JohnHowardReid Review of The Shanghai Gesture

The Shanghai Gesture (1941)

Opulent, Picturesque, Over-the-Top Melodrama

[10/10 · 12 June 2009]

John Colton who co-authored Rain, the stage adaptation of the short story titled "Miss Thompson" by W. Somerset Maugham, was also solely responsible for another huge Broadway success, The Shanghai Gesture, a legend in 1926 theatregoing. On the other hand, the 1941 movie, directed and photographed (as the credits plainly state) by Josef von Sternberg (Paul Ivano was his camera operator), lost such a large amount of money, it permanently damaged his reputation. Pictorially, the movie is a noir masterpiece. The director has a great time with his opulently picturesque sets, peopled with a vast number of colorful Hollywood extras. Given the full von Sternberg treatment of soft, caressing lighting, Gene Tierney looks absolutely ravishing. Most attractively costumed, she plays up the melodramatic aspects of the plot to the hilt and is only distanced by Ona Munson who rivets our attention while she makes mincemeat of all the dialogue's best lines. Oddly, Victor Mature, of all people, ranks third to Munson and Tierney in the splendid acting department. He plays a rare unsympathetic role with amazing conviction and hits just the right note of superficial self-assurance. In the fall-guy role, Walter Huston enacts the man of the moment with his customary bravado, but is constantly out-pipped by many of the great support players like Phyllis Brooks and particularly Mike Mazurki who has the movie's famous fade-out line, "You likee Chinese New Year?"