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Shangai Express by Josef Von Sternberg with Marlene Dietrich
Brussels Filmmuseum on 08/06/2005

This was aimed to be a popular adventure movie, leaving me irritated with the easy humor.
Working well was the recurring Von Sternberg/Dietrich theme that most men are too stupid to understand a -ill reputated- woman can have her own morality, including selfsacrifice out of love. As the brutal Chinese rebellion leader says: 'a man is a fool to believe any woman, but I think your word means something to you'.
Von Sternberg deals with the ethnic context, brandmarking a German opium dealer for using the word 'Ausländer'... in 1932. But there wasn't enough Dietrich in it for me.
Her appearances remain of course astonishing, Von Sternberg carressing her clothes or hair with a breeze in one scene out of two.
Pretty cool acting by 'the Chinese woman' Anna May Wong too.