Marlene Dietrich: Directed by Josef Von Sternberg

In "Shanghai Express" : Warner Oland, excites fear. Anna May Wong, alluring, mysterious. Marlene Dietrich, The one and the only one. Clive Brook, inner strength, charming, intelligent. Josef von Sternberg's command of the camera. His use of dramatic and unusual light and shadow is fascinating. "Shanghai Express" displaying his talent most. The stunning scene in the darkened hall, Marlene smoking under a single small light. "Dishonored" had it's enchanting moments too, and shouldn't be missed. Every scene with Marlene Dietrich shines as something rare.My only brief disappointment, the description says it has "subtitles". I have other TCM dvd's that do not, so I half expected it to not have them. But these 2 movies are still definitely 5 stars.

Shanghai Express is one of the best ever films by von Sternberg and Marlene Deitrich. The cast is one long list of great performances; the gowns are superb; the filming and lighting are von Sternberg at his obsessive best. Along with Moracco, Scarlet Empress, and The Devil Is a Woman, the addition of this film just curls my toes when I need my fix of great 1930's expressionistic melodrama. The companion film in this particular collection, Dishonored (otherwise known outside the USA as M-27, the code name for the Habsburg's spy working against the Russian Empire in WWI), is not Deitrich or von Sternberg in the zone at all - Deitrich tends to just walk through much of the film; the artistry is not particularly special. Yet, it still exists as a necessary addition for any Deitrich fan (the highlight of the film is Deitrich touching up her lipstick in front of the firing squad, so it's a bit of a wait for one great Marlene Moment).

Following her European and American box office success in "The Blue Angel" (1930), Marlene Dietrich herself was imported to the USA as Paramount's answer to MGM's Greta Garbo. "Dishonored" (1931), one of Dietrich's lesser vehicles under the guidance of her mentor, Josef von Sternberg, is little known and rarely seen, while Garbo's comparable vehicle, "Mata Hari"(1932), is far more celebrated. Cast opposite lunkhead actor Victor Mc Laglen,(later to win an Oscar for "The Informer" in 1935), Dietrich can strike no erotic sparks with the big lug, who improbably plays a Russian spy. Alluringly slimmed down from "The Blue Angel" and exquisitely photographed by Lee Garmes, Marlene interacts most successfully with supporting players Gustave von Seffertitz and Warner Oland, both of whom appear opposite her in "Shanghai Express".When we first encounter Dietrich's character, who proves to be a sympathetic and patriotic W.W.I widow, she is adjusting her stockings under a lamppost in the rain, an image which conjures up her W.W. II era song, "Lili Marlene". Von Seffertitz tries to involve her in spying, only to find out that she has called the police on him. Once the matter of her patriotism has been established, she can proceed with her new career as "the greatest spy ever", "had she not been a woman". She negotiates her way through a male-dominated universe and the oppressive, heavily decorated mise en scene typical of a von Sternberg production.In some senses, "Dishonored" presents the femmest of fatales, intriguing in succession von Seffertitz, Oland and McLaglen and engaging in a playful romp as a peasant maid. Facing a firing squad for having let her Russian spy lover escape, her final conquest is a young lieutenant who refuses to participate in her execution. Given the relative primitivity of the source material from early in the sound era, this greyish Universal via Paramount print is acceptable.What "Dishonored", in any guise, does do is prepare us for Dietrich's character, actress,diplomat and femme de joie, in the crown jewel of the Dietrich/von Sternberg canon, "Shanghai Express". Nominated for the Best Picture Oscar it eminently well deserved but did not receive, "Shanghai Express" won the Best Cinematography Academy Award for the magician of light and shadow, Lee Garmes. Various of his images, toplighting Dietrich's masque-like beauty, would not be out of place in a gallery at the Museum of Modern Art. While not rendered in the high definition Blu-ray format, from which it would enormously profit, the film is powerfully evocative of both the political and aesthetic environment of the early thirties.Superficially a racist and sexist melodrama, "Shanghai Express" recalls the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion of China's recent history and looks to the future sufferings of the Chinese people at the hands of the Japanese and, if one is politically so inclined, the Maoist Revolution. Warner Oland's character, a rebel Chinese commander of mixed heritage. who abhors his "white blood", marks the Swedish actor's evolution into the most famous Chinese detective in American popular culture, Charlie Chan, the smartest man in the room, if also an ethnic caricature. He is counterbalanced by Anna May Wong's sister in sin to Shanghai Lily. Wong's mostly silent but extremely self-possessed portrayal makes me all the more regretful that she never got to play O Lan, the main female character in the film version of "The Good Earth"(1937). This racist slight is a cinematic crime comparable to the denial of the role of Julie to Lena Horne in the Technicolor version of "Showboat".Every character/caricature fits into her/his place among the ethnically diverse train passengers moving along the China coast created within the confines of the Paramount studio lot. This film is proof of how a director in the pre-digital age could command all the resources of a studio factory to create a self contained world and a work of art in 83 minutes. Even more than with Lola Lola in "The Blue Angel", Dietrich and von Sternberg gave us a feminist icon for the ages. It may have taken more than one man to change her name to Shanghai Lily but in spite of Clive Brook's anti-hero with all the erotic appeal of a dead mackerel, "Shanghai Express" sparkles, to change metaphors,like a diamond on a bed of black velvet. Thank you, Marlene, thank you, von Sternberg, thank you, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures and the TCM Vault Collection.

Nice double feature of two very early Marlene Dietrich films. Picture quality very good and there are some extra features, Lobby Cards and Stills on the discs also. Only downside is while not listed by Amazon these are MOD DVD R burned discs. Not pressed Discs. So if you do not like DVD-Rs this might not be for you.

it is Marlene and von sturneburg at their best,great plots,great actors and you do get a sense of what the west believed what was happening in China during that era.

Dietrich classics. Double feature.

If you are a Marlene Dietrich fan, you will enjoy this film. It is one of her earliest movie perhaps her first. She had a style of her own.

Two great movies at one fantastic price...happiness! Highly recommend for any movie buffs. Nobody companies to this duo. I hate that my review has to be so many letters. Just saying