“Shanghai Express,” September 17

Wednesday, September 17, 6 p.m.

The Last Picture House, 325 East Second Street, Davenport IA

Revered for its Oscar-winning black-and-white chiaroscuro cinematography, and currently boasting a 96-percent "freshness" rating on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes, director Josef von Sternberg's 1932 classic Shanghai Express continues the “From Hitler to Hollywood” film series hosted by the German American Heritage Center, its September 17 screening at Davenport venue The Last Picture House treating audiences to a work that made New York magazine's 2020 list of "The Best Movies That Lost Best Picture at the Oscars."

In Shanghai Express, the notorious Shanghai Lily (Marlene Dietrich), also known as the White Flower of China, travels by train from Peking to Shanghai, much to the consternation of her fellow travelers. Lily has quite a reputation as a woman who does whatever is necessary to get by. On board the train she runs into a former flame, Captain Donald "Doc" Harvey (Clive Brook). These are dangerous times, as the Civil War has spread and the train will be traveling through rebel-held territories, and Harvey no longer wants anything to do with Lily. But when their train is stopped and he is taken hostage and held for ransom, Lily is prepared to go to any lengths to have the man set free.

With its screenplay by Jules Furthman, von Sternberg's Shanghai Express was based on Henry Hervey's story "Sky Over China," which was loosely based on the Lincheng Incident that occurred on May 6, 1923, in which a Shandong warlord captured the Shanghai-to-Beijing express train and took 25 Westerners and 300 Chinese people hostage. (All of the hostages were successfully ransomed.) The story also echoes elements of Guy de Maupassant's short story "Boule de Suif," in that it consists of travelers stopped in a country at war and a woman forced into intimate relations with the commander in charge. The film was a box-office success, grossing $827,000 in rentals the U.S. and Canada and $1.5 million altogether in worldwide rentals, and also a critical smash. Senses of Cinema called Shanghai Express a "riotous exercise in excess in every area; the visuals are overpowering and sumptuous; the costumes ornate and extravagant; the sets a riot of fabrics, light and space; and all of it captured in the most delectable black-and-white cinematography that one can find anywhere."

Shanghai Exprfess will be screened at Davenport's The Last Picture House on September 17 at 6 p.m., and guests are asked to check in at the German American Heritage Center table in the lobby. Admission is $15, guests will choose their seats upon arrival, and proceeds from ticket sales will go to Heritage Center programming, with $1 from every Twin Span draft beer purchase also going to the museum. For more information, call (563)322-8844 and visit GAHC.org.