic land; and partly a character-driven drama of interpersonal relations and faith, both in others and in greater powers.

The film opens with a great sequence in which each passenger we’ll be following arrives at the station, during which their method of arrival and relationship with the train, station, and staff is designed to show us a lot about each character without dialogue or other exposition. I couldn’t help but wonder if this wasn’t highly influential on Lumet’s excellent Murder on the Orient Express adaptation, which features a very similar opening. Once everyone is onboard, there is some light world building, establishing the foreign yet familiar aspects of the colonial-backed Republican China of the 1920s, as the train departs and is almost immediately delayed. This also leaves room for the first interactions between the various characters and the establishment of who they are, or at least the version they allow other people to see, and how their personalities compliment and clash with each other. It also establishes the preexisting relationship between Madeline (aka Shanghai Lily), played by Marlene Dietrich, and Doc, played by Clive Brook, which becomes core to the story moving forward.

This was honestly my favorite part of the movie. I loved getting to know everyone. There is such a great mix of story potential there. Some are very secretive. Some are very open. Some are very open as a mask for what they wish to be secretive about. Some are judgemental and prejudiced and some are not. One of my few faults with the movie is that is felt like there was so much juice to be squeezed here and between the tightening focus on Madeline and Doc, as well as the shorter run time, the audience is robbed of the opportunity to see all that potential fully realized, perhaps as more of an ensemble piece than a star vehicle.

On the other hand, Marlene Dietrich, who plays Madeline, gives a star vehicle worthy performance. The movie, much like Stagecoach (which came out a few years later), is very interested in inverting the conventional story mortality of its day. While Stagecoach went all the way upside-down by having the traditionally immoral characters, like the prostitute and the gunslinger, come across as heroes who rise to the occasion while the well-to-do show themselves to be weak and duplicitous, Shanghai Express sticks to a more one-sided inversion where the low class character(s) are offered heroic redemption but the high society characters merely begin snobbish and judgmental, though some come to see things differently.

Dietrich, who plays a famous and highly successful woman of ill repute, bears much of the burden of that inversion, requiring a particularly deft touch as an actor. The result is a remarkably complex role for the early 1930s, where she has to balance a mysterious sexual dynamism with a kind of charming girl next door you shouldn’t have let get away energy, so that both her past charm, present “immorality,” and future redemption all seem equally present, possible, and important throughout the story. As the movie narrows its focus to her, Doc, and the conflict of the train hijacking, her conflicted emotions, willingness to scheme and sacrifice, and even a form of moral redemption (exemplified by the change in attitude towards her by the doctor of divinity on board) all take center stage and give Dietrich ample time to shine.

If anything, my main complaint was that it was over too soon. As I mentioned before, I loved getting to know all the characters and wanted more opportunities for them to bounce off of each other. The scenes with the hijackers could also, at times, feel a little brief. The film sets up a kind of hidden identity spy motif but its payoff comes pretty early and with essentially no future twists and turns. This makes that whole section feel a tiny bit abbreviated, like it’s so focused on how it can move the main romance plot forward it forgets for a second it’s supposed to be a great thriller too. Though this pre-dates the prime of his career by several years, I couldn’t help but wonder if a bit of Hitchcockian tension and release wouldn’t have helped make this part of the film feel that extra bit more developed. None-the-less, it is always a good sign when your main complaint for a movie is that they left you wanting more.

Would Recommend: If you want to see one of the films that defined Marlene Dietrich as a star.

Would Not Recommend: If you can’t stand films constrained to only a few locations.