Shanghai Surprise (1986) on Netflix
PG-1319861h 37mAdventureCrimeDrama
Glendon Wasey sells glow-in-the-dark neckties in Shanghai and wants out. Gloria Tatlock, a mission nurse, needs opium for her patients. He offers to help her find a stolen supply.
- Netflix1.9/5
- IMDb3.3/106,174 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes20%
Trailer
Plot summary
Glendon Wasey is a con man with little luck left in Shanghai. He makes his living peddling neckties that glow in the dark. Gloria Tatlock works as a nurse at a mission, and the people in her care are in pain. She wants a supply of opium to ease their suffering, and the drug she is after was stolen. Glendon offers to help her get it. Gangsters, smugglers and thugs are after the same shipment, as are several air force recruits.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Shanghai Surprise (1986)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Co-star Richard Griffiths said Sean Penn always had an "ace of trumps up his sleeve": a clause in Madonna's contract saying she had casting approval of her leading man. Penn was very sore about it because he saw himself as the star of the movie.
- Because of the high profile of the stars' real-life relationship, by the second day of filming the production was inundated with photographers, to the point that Penn demanded the film's publicist be fired and replaced.
- Crew members spread gossip to the tabloid reporters on the scene, further inflaming the hostility between the press and the stars, and Harrison reluctantly flew out to Hong Kong to try to smooth things over between cast, crew and press.
- Before release both Madonna and Penn tried to distance themselves from the film, insisting their likenesses be removed from the tie-in novel from Viking Press a few days before it was set to hit printers.
