S5E8: Shanghai Express, 1932
Manage episode 422944448 series 3496550
Today we go over director Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express, starring Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong, and Werner Oland. Based on a real-life incident of train passengers taken hostage in China, the story vacillates between a dramatic action film and a searing love story. Rife with plenty of intrigue (prostitution, drug smuggling, civil war, rape, murder), Shanghai Express is a feast for the eyes. It also grapples with racial tension/prejudice, some of it unintentional, as Werner Oland, a Swedish actor, plays a half-Chinese villain.
Our history timeline features a bizarre and unsettling platonic love triangle between the Pope, Gandhi, and Mussolini, but top song of the day is an absolute bop!
Please leave us a review wherever you are listening!
Email us rants as well as raves: sheacinema@gmail.com
You can also find us on Instagram (and now Twitter/X): @sheacinema
Please leave us a review wherever you are listening!
Email us rants as well as raves: sheacinema@gmail.com
You can also find us on Instagram (and now Twitter/X): @sheacinema
52 episode