Dietrich in Shanghai Express

I’ve always loved Josef von Sternberg’s 1932 film Shanghai Express. Marlene Dietrich and Anna May Wong in the same movie is always a good night’s entertainment. The story of the passengers on the Shanghai Express travelling through a warlord wracked China outraged at the presence of the notorious Shanghai Lil (Dietrich of course). The film keeps coming up in work I do – the story was loosely based on the 1928 Lincheng Outrage when passengers on a train were kidnapped by a warlord. Carl Crow, who I wrote a biography of, was dispatched by the American Red Cross to take aid to the kidnapped. Then I came up against the story again when I wrote my history of foreign correspondents in China as several rushed to report the story and a couple, including the great JB Powell, were among the kidnapped. I’ve also long been fascinated by the high class courtesans of Shanghai and Dietrich’s character is based on them – Shanghai Lil is euphemistically described as  “a woman who lives by her wits along the China coast.”

So interested to come across this montage of various posters for Shanghai Express on YouTube which has the added bonus of Dietrich singing Baubles, Bangles and Beads:

Shanghai Express Posters