Dietrich and Shanghai Lily

Got one of those nice little commissions that come my way every so often the other day to write a short piece for a travel magazine on Shanghai in the movies. That jogged my memory to recall Marlene Dietrich as Shanghai Lily in von Sternberg’s 1932 Shanghai Express. That film is perhaps most memorable for a smouldering Dietrich delivering the memorable line:

‘It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily’

Incidentally it also jogged my memory that James Cagney encounters ‘Shanghai Lil’ in a dream sequance in Busby Berekely’s 1933 Footlight Parade. What I don’t know is whether a) Dietrich’s character was named after Shanghai Lil in Footlight Parade, b) vice versa or c) coincidence?

Anyway, enough excuses and talking round the real subject here – here’s a picture of Dietrich smouldering as Shanghai Lily.