Shanghai Express, Not Your China Doll and the BFI’s Anna May Wong Season

Finally (after about 100 TV viewings) got to see Shanghai Express on the big screen at NFT1 at the BFI. I’m sure that being with a large crowd made the comic lines land better and a giant screen helped me see details – that erroneous Guinness advert (they never sold it in Shanghai), the great ticket office, the fabulous dining car von Sternberg should have made more of… – and costumes (Marlene’s of course but also Anna May Wong’s fab luggage). And the movie was introduced by Anna May’s latest biographer Katie Gee Salisbury, author of Not Your China Doll, over for the BFI’s Anna May Wong season all this month….details here…