Shanghai Express (1932)….When Harry Hervey Got a Look-in….

Everyone of course (at least everyone who reads this blog I assume) knows Shanghai Express (1932). I’m keen to always stress the role of Harry Hervey in the conception and making of the movie. Indeed I wrote an essay on Hervey and his original 33 page treatment (essentially a short story) for Shanghai Express that Hervey wrote and sold to Josef von Sternberg (who gave it to the scriptwriter Jules Furthman to adapt). I’ve always argued that (including by von Sternberg) Hervey was rather sidelined from any public input into the movie, which was a massive success. But this advert from 1932 that appeared in Film Daily that year does indeed mention Hervey as the originator of the story.

My piece on Hervey and Shanghai Express is in my collerction Destination Shanghai.