Shanghai Express (rewatch)
Posted by martinteller on July 4, 2012
Very quick review, I just wanna knock this out, get into bed and put in my earplugs to drown out all the idiot fireworks. God, I hate this holiday. A big fireworks show in a centralized location like downtown, fine. What drives me nuts is all the trashy morons in my neighborhood who want to listen to shit go “BOOM” and watch purty lights all fucking month long. They can’t afford decent mufflers for their cars but they damn sure can afford a shitload of fireworks. Assholes.
Anyway. This is a bit less baroque than some of Josef von Sternberg’s other films, but it contains one of his strongest narratives… and still some fantastic images. Trains always make such fantastic settings for intrigue and character dynamics. Dietrich is fantastic, although I still think Clive Brook is a total dud and she should tell him to fuck off. His faith in her comes too late and besides, it still feels tentative.
Ugh, I really can’t concentrate with all this racket, but I don’t think I have much to add to my previous review anyway, as brief as it was. It was fun to watch this again, not really sure I should have bought it, but it’ll keep until I need to prune the collection again. Rating: Very Good
