I watched this film tonight for the first time. I have very mixed feelings about it. I think Josef von Sternberg was one brilliant director. More on him later. I thought all of the actors did a fine job except for Gene Tierney. I don't understand why Victor Mature gets a bad rap from so many people. Everything I've seen him in, he's always done a fine job. The Robe, My Darling Clementine, Kiss of Death, Samson and Delilah and his performance in After the Fox is great! He steals that film from Peter Sellers just as he stole the Robe from Richard Burton. Plus that guy invented the killer grin long before Tom Cruise. In his role here, he fills the role quite well. He is so wonderfully self-absorbed and sleazy. Some people says he is miscast. I say no he isn't. In his back-story, he is a Syrian of mixed heritage. Mature was of Italian extract and could pass as a Greek or Turk. Syria is hardly a stone's throw from Turkey. I don't want to drone on about him but this is my first post and I'm sick and tired of people giving him the shaft. Not that too many here did for this movie but there were a few.
Ona Munson did pretty much steal the show with her Medusa hairdress. What the heck was that about? Huston did a fine job. Its really a weird thing about him. He could be so wooden at times especially in the early talkies and then so dynamic in The Devil and Daniel Webster and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Here he's not given much to do but what he does, he does well.
And then there's Gene Tierney. Her entrance is grand. Von Sternberg never had a more beautiful subject. She plays the early portion of the film very well. Very cool, sensuous with a decided interest in the decadent. But then when she sinks into despair and ruin, her performance deteriorates. She is annoying in her depravity and overacts unconvincingly. It was a very abrupt transformation and I can't help but think that maybe the Hayes Code had insisted on certain cuts so as not to emphasize her transformation into a degenerate. However that does not excuse the melodramatics of the latter half of the film. She is just unbearable. I can't place the full blame on her. Von Sternberg deserves his share of the blame for her performance. He could have guided her better so that she wouldn't have produced the histrionics. Surely he could have seen in the daily rushes that these histrionics were a detriment to the film. I don't know but I find it almost inexcusable as he was such a great director.
I haven't seen all of his films yet but I have seen Morocco, The Blue Angel, Underworld and The Last Command and I think I can make a good judgment about how good he was at his craft. The Blue Angel and Morocco were excellent films but they didn't particularly impress me. However, the last two films of his that I saw did. Underworld and The Last Command are brilliant and the photography in those films particularly impressed me. I can't say that I've seen a better gangster film than Underworld and I've seen most of them from Walsh's Regeneration to Scorcese's Goodfellas. The Last Command is a revelation. Jannings performance is excellent and I wasn't terribly impressed with his performance in the Blue Angel. Von Sternberg was at the top of his craft here. I don't give 10's to many films but I would give a 10 to both of those. Maybe he is so great in those films because they were silent. He didn't have to rely on dialogue. Unfortunately the Shanghai Gesture was based on a stage play and the staginess had to creep in.
Von Sternberg had to know that this film was a make or break film for him. He only got to direct this film through the help of a friend after years on inactivity following the Dietrich period and the tragedy of the incomplete I, Claudius. I just don't understand why he didn't guide Tierney's performance better. I've seen a lot of her films and I think she was more than capable.
And this film did break him. Whether it was the cuts or Tierney's performance or a combination of both, the film was not a success. He only got to direct a couple films for Howard Hughes after this film and they were not displays for his talent. Howard Hughes had complete control over those films and they were more or less his vision.
Such a shame that he didn't get a chance to direct more. He did do a great job on this film otherwise. It had the proper decadent mood and atmosphere. Luckily, Gene Tierney, even with all of her problems, had a bright future still ahead of her.
It didn't help that the version I saw on an Image DVD was a very mediocre transfer with bad sound. Despite its flaws, it deserves a restoration and maybe I'll be kinder to it in the future. I cannot give this film a 7 as much as I want to. It is just too disjointed, because of cuts I presume, and because of Tierney's performance. I would give it a 6.9 though but because IMDb doesn't allow it, I have to give it a 6. It is definitely worth viewing though I would not buy it until a better transfer comes along.
Ona Munson did pretty much steal the show with her Medusa hairdress. What the heck was that about? Huston did a fine job. Its really a weird thing about him. He could be so wooden at times especially in the early talkies and then so dynamic in The Devil and Daniel Webster and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Here he's not given much to do but what he does, he does well.
And then there's Gene Tierney. Her entrance is grand. Von Sternberg never had a more beautiful subject. She plays the early portion of the film very well. Very cool, sensuous with a decided interest in the decadent. But then when she sinks into despair and ruin, her performance deteriorates. She is annoying in her depravity and overacts unconvincingly. It was a very abrupt transformation and I can't help but think that maybe the Hayes Code had insisted on certain cuts so as not to emphasize her transformation into a degenerate. However that does not excuse the melodramatics of the latter half of the film. She is just unbearable. I can't place the full blame on her. Von Sternberg deserves his share of the blame for her performance. He could have guided her better so that she wouldn't have produced the histrionics. Surely he could have seen in the daily rushes that these histrionics were a detriment to the film. I don't know but I find it almost inexcusable as he was such a great director.
I haven't seen all of his films yet but I have seen Morocco, The Blue Angel, Underworld and The Last Command and I think I can make a good judgment about how good he was at his craft. The Blue Angel and Morocco were excellent films but they didn't particularly impress me. However, the last two films of his that I saw did. Underworld and The Last Command are brilliant and the photography in those films particularly impressed me. I can't say that I've seen a better gangster film than Underworld and I've seen most of them from Walsh's Regeneration to Scorcese's Goodfellas. The Last Command is a revelation. Jannings performance is excellent and I wasn't terribly impressed with his performance in the Blue Angel. Von Sternberg was at the top of his craft here. I don't give 10's to many films but I would give a 10 to both of those. Maybe he is so great in those films because they were silent. He didn't have to rely on dialogue. Unfortunately the Shanghai Gesture was based on a stage play and the staginess had to creep in.
Von Sternberg had to know that this film was a make or break film for him. He only got to direct this film through the help of a friend after years on inactivity following the Dietrich period and the tragedy of the incomplete I, Claudius. I just don't understand why he didn't guide Tierney's performance better. I've seen a lot of her films and I think she was more than capable.
And this film did break him. Whether it was the cuts or Tierney's performance or a combination of both, the film was not a success. He only got to direct a couple films for Howard Hughes after this film and they were not displays for his talent. Howard Hughes had complete control over those films and they were more or less his vision.
Such a shame that he didn't get a chance to direct more. He did do a great job on this film otherwise. It had the proper decadent mood and atmosphere. Luckily, Gene Tierney, even with all of her problems, had a bright future still ahead of her.
It didn't help that the version I saw on an Image DVD was a very mediocre transfer with bad sound. Despite its flaws, it deserves a restoration and maybe I'll be kinder to it in the future. I cannot give this film a 7 as much as I want to. It is just too disjointed, because of cuts I presume, and because of Tierney's performance. I would give it a 6.9 though but because IMDb doesn't allow it, I have to give it a 6. It is definitely worth viewing though I would not buy it until a better transfer comes along.