01
Shanghai Express
Why this pick
Sternberg turns another Shanghai setting into a dreamlike chamber of smoke, silk, danger and erotic power plays, with the same deliberately artificial, feverish visual grandeur.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1941 1h 39m USA
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
The Shanghai Gesture
DramaThriller
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved The Shanghai Gesture, try these.
01
02
The Devil Is a Woman
Why this pick
Its masked-carnival decadence, ruinous seduction and aggressively stylized lighting echo the intoxicatingly theatrical menace of The Shanghai Gesture.
03
The Scarlet Empress
Why this pick
A deliriously ornate tale of power and sexual intrigue, staged with grotesque décor and charged glances rather than naturalism—ideal for Sternberg’s maximalist side.
04
Blonde Venus
Why this pick
It shares the film’s lurid emotional register and glamorous artificiality, moving through moral compromise and spectacle with entrancing visual perversity.
05
Dishonored
Why this pick
A compact, fatalistic espionage melodrama whose heroine navigates seduction, betrayal and looming doom in Sternberg’s signature shadows and polished surfaces.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
Gigolo "Doctor" Omar (Victor Mature) bribes the Shanghai police not to jail the broke American showgirl Dixie Pomeroy (Phyllis Brooks); he invites her to seek a job at the casino owned by Dragon Lady (stereotype) "Mother" Gin Sling (Ona Munson), his boss.
02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Gene Tierney
Victoria Charteris (aka "Poppy Smith")
Victor Mature
Doctor Omar
Walter Huston
Sir Guy Charteris
Mike Mazurki
The Coolie
Marcel Dalio
The Master of the Spinning Wheel
John Abbott
Poppy's Escort