Shanghai Express (1932) on Netflix
Approved19321h 22mAdventureDramaRomance
Shanghai Lily, a notorious courtesan, boards the express from Peiping to Shanghai during China's civil war. Among the passengers is Donald Harvey, the British captain she loved years earlier.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.3/1011,956 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes96%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1931, China is divided by civil war, and the express train from Peiping to Shanghai carries first-class passengers who worry more about one of their number, Shanghai Lily, than about the fighting ahead. Lily is a coaster, a woman who survives along the China coast by her wits, and she travels with Hui Fei, another coaster. Also aboard are the missionary Mr. Carmichael, the gambler Sam Salt, the opium dealer Eric Baum, the boarding-house keeper Mrs. Haggerty, the French officer Major Lenard, and a Eurasian traveler named Henry Chang. Lily finds her former lover among the passengers: Captain Donald Harvey, a British Army doctor bound for Shanghai. Five years earlier she tested his love with a trick, and he left her. Lily notices that he still carries the watch she gave him, with her photograph inside.
Cast
- George Chungas Chinese Soldier
Show all 20 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Shanghai Express (1932)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film's source story was loosely based on the Lincheng Incident of May 6, 1923, when a Shandong warlord seized the Shanghai-to-Beijing express and took 25 Westerners, including Lucy Aldrich, and 300 Chinese hostages, all ransomed.
- Lee Garmes won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Shanghai Express, but Marlene Dietrich said director Josef von Sternberg was responsible for most of the film's black-and-white chiaroscuro look.
- Filmmaker Lucile Hadžihalilović said Marlene Dietrich's Shanghai Express character was the spark behind Cristina, played by Marion Cotillard, in Hadžihalilović's 2025 fantasy drama The Ice Tower, noting von Sternberg's fetishistic attention to mise-en-scène left an impression.
