- Film Review
- Reviewed By David Oppedisano
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5 out of 5
Though the title recalls an earlier Josef von Sternberg classic - Shanghai Express, made at the height of his and Marlene Dietrich's collaborative fame - this melodrama conjures up a different universe altogether. A spoilt rich girl using the alias of Poppy Smith - Gene Tierney at her loveliest - enters a Shanghai casino and is seduced by its " incredibly evil" atmosphere, unaware that her entrepreneur dad (Walter Huston) is intent on closing down the iniquitous establishment, domain of the glacial "Mother" Gin Sling (Ona Munson in a series of lacquered, Medusa-like wigs). Sternberg was forced to sanitise his adaptation of John Colton's stage play, but his vision suggestively offers more than the salacious detail he was forced to cut from the script. The film's masterful use of musical rhythms, stylised dialogue and close-ups makes it a high point among films from the studio age. And her face a mask revealing more than it conceals - the bitterness of lost illusion - Munson creates one of cinema's most sympathetic monsters.
Plot Summary
A woman looking for adventure arrives at a Shanghai casino, and quickly becomes a gambling addict. The owner realises her new customer is the estranged daughter of an English businessman trying to close the establishment down, and feeds her habit as a plan to get revenge. Drama, starring Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, Victor Mature and Ona Munson.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Victoria Charteris / Poppy Smith
- Gene Tierney
- Sir Guy Charteris
- Walter Huston
- Doctor Omar
- Victor Mature
- "Mother" Gin Sling
- Ona Munson
- Dixie Pomeroy, the chorus girl
- Phyllis Brooks
- Commissioner
- Albert Basserman
- Amah
- Maria Ouspenskaya
- Caesar Hawkins, the bookkeeper
- Eric Blore
- Gambler
- Ivan Lebedeff
- Coolie
- Mike Mazurki
- Comprador
- Clyde Fillmore
- Social leader
- Grayce Hampton
- Counselor
- Rex Evans
- Appraiser
- Mikhail Rasumni
- Bartender
- Michael Delmatoff
- Master of the spinning wheel
- Marcel Dalio
Crew
- Director
- Josef von Sternberg
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