A Few Interesting Shots of Shanghai from Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935) 1

Found myself the other day watching the 1935 movie Charlie Chan in Shanghai. All the usual Charlie Chan fun and games with Warner Oland in “yellow face”, broken English and Keye Luke as Number One Son and all that….Of course the movies were made in Hollywood on sets but occasionally interesting sets that replicated (perhaps) real locations were built and sometimes real shots were inserted for effect. And so following in the next couple of posts a few examples…

When Charlie arrives in Shanghai we suddenly shoot from a rather obvious stage set of the passenger ship to a shot of the real landing stage at Shanghai in the 1930s. You can see the majestic sweep of the Bund with all its landmarks – Customs House, Cathay Hotel etc etc, as well as the landing stage where passengers were offloaded, surrounded by sampans. Great shot…