The Shanghai Gesture

US (1941): Crime/Drama

After the cycle of seven celebrated features with Dietrich that ended with The Devil Is a Woman (1935), Josef von Sternberg's directorial career never again gained those heights. The closest he came to his earlier glory was this melodrama of depravity and blackmail featuring Gene Tierney as a half-caste who becomes a pawn in a war to shut down Ona Munson's notorious gambling den. Despite the strong arm of the Hays Office (which required 32 treatments of the screenplay -- all of them increasingly toned-down versions of John Colton's lurid play -- before an approval was granted), the film supplies a campy atmospheric maze of disturbing depravity. An ailing von Sternberg directed much of the film lying on a cot and didn't make another film until Jet Pilot in 1950. Cast includes Walter Huston, Victor Mature, Phyllis Brooks, Albert Bassermann, Maria Ouspenskaya, Eric Blore and Mike Mazurki. (Arnold Pressburger Films/UA) (amctv.com)

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2 nominations