--- title: "Shanghai Express" year: 1932 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/shanghai-express" fi1m_score: 80 critics_score: 71 critics_reviews: 9 published: "2026-09-19T22:04:08.806944+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T22:04:31.074195+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Shanghai Express (1932) Directed by Josef von Sternberg · 1h 22m · Drama, Romance, War **Fi1m score: 80** · Critics 71 from 9 reviews *In a sentence:* Marlene Dietrich in black feathers, a civil war outside the window, and a dog asleep through both > Josef von Sternberg’s train film is the best-looking of his pictures with Marlene Dietrich and the most fun, a hothouse melodrama lit like a cathedral and paced like a timetable. Clive Brook is wooden and the plotting is pulp; neither matters as much as it should. ## Synopsis Peking, China, in the middle of a civil war. Boarding the express to Shanghai are Shanghai Lily (Marlene Dietrich), a woman whose reputation has travelled the whole coast ahead of her; Captain Donald ‘Doc’ Harvey (Clive Brook), a British army surgeon who knew her five years ago under another name and has not forgiven her; Hui Fei (Anna May Wong), who shares Lily’s compartment and, it is implied, her trade; and Mr. Henry Chang (Warner Oland), a merchant who watches everyone and says little. Also aboard: Sam Salt (Eugene Pallette), who will bet on anything, the Reverend Carmichael (Lawrence Grant), and Mrs. Haggerty (Louise Closser Hale) with her dog. Lily wants Harvey back. Harvey wants to reach Shanghai without speaking to her. The soldiers waiting up the line have other plans for the train. ## Review Josef von Sternberg’s fourth film with Marlene Dietrich, after *The Blue Angel*, *Morocco* and *Dishonored*, puts her on a train from Peking to Shanghai in the middle of a civil war and lets 82 minutes go by. Jules Furthman’s screenplay, from a story by Harry Hervey, is a compartment melodrama of the oldest kind: strangers with secrets, a stop in the night, a man who is not what he says. It is pulp and it knows it. It is also the most enjoyable thing the pair made together, because for once the story moves at the same speed as the pictures. The pictures are the reason to be here. Lee Garmes lights Dietrich from above and a little in front, so the cheekbones take the light and the eyes go dark under the brim of her hat, and he keeps putting things between her and us: a veil, cigarette smoke, the slats of a blind, the glass of a corridor window with the station lamps sliding across it. Travis Banton dresses her in black feathers that seem to breathe when she does. The departure from Peking is the film’s best sequence, the engine inching through a market street, hens and carts and a cow on the line, the crowd parting a yard at a time. Frank Sullivan cuts the whole thing to the beat of the wheels, and for long stretches the train is the score; the four credited composers are heard mainly under the titles and at the end. Dietrich plays Lily as a woman who has had every argument about her own character and is bored by all of them. She gets the film’s best line early, about how many men it took to change her name, and she delivers it as if telling him the time. There is no plea in her, no explanation. Furthman writes her the rudest dialogue in the film and she enjoys every word of it. Clive Brook is the problem. His Harvey is stiff, clipped and pained, and he says his lines about honour as though reading them off a prescription. The love story needs us to believe that this woman spent five years waiting for this man, and we did not believe it for a minute. That should sink the film. Instead it routes around him. Von Sternberg keeps the camera on her face while Brook talks, and the scenes become about what she is doing while she listens. The compartment is where we had our surprise: the film is funny. Eugene Pallette’s Sam Salt will bet on the weather, the war and the outcome of other people’s marriages, and Pallette plays him with the wounded dignity of a man nobody will take up. Louise Closser Hale’s Mrs. Haggerty runs a boarding house and would like everyone to know it is respectable. Lawrence Grant’s Reverend Carmichael disapproves of Lily on sight and changes his mind at the wrong moment. We laughed more than we expected to in a film this heavily perfumed, and it is the laughter that keeps the melodrama from curdling. Warner Oland’s Chang is harder to watch now. A white actor made up to play a man of mixed Chinese and European blood was the industry’s habit in 1932, and it looks today exactly like what it is. What makes it stranger is that Anna May Wong is in the same frame. Hui Fei is given a handful of lines and spends most of the journey listening, and Wong does more with a look across a compartment than Brook manages with a speech. There is a stretch in the second half where the film is briefly hers, and it moved us more than the romance ever did, partly because of how little she was handed and how much she made of it. *Morocco* had the style and none of the pace. *The Scarlet Empress*, two years later, had so much style that the story suffocated. *Shanghai Express* is the one where von Sternberg’s love of feathers and shadow is attached to a train that has to arrive, and the timetable disciplines him. Watch it at home with the lights off. It is short, it is handsome, and it has a woman in it who could stop a war by adjusting her veil. *Fi1m score 80, published 19 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like it, and the praise settles in two places: von Sternberg’s direction and Dietrich. The reviews return again and again to the look of the film, the smoke and feathers and calligraphy of the train, the deliberate stylisation, the rhythm that mimics the journey itself. Dietrich’s Shanghai Lily is called languorous, charismatic and unapologetic, and several critics note that she photographs better here than in the earlier collaborations. A few also credit the screenplay’s gallery of passengers and the twists along the route. The reservations cluster on the story. Variety, writing at the time, finds the plot and dialogue too close to old serial melodrama and the performances unremarkable, with Dietrich’s part barely letting her move. The Guardian finds the suspense built on delay and little emotional weight beneath it. Clive Brook is described as stiff more than once. The spread is wide, from warm contemporary notices to outright dismissal, and the harshest verdict is the earliest. ### Reviews we read (9) - **The New Yorker** (90/100, inferred): The critic praises it as gaudy melodrama at its best, with care and precision in direction and a rare realism in the train journey scenes. It is the perfect dish for lovers of screen melodrama. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1932/02/27/lorelei-in-china) - **The New York Times**, Mordaunt Hall (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it by far the best picture von Sternberg has directed, an exciting melodrama with strong atmospheric effects aboard the train. Dietrich gives an impressive, languorous performance as Shanghai Lily. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1932/02/18/archives/marlene-dietrich-in-a-brilliantly-directed-melodrama-set-aboard-a.html) - **Empire**, David Parkinson (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's atmospheric décor and visual style, noting that Dietrich holds her own against von Sternberg's direction in this equitable collaboration. The review highlights the sultry performance and the intricate design elements like feathers, smoke, and calligraphy that enhance the exotic melodrama. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/shanghai-express-review/) - **Little White Lies**, BP Flanagan (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the Dietrich-von Sternberg collaborations as a high point of classical Hollywood style and pre-Code innuendo, highlighting how Shanghai Express uses visual mastery and a close-up of a trembling hand to reveal emotional depth beneath the star persona. [Read](https://lwlies.com/in-praise-of/marlene-dietrich-josef-von-sternberg-paramount-films) - **Time Out**, TR (75/100, inferred): The critic commends von Sternberg’s non-naturalistic stylisation and train-like rhythm in the film, noting that the emotional sincerity invested in the central relationship transcends its stylistic flourishes and period caricature. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/shanghai-express) - **Slant Magazine** (70/100, inferred): The critic praises the screenplay's gallery of well-drawn characters and twists on the train journey amid revolutionary upheaval, noting how it gives von Sternberg ample opportunity for expressive visuals and set pieces. It is presented as a clear improvement over the more languid Morocco, with strong direction and performances elevating the material. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/understanding-screenwriting-68-the-fighter-somewhere-shanghai-express-and-more/) - **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★☆): The review praises Marlene Dietrich as indecently charismatic and unapologetic in the role of Shanghai Lily, highlighting her relish for raw dialogue in this pre-Hays Code drama. It notes the stiff performance of Clive Brook as her lover and positions the film as a hot-button classic sandwiched between her iconic hits. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/shanghai-express-review-marlene-dietrich-is-indecently-charismatic-ddxbln8x7) - **The Guardian** (55/100, inferred): The review finds the film weakened by its approach to suspense through delayed events and a lack of emotional depth or purpose, despite more action than prior Dietrich-von Sternberg collaborations. It singles out Marlene Dietrich for praise, noting she photographs more beautifully than before and stands out as majestically beautiful, supported by strong lighting, dialogue, and photography. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/18/marlene-dietrich-shanghai-express-review-archive-1932) - **Variety** (30/100, inferred): The review notes von Sternberg makes the film interesting through command of the lens but finds the plot and dialog too close to old melodrama and serial themes. Performances are not especially strong, with Dietrich's role limiting her movement. [Read](https://variety.com/1931/film/reviews/shanghai-express-1200410561/) ## Details - **Director:** Josef von Sternberg - **Director:** Josef von Sternberg - **Screenplay:** Jules Furthman - **Story:** Harry Hervey - **Cinematography:** Lee Garmes - **Editor:** Frank Sullivan - **Music:** Karl Hajos, W. Franke Harling, Rudolph G. Kopp, John Leipold - **Costume design:** Travis Banton - **Producer:** Adolph Zukor - **Cast:** Marlene Dietrich as Shanghai Lily; Clive Brook as Captain Donald 'Doc' Harvey; Anna May Wong as Hui Fei; Warner Oland as Mr. Henry Chang; Eugene Pallette as Sam Salt; Lawrence Grant as Reverend Carmichael; Louise Closser Hale as Mrs. Haggerty; Gustav von Seyffertitz as Eric Baum - **Runtime:** 1h 22m - **Release (the US):** 12 February 1932 - **Genres:** Drama, Romance, War - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i86Hc6AAVt4 ## Where to watch in the US - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: GB, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1932: Best Cinematography (won) ## If you liked this - *Morocco* (1930): The pair’s first American film together; slower, stranger, with the better ending. - *The Lady Vanishes* (1938), Fi1m 88: Hitchcock’s train, English manners and a plot that keeps its promises. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-lady-vanishes.md) - *Piccadilly* (1929): Anna May Wong given a whole film, and taking all of it. - *Stagecoach* (1939), Fi1m 84: Strangers, secrets and a hostile country outside; Ford’s version of the same idea. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/stagecoach.md) - *Only Angels Have Wings* (1939): Furthman again, writing tough people who say less than they mean. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/shanghai-express